When I completed my previous post (in the evening of Day Four), I was fully caught up with my Trip Reports. It’s a bit unusual for me to still be on task this far into a trip, and I decided to celebrate by sampling a local hard cider, which was on my list of things to do on this trip anyway. So, I wandered into the nearest grocery store and perused their selection. I ended up selecting a variety called “High & Dry”, from Stowe Ciders (pictured below). This was quite a good cider, especially its finish. It reminded me of some of the “dark & dry” ciders that I was drinking 15 or 20 years ago. Sadly, no one seems to make dark & dry ciders any more.

This Stowe High & Dry cider came in a 4-pack. Four hard ciders over the course of an evening doesn’t sound too rough. But these are 16-ounce cans (as opposed to the usual 12 ounces), and this cider’s alcohol content is 6.5% (the norm is about 5%). I’m not going to do all the math, but I’m guesstimating this 4-pack packed the potenency of the average 6-pack. That combined with the fact that I stayed up WAY too late monkeyin’ around on the internet, AND forgot to take my GoCovri that night, led to Day Five not going as planned.

Day 5: I had planned on spending the full day at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. This large chunk of land can be considered the cradle of conservation in the USA. At a time when the formerly (relatively) rich soils of New England were producing less and less for farmers, the owners of this property continued to get the most out of their land through sustainable farming practices. Over time, they added sustainable forestry and gardens as well. So, as a guy who once majored in forestry, I was interested in this joint. But there’s more! The families that owned this land were among the richest in America, and they maintained a summer mansion here. I figured I’d start the day with a tour of the mansion, then spend the rest of the day strolling around the miles of trails through the gardens and woodlands. But after the aforementioned evening of cider and medicine-forgetting, I really did not feel like walking around at all. I made reservations online for a 3:30 PM mansion tour, and headed out after lunch, figuring maybe I’d take a nap in the car when I got there.

But then, I happened across something I had not expected: the highway I was on (U.S. 4) goes right over the deepest part of Quechee Gorge. I had never even heard of this gorge, much less planned on visiting it. But as I drove over it, I knew I must stop and check it out. Now you can, too:

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And now…Fun With Photography! The next few pictures are looking downstream from the highway bridge (don’t worry…it has sidewalks). They are each more or less the same shot, but with the polarizing filter rotated to different degrees. I really need to spend some time learning how best to use this new toy

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I spent so much time at Quechee that I barely had time to spare when I got checked in at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. And let me just say, they send you an email from them after you buy your tickets on the web – READ and BELIEVE the directions provided in that email. I failed to do so initially and ended up going the wrong way from the parking lot – twice. But I still made it on time.

As mansion tours go, the house and furnishings were nice, but not greatly unusual or impressive. The ranger who gave the tour talked alot about the families that lived there and the conservation movement they started. And that was what I had wanted to learn about anyway. I still got a few pics of the place for good measure:

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Luckily for me, they have a few stools here and there for tourists to rest during the mansion tours; I was bushed again by the end of it. So, I definitely did not feel like hiking around the property. Instead, it was back to the hotel, looking forward to (hopefully) feeling better on Day Six…