We left early Saturday, 10/2, from Burke, VA, to Watkins Glen, NY. The ride was mostly uneventful on Route 15 almost all the way up. We cut off on a side road that I have used before to sneak into Elmira, NY. It was a pretty nice drive mostly in the country w/ a few slowdowns in places like Harrisburg and Williamsport, PA, but nothing serious. We passed by the location of an amusement park in Elmira we used to go to when we were kids called Eldridge Park. I wish I had gotten a picture of the sign which is a big arch that has the name of the park on it.
We went on from there to Orchard Knoll…a subdivision we lived in for a few years when we were kids. The whole subdivision was built in an old apple orchard…hence the name. I thought I had found the house we used to live in but when I sent a picture to the family they said I had it wrong. I felt weird hanging out in the neighborhood taking pictures so I didn’t make too much of an effort to find the place. From there we went to see the neighborhood and house we lived in until 1973 in Horseheads, not far from Orchard Knoll.
The town hasn’t changed much with the same older (older) houses looking still in pretty good shape on tree-lined streets. We parked by Teal Park near our old house and walked around the neighborhood and town center snapping some pictures. The park has a bandstand that we used to love to climb up onto and run around. Our old church, St. Matthews, which was on the same block as our house, was still there looking much the same. Of note, I think they tore down the old library. I remember it being a big, stately old place but now it is your basic one-story brick building looking not so stately.
From Horseheads we drove to Watkins Glen which was our final destination for the day. We parked in the Watkins Glen State Park parking and walked one path up the glen enjoying the views and taking pictures and took another path higher up the glen on the same side back down. I have fond memories of picnicking there with family and friends and enjoying the falls. We never did see the part of the falls where you can walk through passages carved out in the cliffs and then walk behind one of the many falls. NTL, the day and the walk were nice.
We were able to leave our car in the parking lot until dark so we walked down the main drag to the bottom of Seneca Lake which is the largest of the Finger Lakes. The area was way too cluttered with a couple of restaurants with lake-side seating and a very large, view blocking condo building. My last memories of that area are of the open lakeside and the marina where we had sailed from on friends’ 40-foot sailboat. That was fun but quite a few years ago.
We had scoped out eating places on the way to the lake so on the way back we ended up at the Rooster Fish Pub for dinner. They might have been the first brewpub in the area. I had had a few good craft beers and eats there on previous trips and was not disappointed on this trip though the beers are a thing of the past. After dinner, we made for our lodging, the Ginger Cat B&B, about 5 miles out of town to the northwest. It was pretty well dark by the time we got there and we were exhausted so we didn’t see much before hitting the sack.
The place has only two bedrooms and due to Covid concerns, the proprietor was renting only one room at a time unless the rooms were to be occupied by close family. Needless to say, it was pretty private and since we were the only ones there, we didn’t have to share a bathroom. The place was out in the country, nicely maintained, and quiet. The proprietor was an older woman who was from the Boston area, had worked for DEC for 20 years, and moved on to sheltering animals and supporting animal shelters. She was vegan and asked that we not bring any animal-based food products in with us.
Pictures from Watkins Glen, NY
We slept well and not long after a wonderful vegan, gluten-free breakfast served to us by Gita, we packed up and headed off to the Cranberry Lake Campground in the Adirondacks where we camped for two nights. I had been there before at least a couple of times so I knew what to expect. The drive was a little bit rainy and a bit long but we made it to the park in plenty of time even with stops including one at Starbucks (I know) and one at a Price Chopper to get a few food items. Rain and bugs were not too much of an issue thankfully. Our campsite was great…. situated right on Cranberry Lake where we could sit and enjoy the view, watch the ducks beg for food, and drop our kayaks right in the water.
We set up this big screened-in canopy that we have first before setting up the tent. We got the entry of the tent as much under one side of the canopy as we could so we could get in and out of the tent w/o too much water leaking in. Many thanks to our friends the Kaplans for lending us their tent. We pulled half of the picnic table under the canopy also so we had a dry place to sit and eat or cook if we needed to but that wasn’t much of an issue. Due to a bear sighting a month or so ago, the park was stricter than usual about putting away all food and eating-related materials if you weren’t going to be at your site for a while. Made sense to me but made for lots of digging in and out of the car for two days.
The fall foliage color in the Adirondacks was amazing everywhere we went. We had a great view of it on the drive, in and from our campsite, from up on a mountain above Cranberry Lake, and on the water. I cooked chicken and red beans and rice for dinner. I think we slept reasonably well despite Clare having to bundle up to stay warm, the sound of “rain” every time the wind shook up the tree leaves, and an owl hooting eerily before flying off in a swoosh, swoosh of wings in the dark. Temps were mostly in the low 50’s at night and the 60s to 70s in the daytime for the whole trip.
We got up the next day and had sausage and eggs for breakfast before reading by the lake, kayaking on the lake, and walking up Bear Mountain to look at the lake. Yes, it was all about the lake. Once again, absolutely gorgeous fall foliage. All the exercise and fresh air we were getting were so good for us. It was stressful preparing for the trip and a bit stressful just making sure we got where we need to be when we needed to be there. There was not a whole lot of flexibility in the schedule which is something we’d (I) need to add on our next vacation together! Lessons learned eh?
A funny story evolved since we weren’t supposed to wash our dishes at campsites because of the bear sighting. So we saved them to wash at the shower facility where we were told to wash them. So after our hike, which involved driving to the trailhead and back, we stopped at the shower facility to wash our dishes. We parked by this booth looking thing w/its windows blocked. There is an overhang and many instructions on using the trash and recycling bins to the left. But there is no evidence of facilities to wash dishes. Somewhat perplexed we figure they expect us to wash the dishes in the actual shower facility.
So we walk into the facility and start using the sinks to wash our dishes being very careful not to wash food down the sink as surely that was a no-no. The nice color and rim left in the sink from the chili we made the night before vied for glory with the surrounding foliage…. We did our best to clean up, dry our dishes and put them back in the car. It was then that I for some reason walked under the overhang of the booth, looked to the right, and saw two dishing washing sinks, as you see in a restaurant, hidden behind a wall sticking out under the overhang. Oh well…. I would hate to be the next guy to see the sinks in the shower facility. They’d probably be wondering if we gutted a raccoon in the sink…
That night we went crazy with the dinner menu….Hormel Chili w/o beans mixed w/ cooked summer squash. It was quite tasty….the Hormel Chili notwithstanding. It was cool at night as the night before but most of the raindrops on the leaves had fallen so we were not always thinking that it was starting to rain like we did the previous night. In the morning we had an easy breakfast of granola, fruit, and nuts. We broke camp and relaxed with coffee for a bit in our chairs down on the lakeshore before packing up the car and getting on the road. I didn’t realize but we were checking out 20 minutes late but that wasn’t even mentioned when we did check out. Not like they had people lined up waiting for campsites.
Pictures from Cranberry Lake Campground, NY
We got back on Route 3, which we had taken from Watertown, to head north to Plattsburgh where we would pick up the Interstate 87, the Adirondack Northway, where we would head north to Route 2 and cross over into Vermont on that. I love the Northway and take it often off the NY State Thruway from Albany headed up to Vermont. Once you get out of Albany and past the Lake George exits the road becomes practically deserted and has no services until Plattsburgh.
The drive up Route 3 is generally gorgeous running through the mountains and along rivers and lakes. It took us through the Saranac Lake area which is pretty but probably a zoo in the summertime. I have passed through a few times in the fall and it is pretty quiet. When we got to the Plattsburgh area we got on the Northway headed, yes you got it, north but Clare needed to stretch and we needed a coffee break. By luck, we found the Adirondack Coffee Roasters after a roundabout way through town. Ironically, it was on Route 3 right on the other side of where we got on the Northway….
They do a pretty good business roasting to order for shops all around northeastern NY and for consumers in the region including Canada. They were hurting a bit because Canadians couldn’t easily get across the border to pick up coffee and the differential for shipping costs made the coffee offerings less attractive. They told me they roast about 30 pounds a day and they had a large selection of roasted beans available for purchase on-site as well as coffee to order. We got some Sumatra beans and had them ground since we knew we were headed to a fishing cabin that had a coffee maker….yeah baby! It was good!
We got back on the highway, headed north, picked up Route 2 to Vermont, and got on Rt 78 to go to the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge where I have done some walking and great kayaking. They have a large Great Blue Heron rookery on a triangular island between two branches of the Missisquoi River where it hits open water on the Missisquoi Bay less than a mile from the Canadian border. It is truly impressive to see all the nests packed into the trees on this small island. We took a walk of about an hour along the river to stretch and see what we could see. Other than wooly bears and toads, it was pretty quiet.
Back on the road, we wanted to hit a grocery store in Swanton, VT, for a few items and a light reading book for me and perhaps get some take-out. At the grocery store, Clare got into an intense conversation with a woman walking her groceries to her car. In the midst of the conversation, she got od the skinny on a place in town with a good reputation for calzones and Greek salads. Since I forgot to look for a book, I dropped Clare off to order for us while I looked for a book. Of course, the grocery store had nothing but I found a Dollar Store or Dollar General and found a small selection of books and grabbed the only one that looked interesting to me.
I was up for take-out, getting to our cabin, and settling in but Clare wanted to eat in so we did so. We couldn’t locate our destination on Google maps but thought we needed to be back in the very small town of Alburgh so we headed back that way only to find that Clare left her jacket w/ a few valuables in it at the restaurant. So we turned around back to get that and turned around back to find our place. I realized it would be best to just call the proprietor to find out where we needed to go. That was a good idea because I was pretty far off base. Once we got on the right track back down Route 2 toward Grand Isle, we easily found the place.
I am bummed that I didn’t get any pictures of the place. It was a comfy small cabin w/ combined kitchen, eating area, and sitting area, a ¾ bath, and a bedroom w/ a double on one level and a single on a second level. There was a porch across the front-facing Lake Champlain that was nice and comfy in the sun in the morning. The cabins were mostly rented to fishermen who could drop their boats in right across the street, We were tired and didn’t fuss about too much. I think Clare went right to sleep and I read for a good bit. I hadn’t read an easy reading book for entertainment in quite some time so I was in second heaven. The location was Dillenbeck Bay Cabins.
In the morning I brewed us up some of the delicious Sumatran coffee we got from ADK Coffee Roasters, copied pictures over from cameras to my computer for safekeeping, had breakfast of something I can’t remember, sat on the porch in the sun reading, cleaned up dishes left over from our last night of camping at Cranberry Lake, and packed up again to hit the road, once again, at around 1000 or 1100, this time bound for Burlington via Route 2 through North and South Hero and Grand Isle.
The route runs through these towns that are on Lake Champlain and Grand Isles in the center of the top of Lake Champlain. They stretch out for about 25 miles encompassing beautiful, pastoral views of the land, the lake, and quaint little towns. It took us about an hour to get to Burlington and down through the University of Vermont campus to a centrally located parking spot. Clare had spotted a nice looking bakery, August First, where we headed for coffee and something to eat. We ate well at a table outside enjoying the beautiful, sunny day and ambiance of downtown Burlington.
It’s a city that hasn’t changed or grown too much since I lived up there in the 70s. Six or seven blocks of Church Street in the middle of the city are blocked off and paved in brick for a pedestrian-only walkabout. There are odds and ends of shops, bookstores, and eateries on both sides up and down the walkway. At the north end, the Congregational Church I used to go to Boy Scout meetings at still holds a dominant position on the scene. We browsed through slowly looking in the more interesting places with little care for time or the outside world. One stop of course was a bookstore, Phoenix Books, that kept us busy for a bit and left us a bit poorer. There was a kitchen store there that rang a bell to me. They had a cloth bag in the window in red with white block letters that said: “Kiss the Cook.”
I had purchased two of those bags in a store in Middlebury in 2019 on a visit to Vermont for a class reunion. At the time, I wanted to buy a bunch of the bags to give to the 3rd Serve core team but they only had the two bags. Curious if I could get more, I went into the store and asked them if they had another store called “Kiss the Cook” in Middlebury, VT. They said they used to but they moved it here to Burlington. I asked about the bags and found they did not have any but there was some discussion of making them for sale again. I am not holding my breath. Other than that it was no different from any other specialty kitchen store.
At the top of Church Street Clare and I tried to get a selfie with the church in the background but the lighting was iffy. The white steeple barely stood out against the background of the sky. Anyhow, from there we headed down Pearl Street toward Lake Champlain, Battery Park, and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul which was built when we lived in Vermont way back when and where the ashes of my Grandmother and Grandfather Chase are placed in the memorial garden. I like to pay my respects when I am in the area. I miss them very much. There was always something fun going on when we were with them both at their lake house in northern NJ and their house in rural Essex Junction, VT.
We walked downhill from Battery Park after looking out on the lake and snapping a few pictures. At the bottom of the slope is Waterfront Park along the lake w/ picnic areas, benches, a restaurant, and a marina. We walked around there also snapping pictures and were blessed to find a public restroom there.
It was getting to be time to think about heading off to our next destination, Grand Isle State Park, which we had passed en route to Burlington on the way down from Alburgh in the morning. We had walked a big loop as planned and wound up at the end of the street we had parked on so we just had to walk back up a few blocks to the car. Instead of driving back up through the city and college campus, I headed south on Pine Street which has more interesting shops, eateries, and art establishments. I knew at the end of the street I could cut back up to Route 7 to get on Route 89 north which we need to follow to Route 2 and Grand Isle.
We probably got to the park at 1500 or 1600 which gave us plenty of time to set up camp. Since we had a lean-to site looking out over the lake we decided not to set up the covered screen canopy but put the tent inside the lean-to. Well, I hadn’t accounted for the size of this tent that Vicki and Andrew lent us. I couldn’t get the whole tent on the floor of the lean-to because it was too tall. I could only push it back so far into the lean-to so we had about 14 inches hanging off the edge of the floor. I accommodated for that by pushing the picnic table right up to the edge of the lean-to and putting the tent poles on the picnic table bench. It was crude but still left us with plenty of floor space in the tent w/o stepping off into the void and/or putting a foot through the floor of the tent. Necessity is the mother of invention.
That wasn’t the only jury-rigging we had to do. Setting up at Cranberry lake revealed some tent and canopy rigging deficiencies. Come to find out the top pole for the tent fly was missing. As such the peaks of the fly that extended over the front and back of the tent to keep the rain off the tent flapped uselessly again the tent itself. I worked around that reasonably well by using a pole from another tent that I carried around just in case. To top things off, I had damaged one of the poles for the screened canopy and that snapped as soon as we tried to put the shelter up. I ended up using another spare tent pole (never throw those things away. I used that to jury rig support for the one side of the shelter which had the broken pole. Once again, necessity…well, you know the rest.
I think that the first night at Grand Isle we went browsing around the campsite in the dark checking out the various locations and their different appeal. Honestly, most of the sites were nice though some were just too exposed to the road and none of them beat out the lakeside sites in my estimation. We did find ourselves once walking around in a circle unbeknownst to us. We came upon the same campsite twice and realized we were getting a bit loopy. Thankfully we had flashlights and I brought the campsite map with us. We might have had a bit of trouble had we not had that.
We hit the tent and crashed out not long after returning to our campsite. I may have read a bit in my sleeping bag before going to sleep as I am wont to do. I was looking forward to the morning and sunrise across the lake over the Green Mountains. Much to my surprise, we didn’t get that effect because we were socked in w/ fog right up the shore of the lake at our campsite and the fog didn’t completely burn off until about 0900. Asked one of the camp staff about that phenomenon and they said it was unusual. Clare slept in so she would have missed much of the display anyway.
We had coffee and some breakfast sitting around camp enjoying being outdoors and the view that we did have. At some point, we took a short walk around the part of the park we hadn’t seen last night. There were some more nice sites but most of them were not on the lake edge. We did walk down to the boat launch and beach area which looked pretty nice but mostly rocky. From there the idea of going out kayaking did not look particularly interesting. I asked one of the park staff if he had any recommendations for kayaking other than from the park. He said that kayaking from the park often took people south, with the current, who then struggled to get back to the park landing. He recommended driving up and putting in at Knight Point State Park.
We packed up in the car that which we didn’t want to leave out at the campsite and prepared to head out for some lunch and then some kayaking. A place called Seb’s Snack Bar had been recommended to us so that’s where we went for lunch. Seb’s was your basic seasonal roadside eatery w/ burgers, dogs, sandwiches, ice cream, etc, and outdoor seating. I think we both had bacon cheeseburgers and split an order of fries (I know…healthy) and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine while eating. We decided to save the ice cream experience for later in the day after kayaking.
We headed back up north about 10 miles to get to the park to launch our kayaks in the oddly named bay called the “The Gut” which opened both on the east and the west to parts of Lake Champlain. It was a bit of a haul to get kayaks down to a point on the beach where we could easily launch but it was certainly manageable. We paddled completely around the northern half of the bay to the west and then back straight across to the back to our launch site getting in around 2.5 hours on the water. The weather was gorgeous with blue skies and very comfortable temps for shorts and long sleeve shirts in the kayaks.
I couldn’t be sure but much of the western side of the bay looked like it might have been a man-made peninsula as evidenced by piles of huge rocks that looked like dirt had been mounded on to make a habitable surface. It was a pretty exposed peninsula that looked like it might have been a bit inhospitable in the winter with complete exposure to the vagrancies of Lake Champlain and the north country winter winds. It could be that most of the places were summer places but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that.
We were comfortably fatigued and sun-soaked by the time we hit the shore and loaded the kayaks up on the car. As such, it was time for ice cream! Yeah, baby! Back to Seb’s we went apace. We enjoyed our ice cream which I expected to have been locally made but was told by Clare that it was Hershey’s While we were there we browsed, again, the Viva Marketplace, and picked up odds and ends of goods including some maple syrup for Maddie, who was watching Lily, and for me, of course, a t-shirt. There was a bakery affiliated with the shop and they had cider flavored donuts available but we didn’t indulge. Clare though found some in the store here in Burke after we returned. Must be more of a thing than I realized.
As we thought about night six of our trip and our fourth night camping, Clare requested we get some wood for a campfire. When camping on my own, I don’t do campfires preferring normally to just jump in my sleeping bag in the tent w/ my headlamp and a book. To me, campfires are a social event and since I wasn’t alone and Clare suggested a campfire, we had a campfire. I must admit having enjoyed it immensely. And the bundle of wood we bought along w/ a couple of pieces our campsite neighbors gave us when they headed out in the morning, lasted until right about 2100 when we were ready to settle in for the night.
I woke up early the morning in time to realize that the sky was clear and we were getting a good sunrise over the Green Mountains and the lake. Yeah! I got up after a bit and took some pictures. Clare got up not long thereafter and was able to enjoy the view with me. Oddly enough, as we were beginning to break camp, I could see the fog starting to come in. No longer could I see the Green Mountains and the eastern shore of the lake. The fog came close to obscuring the islands between us and the mainland shore. With the fog and the light, I was able to get some interestingly, eerie pictures including those of a lone fishing boat out in the mist.
We took a bit of time between breaking camp and packing up for coffee and breakfast. I think I had leftover calzone from Tuesday night in Swanton. We made it out of the park I think about 1000 and headed south toward Shelburne, Ferrisburg, Vergennes and our ultimate destination for the day, West Addison at the home of my friends Linda and Ed Devino where we were invited to dine and stay the night. En route we stopped for coffee at Village Wine and Coffee in Shelburne, Dakin Farm in Ferrisburg, and Three Squares Cafe in Vergennes. We went up Locust Lane in Ferrisburg where I showed Clare the house we lived in for a few years between living in South Burlington and moving to Virginia in 1977.
Village Wine and Coffee is definitely worth a stop. They had freshly roasted beans for sale and freshly brewed coffee to drink as well as other goodies. We didn’t check out the wine though they did seem to have regular wine tasting events. I bought some beans for Clare and me to enjoy and some for our friend Diane who had brought us beans not too long ago from Washington State when she was out there.
Dakin Farm has been a family favorite since we live in Vermont. I think we stop there on any trip through the area evening driving across Lake Champlain to make a visit. Their bacon and hams are awesome and just a sampling of all they have to offer including the usual Vermont specialties like maple syrup and candies.
Three Squares is also worth a visit. It was recommended to us by one of the staff in a fair trade store we were browsing about in. They were doing quite a lunchtime business and hot food was a good 25 minute wait but worth it. Clare ordered a hot sandwich and headed over to the town park across the street to chill while I waited for our food. There wasn’t much of a good place to wait as I was either blocking access to the coffee station or the restrooms. We enjoyed our meal in the park once again relishing the fresh air and sunshine.
Vergennes was a bit of a different town from when we lived in the area. Back then there were no tourist attractions and not much in the way of eats besides Luigi’s Pizza and Sandwiches. One thing I have seen in recent trips back there is a ton of truck traffic going right through town on the main street which is Route 22a. That carries much if not all of the traffic coming across from New York State to points north in Vermont….probably mostly Burlington and South Burlington. The truck traffic puts a bit of a damper on the touristy feel of the town from my point but business seemed good.
One outstanding element of the town is the Bixby Memorial Free Library where I spent a fair amount of time and where my mother worked for a while when we lived in Ferrisburg. The thing I remember most about the library stems from a very cold Friday night around Christmas time when I was on the sidewalk with a mate from a church youth group selling hot soft pretzels to anyone who would buy one. I needed to use the restroom badly so I decided to head to the library to do so. While doing my business, I dropped one of my gloves in the toilet. I retrieved it but threw it away for obvious reasons. The night on the sidewalk was even colder after that!
Pictures from Ferrisburg and Vergennes, both in VT
Our destination for the afternoon and night was the home of my friends Linda and Ed Devino who live in West Addison, about ½ mile east of Lake Champlain. There was a time years ago when you could see the lake from their house but over the years the growth of trees at the west edge of their property has blocked that view. There is still a great view of the Adirondack Mountains though on the west side of the lake.
They have a good-sized partially wooded lot encompassing their house, a small barn where they used to have cows, chickens, goats, and who knows what else. Now they just have the chickens and fresh eggs every day. They used to let the chickens roam around the yard but too many incidents over the years of predators stealing the chickens led them to keep them fenced in the barn area. Linda used to have a huge garden w/ fresh veggies in the summer and veggies that she canned for the winter months. As empty-nesters, Linda has pared down considerably the size of the garden and canning effort.
Ed is a handyman with many talents. He is retired now from the water commission of Addison and two neighboring counties. He has always been a mechanic working on anything in the home and nearly anything w/ a motor including cars, tractors, motorcycles, lawnmowers, construction equipment, and snowmobiles. He has a large facility off the road to the house surrounded by vehicles he is working on or will work on with an auto shop, walk-in freezer for hanging cows, pigs, deer, and sheep for butchering. He has a large clientele for butchering services who pay with part of the take of the animals he butchers for them. The family and the home/work environment are classic representations of Vermont at its core.
Linda for years has worked part-time for a realty company in Vergennes and part-time for a town office in the area. She and Ed raised four beautiful children, three daughters, and one son. Sadly, one of their daughters, AJ, was taken tragically early in a snow tubing accident. I recall that as a horrible time for the very tight-knit family. I guess losing a child has to be one of the toughest experiences a parent can have. The other two daughters are married to Vermonters living in Vermont. The son is traveling around the country after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes leaving his full-time job in Essex Junction, VT, for parts and a future unknown.
My experience with the Devino household in the last 27 years has been one of constant activity between the kids, the kids’ friends, and Linda and Ed’s friends. The home is much quieter now with all the kids gone and many friends settling into quieter lives closer to home. Most of their friends are native Vermonters. I think that it is significant that the Devino daughters have stayed in state since so many youths who have grown up in similar rural environments or smaller, quieter cities around our country have left seeking their fortune in the bigger cities with more “opportunities” and more “exciting” lifestyles. I am glad that there are young people who want to give back by staying close to home even though home might not be as “exciting” as the big city.
En route, we slipped through Ferrisburg and Addison back roads through farm country and at times paralleling the Otter Creek which runs from Lake Champlain in Ferrisburg all the way down to Rutland. The waterway is great for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing and also draws large crowds of waterfowl during the migration seasons. I have spent hours on offshoots of the creek including Dead Creek enjoying the birds and scenery but not so much the view and smell of cow manure oozing into the water in some places in the spring when it gets spread on the fields.
One draw for the area is the Basin Harbor resort on Lake Champlain at the very edge of Vergennes township. It is a beautiful location w/ good eats, water sports, golf, and accommodations in the lodge or individual cabins. We decided to head on into the resort and browse through the section where the cabins were. I am not sure that was totally kosher but no one stopped us and there wasn’t much going on to begin with less setup underway for what looked like a fairly large wedding the next day. The cabins were gorgeous, especially the ones on the lake. They were high up so there was no direct lake access but that was available elsewhere in the resort. The views alone are probably worth the money to rent a cabin.
I have never stayed at Basin Harbor but attended two high school reunion events there one of which was a pretty big to do and the other of which was a small gathering which got us onto a boat for a sunset cruise on Lake Champlain. That was a really fun time when I actually felt like I had some good conversations with people I had seen rarely over the years many of whom I never even knew that well. The weather was beautiful and on the rugged, rocky, steep New York side we had a few bald eagle sightings. We alumni continued our conversations the following night at Mr. Ups in Middlebury with outdoor dining on the Otter Creek. Yes, once again reference to Otter Creek. It goes through Middlebury and the town of Brandon on its way down to Rutland.
We got to Linda and Ed’s in mid-afternoon where I introduced Clare whom neither of them had met. We got settled in and Clare had the tour of the house, which is uniquely Vermont, and the property. Ed seemed to be enamored of Clare, showed her all the projects he had going on, and told her stories of his life that I had never even heard. Ed, compared to Linda, can be quiet and reserved unless he has been drinking but that’s a story for another day. Ed, Linda, and I did a fair amount of drinking together over the years but that is past history for me and, though I did not notice it at the time, I didn’t see Linda have anything to drink in the short time we were there.
Ed had Clare jetting around the property on a utility four-wheel drive cart that he had and Clare seemed to be having the time of her life. That was a side of Clare I hadn’t seen before. I am so glad I got the chance to show her something different of my past. The time at the Devino’s went by so quickly. I remember, barely, not for lack of sobriety though, having a roasted chicken and spaghetti squash graced with a topping of cherry tomatoes baked in feta cheese. That was really good and a new concept to Clare and I.
There really wasn’t much time left after dinner to hang around since we were all beat. Clare and I crashed on the futon in Cassie’s old room and slept reasonably well. I think I was up around 0700. Linda had made coffee so I sat down with her, checked my email, and watched Popeye on the TV. Oh yes, Popeye, no less. We had a late breakfast of deer sausage, eggs, and toast and by the time that was over and checked out a few more things around the house and on the property, it was time to pack up and hit the road for our last day and night of the trip before the long journey home.
Pictures from West Addison, VT
We headed off at about 1030 or 1100 me thinks en route to Middlebury to look around that classic Vermont townhome of the reasonably well known Middlebury College. It is a nice drive through the dairy farms from West Addison to downtown Middlebury. We parked and had intended to go to the Otter Creek Bakery to get coffee and sit out and enjoy the fresh air but there was a line out the door. We had heard that might be the case so we were not particularly surprised.
That was the only “coffee shop/bakery that I knew of in Middlebury so we were pleasantly surprised to find as we walked around another coffee shop, Little Seed Coffee Roasters right on the town square. Come to find out they had opened only three weeks ago and were doing a good business picking up the overflow from Otter Creek. We got coffee and a nosh to go and sat in the center of the town square watching people and enjoying the outdoors.
From there we were off to browse the shops of Frog Hollow and the Historic Marble Works. Frog Hollow did not overly impress us. The shop they had in Burlington that we visited was a much better experience. The Marble Works was more interesting but still hurting from the pandemic. We did find a bookstore, Otter Creek Used Books, that we couldn’t bypass so we spent 15 minutes or so browsing around there coming out not too much poorer with one book each I think. The bookstore was in a spread of small shops and eateries that has a name and is a feature of downtown Middlebury but I am darned if I can remember what it is called. I browsed some Middlebury websites looking for the name to no avail.
Last but not least, I had to stop at the Vermont Book Shop which is an old favorite of mine. I always come out of there about $100 poorer. I got another book on climate change and one other the name of which escapes me right now. We loaded up the car with our goodies and headed out of Middlebury down Route 7 to East Middlebury where we picked up Route 125 to head up and across the first ridge of the Green Mountains to the east. On the way through town, I wanted to show Clare my friend Mike Livingston’s old house but never recognized it. I did get to point out the Waybury Inn on the way out of town. That is where they filmed the Newhart show.
We bypassed the first part of Route 125, the curvy part, by heading out into the woods on the dirt road to Mike Livingston’s old cabin up in the mountain. I have spent a bit of time there over the years and always enjoyed it despite the lack of running water and indoor toilets. It is a comfortable, big one-room cabin w/ a wood stove in the middle surrounded by a kitchen, dining room, living area, and bunk beds. All across the front of the cabin is a screened-in porch where we used to sit for hours drinking beer and looking at the Green Mountains across the valley on the other side of the road. I don’t know what Clare thought of the side trip but if nothing else, it was a gorgeous drive.
We came back down the mountain and got on Route 125 in the very little town center of Ripton and headed up toward Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf campus and Middlebury College Snow Bowl. Bread Loaf has majestic old yellow houses for accommodations, I guess. They have big old trees around them and then have wide open expanses of carefully manicured lawns up to the edge of the forest. It is beautiful. I’ve done some cross-country skiing at the Rikert Nordic Center there and learned how to ski at the Snow Bowl in the mid-70s. We used to take a van up from the high school in Vergennes and ski for $11 a day. What a life!
After stopping briefly at the Snow Bowl, we continued east cresting this particular mountain ridge near the top of the Snow Bowl slopes and headed down toward Hancock. En route, we passed by Texas Falls Recreation Area, which is oddly named for a Vermont park but is a very pretty area where I spent a long afternoon some years ago just watching the creek running through the campground at the edge of the picnic area. Funny story in that I saw a painting in the Frog Hollow shop in Burlington of Texas Falls and the caption said it was in Hancook, Vermont. Well, I thought I had been to Texas Falls and thought it was in Hancock. I mentioned it to one of the staff who chuckled and said someone must have misspelled it. It was humorous to me also because Hancook made me think of Hangook which is one of the names for the Korean Peninsula. Sadly the Texas theme carries over into Pusan, Korea, where Texas Street is a tawdry example of drinking and prostitution.
Route 125 ends at Route 100 which runs down the middle of Vermont from almost the top, Morristown, to the bottom, Halifax. We were headed to Pittsfield to Ed Devino’s “deer” camp. Pittsfield is another hole in the wall town but has some draw since it is only 8 miles north of Killington where there is great skiing in the winter. We were hungry but not ready for a big meal so we picked something up with coffee and hot cocoa at a neat little shop called The Original General Store before we headed up Upper Michigan Road to the cabin.
The two-wheel drive road ends about ½ mile past Ed’s cabin. There is a fire road there that goes way up into the mountain but dead ends about 5 miles up. I know because I walked all the way up it once. There are trails branching off into the Green Mountain National Forest but I have yet to explore any of those. We stopped at the cabin to offload some gear and then headed up to the end of the road to stretch our legs a bit on the fire road. The trees and views were gorgeous and the air was crisp and clean. It felt good!
All I can remember doing after that is eating dinner, watching the “Money Pit,” on VCR tape of all things, and going to bed on a very uncomfortable foldout couch. I have crashed there many times but don’t recall doing the fold-out couch thing. Bunk beds yes, regular bed yes, and even yes, the sleeping cab of a tractor-trailer that was one of two attached to the back of the cabin when Ed first bought it. Those are gone now. There is a ¾ bath, a full stove, toaster, microwave, refrigerator, TV, etc. And you are in the middle of nowhere. What could be better?
I think that Clare thought anything, maybe even sleeping on the ground in the tent would have been better. I thought the place was in pretty good shape and reasonably clean but then as a man in a man’s deer camp my standards were not too high. Clare, I don’t think thought much of it. No one had been in it since Ed opened it up and “cleaned” the late spring so the mice had had the run of the place probably but….. I should have known better than to suggest we stay there since Linda has said for years that she doesn’t like to go up there. Oh well. I just like the basics and the beauty of the location and the lodging.
Anyhow, after a fitful night of sleep, we got up around 0700, had our last road trip breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and whatnot, packed the car up for the last time, and got on the road. Our mission, should we choose to have accepted it, was to stop and get a look at the Killington Ski Resort where I have had some great times on the slopes, snap a few last pictures, and find some freshly harvested apples. Clare had been on a mission for the apples for days and we weren’t doing well. I think that she had given up but I still had one more trick up my sleeve. I knew the place but not the name. A roadside stand on Route 4 right over the border from Vermont in New York on the route home. The place, I found out, was called Patty’s Patch. We got apples, cider, salsa, honey, jam….those are a few of my favorite things.
Well, da da da dat’s all folks! We got home about 1830 after an 8.5 hour drive which is about normal and not bad considering there was a fair amount of traffic heading south, presumably from leaf peeping. Columbus Day weekend is generally the last hurrah for upstate New York and New England so lots of people on the road is not that unusual. Somehow though for the whole trip we really only encountered the traffic on the way home on the major highways. Our forays in the wild, interior were marked by quiet and minimal intrusions from our fellow man.
All the pictures from the trip can be found here in my photo gallery.