Vermont: Fall Solstice in The Green Mountain State

New England Fall Foliage Road Trip 2021

Vermont
September 19-24, 2021

After a long break from traveling because of COVID, Roger and I returned to our older 19-foot Pleasureway camper van and completed a two-month fall foliage road trip through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Ready to go! I remember how hot and muggy it was that day.

Some of you may be planning or just contemplating a fall foliage trip, so this is a good time to tell you about ours. I hope it inspires you to get out and explore and marvel at the beautiful colors of the natural world.

Our Starting Point: Midlothian, Virginia

Our trip started in Midlothian, Virginia, in early September where we participated in a family celebration for my stepfather’s 80th birthday. We retrieved the van from storage and brought it in for planned service for new tires, headlights, and an oil change. We unexpectedly added new brakes to the job which delayed our departure by two days. (For those of you new to this blog, see our March 2020 story about Going Home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Another prep purchase was the Luggable Loo from Dick’s Sporting Goods. We wanted to have the flexibility to boondock. Yes, our van has a toilet and gray and black water holding tanks, but we prefer not to use it for #2. A Luggable Loo is a five-gallon bucket with a toilet seat, lined with a special bag for that purpose. When sealed properly, the bag can be disposed of in a regular trash can. We live in Alaska and know what it means to be remote. Going in a bucket is not new to us. But this will be our first bucket experience on the road.

The foliage in northern Virginia was still quite green on September 17.

Finally, a few nights before we were to leave Virginia, I woke in the night and remembered toll roads! The East Coast has many tolls. The next day I went online and purchased a Uni Epass which works in most eastern states. It arrived quickly and was easy to set up and activate.

I told Roger that this day of driving will be the worst of the whole trip, the DC-New York City corridor, and I was correct!

Our mooch trail to Vermont included our niece and her husband (and two sweet dogs, love you Louie and Archer!) in Dumfries, Virginia. We also stopped for a night at the home of a close college friend and her family in Washington Township, New Jersey. They treated us to New Jersey bagels, the best because of the hard water. From there, we drove north along the Hudson River and the New York and Vermont border.

Roger seeing NYC for the first time—even from a distance—was like when I first saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Iconic images that once seemed like fairy tales become real.

Leg 1: Washington Township, NJ > Bennington, Vermont & Woodford State Park (278 miles, ~5 hours)

The drive on U.S. Highway 7 North to Bennington was comfortable and scenic. We had a bluebird day, and I gazed out the window as we left the flatlands of New Jersey and entered the mountainous landscape to the north, including the Hudson Highlands and Taconics, as well as the Berkshires to our east and the Catskills to our west.

We drove through Woodbury, Kingston, and Albany before crossing the Hudson and entering Vermont. As soon as we crossed the state line, we saw nothing but mountains and trees in the distance. The colors were just beginning to turn. Not sure what we’d find for stores down the road, we filled the tank and bought groceries to last the next few days.

Woodford State Park, Woodford, Vermont

Vermont is just as we imagined. Rolling hills of fresh-cut hay, red barns, and the faint scent of manure in the air. Quaint without trying to be quaint. We appreciated the lack of strip malls and urban retail sprawl. We drove from small town to small town without a single Walmart in sight. It reminded me of Germany where regulations require green space between towns and cities.

Just starting to see tinges of color.

To make up for the two days we lost for the brake job, we skipped our planned visit to downtown Bennington and drove directly to Woodford State Park Campground where we settled in for two nights.

Adams Reservoir, Woodford State Park, Woodford, Vermont

Woodford State Park covers 398 acres surrounding Adams Reservoir on a mountain plateau 2,400 feet in elevation and borders 14,000 acres of the Green Mountain National Forest. We stayed in site #85 in the newer area of the campground and near the bathrooms and showers. The campground was only partially full, and we had plenty of space and privacy.

Site #85, Woodford State Park, Woodford, Vermont

During our full day in the park, we hiked the 2.7-mile Reservoir Loop Trail around the reservoir and then relaxed by a campfire in the evening. 

The Reservoir Loop Trail reminded me of Juneau—muddy and rooty in spots.

Leg 2: Woodford State Park > Middlebury, Vermont (97 miles, ~2 hours)

We got an early start at 9 a.m. (early for us) and headed north again on U.S. Highway 7. We stopped at Brandon RV and bought a new freshwater pump and an outdoor shower kit. (Reminder, we live in Juneau, Alaska, and keep the van in storage down south when we’re not traveling, so the only time we have to do projects is when we’re traveling.)

In Middlebury, we stopped at Rosie’s Restaurant for lunch where I ordered a Reuben and Roger got tomato soup and the turkey salad wrap special. Rosie’s is one of those comfort food diners where locals eat. The kind of place we like. We also ordered a salad and a piece of chocolate cream pie to-go for later.

We dropped in at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course, an 18-hole public course at Middlebury College, and luckily for us, they were able to fit us in for nine holes. It's hard to schedule a tee time when you're on the road. The fairways were more narrow than what we’re used to and the greens were often elevated, so we had to be careful and play our short game or our balls would roll off the back of the green. Regardless of what our scores say, we enjoyed the exercise on a beautifully warm, sunny, autumn day.

Ralph Myhre Golf Course, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

Leg 3: Middlebury > Burlington, Vermont & North Beach Campground (37 miles, ~1 hour)

After golf, we drove to Burlington, a bigger city than I had imagined, with narrow streets and tight turns for a camper van. We made our way through the city thanks to Google Maps and found site #95 at the North Beach Campground, a municipally-owned campground on Lake Champlain popular with bicyclists for its proximity to the Island Line Trail which we biked the next day.

Site #95, North Beach Campground in Burlington, Vermont.

When we booked online, only three spots were available. Our corner site turned out to be a prime spot. Many other sites were side-by-side, with little distance between them, but we had plenty of space.

Lake Champlain, Burlington, Vermont

The campground is next to a section of the Island Line Trail that runs along the 490-square-mile freshwater lake. This is the kind of campsite we like. We can get around with our bikes and feet without having to drive. When you live on the road, it’s sometimes a hassle to have to drive again once you get to where you’re going. As its name implies, beach access is just a short walk or bike ride from the campground.

The Island Line Trail, Burlington, Vermont

On our free day (non-driving day), we biked 17 miles from the campground to the Colchester Causeway that stretches into Lake Champlain.

Colchester Causeway, Colchester, Vermont

After riding all day, we were too tired to walk, so we rode again in the opposite direction to Foam Brewery for beers, then to Citizen Cider for dinner. Walking is totally doable if going to town for the day. We were glad we had bikes and made it back to the campground just as it was getting dark.

Leg 4: Burlington > Elmore, Vermont, & Elmore State Park (51 miles, ~1.25 hours)

Ice cream for lunch!

Our stomachs guided us to our next destination > Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory of course! Then to the Cabot Farmers' Store , both in Waterbury. We had ice cream for lunch and Vermont cheese, apples, wine, and cider for happy hour.

Eating, drinking, and reading our way through Vermont.

Food is a good theme to guide anyone traveling through Vermont. If you are interested in food and sustainability, I recommend reading (or listening on audio as I did) The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food (2010) by Ben Hewitt . The book taught me about the concept of eating closest to the sun, which means not only eating more greens that get energy directly from the sun, but also eating food from where you live, versus something that was shipped to you or, worse yet, food that was processed and packaged in a factory far, far away. Hewitt was born and raised in Vermont and has his own farm. Through a series of interviews in and around the town of Hartwick, Vermont, Hewitt reveals the economy, complexities, politics, and humanity of the local food movement.

Vermont landscape, September 2021.

Elmore State Park, situated on the shore of Lake Elmore and at the base of Elmore Mountain (elev. 2,608 feet), is a quiet and peaceful park. The weather was still quite warm that day, and I was tempted to jump in the lake to cool off. We took advantage of this stop on the road to rest and catch up on some reading.

Bring on the color!

I was reading Robert Frost A Life by Jay Parini. Frost lived in Vermont for about 40 years and became its poet laureate in 1961. Another good Frost/Vermont resource is a 1991 New York Times article by Robert D. Kaplan, “Robert Frost’s Vermont.”

Elmore State Park Campground has spacious sites with plenty of trees and shrubs for privacy.

If all you’ve ever seen of Vermont is from television or literature, it’s fairly accurate—rolling hills, countryside, farms, small college towns, and friendly people. Our camp neighbors at Elmore were Sam Billings, a violin maker, and his girlfriend and dog. They traveled together, and Sam had a complete workshop in the back of his camper van.

Fall leaves meet green summer grass.

John Irving is one of Roger’s favorite authors. (The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules, Last Night in Twisted River.) Many of Irving’s novels take place in New England.

After the corn is cut.

“Being from California, it was always hard for me to imagine when John Irving wrote about being a professor in a small college town. California doesn’t have small college towns. But being here, you can really see it.”

A busy bee photobombs the asters.

I have a long list of Vermont places I had researched and hoped to visit, but we just didn’t have enough time (remember, we had to cut two days from our trip because of the brake job), and some places were still closed because of the COVID pandemic. When you go, you might also consider visiting: the Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC); Billings Farm & Museum for ice cream; Sugarbush Farm for maple syrup, cheese, and walking; and Shelburne Craft School.

We left Vermont, and our first stop in New Hampshire was Robert Frost’s home in The White Mountains. Stay tuned for more about New Hampshire in the next article.

Meeting and Passing

By Robert Frost

(From The Collected Poems of Robert Frost, 1930)

As I went down the hill along the wall

There was a gate I had leaned at for the view

And had just turned from when I first saw you

As you came up the hill. We met. But all

We did that day was mingle great and small

Footprints in summer dust as if we drew

The figure of our being less than two

But more than one as yet. Your parasol

Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.

And all the time we talked you seemed to see

Something down there to smile at in the dust

(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)

Afterward I went past what you had passed

Before we met and you what I had passed.

© copyright 2022. Patricia E. Harding. All rights reserved.