Day Six of my Vermont State Vacation was my dedicated foliage viewing day. Obviously, I had been enjoying the foliage while driving around the state over the previous several days. But on this day, the foliage was the destination, not just something to glimpse at as I whiz by (or whiz on) it. I had plotted a route that I had hoped would provide the scenery I was hoping to find. I actually plotted it all the way up to the Canadian border, though I knew there was no way I’d go that far.
I left my hotel in Rutland (did ya think I’d take it with me?) and went a few miles east to Killington, which would be a great name for a Monsanto product. From there, I meandered north on state highway 100. Here’s a bit of what I saw:
I stopped for lunch in the non-New-York town of Rochester. I had a very tasty burger at The Rochester Cafe, AFTER waiting about 20 minutes for a table. During those 20 minutes, I took a few more pics:
I had intended to continue north on state highway 100, with my next formal stop being Moss Glen Falls. However, soon after leaving Rochester, I came to the town of Hancock. Here I was confronted with a sign pointing to “Scenic” state highway 125. Now, nearly every mile of every highway I’ve driven so far in this state has been pretty. So, I wondered, what kind of amazingness might be waiting for me on the one road they actually labeled as Scenic? I was determined to find out. Off I went onto Scenic Vermont 125, leaving highway 100 and Moss Glen Falls behind. The latter turned out not to be a big loss, as I very soon found myself at a place called Texas Falls. And boy howdy, when Texas falls, you do NOT wanna be in the way! ‘Cuz it’s big. Anywhat, here are some pics from the Texas Falls roadside park:
From Texas Falls, I continued along Scenic Vermont 125, and it was indeed scenic. You say you need evidence? OK, here you go:
I continued along the Scenic highway, eventually arriving at this:
One thing to be prepared for if you ever visit Vermont is road construction. Copious amounts of road construction. Every road that I was on for more than a mile had at least one segment where a lane was closed and they had the “flagmen” out, doing the alternating one-way thing. It’s kind of a nice little break to enjoy the scenery, but I don’t understand how the people who live here can put up with it. But even when there’s no construction going on, traffic is horrendous in a lot of areas. I went through many small towns that had WAY more traffic than I would ever have expected in such places. Maybe that was only because it’s leaf season. I don’t know. In any case, when I finally got to the other end of highway 125, I stopped and attempted to devise a route to meet up with my originally planned route, but further north. I was surprised at how far west I had gone, and to find that I was nowhere near as far north as I had hoped and dreamed. Getting back to my original route would take quite some time, and would result in a long drive back to the hotel. I decided I didn’t want to do that much driving, so I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. Which was right where I had left it.
I had an ambitious goal in mind for Day Seven. I was going to try to hike up the Stowe Pinnacle. I had done a little research and found there are at least a couple of places where you can begin this hike. I chose the one that sounded easiest – the Pinnacle Meadows Trail. After the attempt was made, successful or not, I would go do the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour. But on the morning of Day Seven, when I went to Ben’s & Jerry’s web site to get their street address, I learned you have to buy tickets for the tour in advance – and all of the tours for that day were already sold out. So, with tears in my eyes and a stinkbug lodged in my windpipe, I went back to bed.
Thus, I got a later start than I had hoped for. Then my GPS told me to go a completely different route than what I had planned. This route proved to take much longer, largely because it took me to Montpelier. Man. I thought Vermont traffic was bad before. Montpelier traffic was twice as bad as what I had encountered anywhere else in the state. Take all these factors and combine them with the fact that this was definitely the hottest day of my trip, and you’re left with a Cedric who really doesn’t want to attempt the Stowe Pinnacle. The Pinnacle Meadows trail still sounded good, though.
But even that almost didn’t happen. The trail from the Pinnacle Meadows parking lot is continually and steeply uphill. I almost gave up before I got to the meadows. Almost. I actually did make it to the meadows. What? Evidence? Again? Fine…
So that’s Vermont for ya. One more State Vacation down, 35 more to go! My next scheduled trip is slated for Mississippi in December, but I haven’t started looking into that one at all, so it very well could change. For now, have a great weekend, all!
Voyages with Parkinson's 