Vermont and the Green Mountains

Vermont and the Green Mountains

To get to Vermont we aimed our Honda Civic towards the East, caught a car ferry at Essex and boated across Lake Champlain to Charlotte.  An hour or so later we were ensconced at the Snowdrift Inn at the mountain resort of Stowe.  This place is another perfect example of the classic US motel: and included self-help continental breakfast, which meant we could stock up on enough fruit, pastries and donuts for lunch as well.

There was time for a short walk up the Stowe Pinnacle that afternoon, which was perfect as the next day we’d planned a big walk around the “most difficult” Camel’s Hump circuit in Vermont’s beautiful Green Mountains.

 Although not particularly high, at 4083 feet, the ascent up the South Track on Camel’s Hump was supposed to be “technical”.  As it turned out we found it OK with just some rocky scrambles, reaching the summit in unbelievably clear and warm weather.    Every man and his dog (literally) seemed to be up there enjoying the fantastic view from the bald rocky top.  The Camel’s Hump, and the track up the South Face, is a part of Vermont’s Long Trail.  The LT is about 275 miles long (no metric here) & stretch’s from the southern to the northern border. It is a hiker’s paradise, but just a baby compared to the next trail we were heading towards a few days later.

After the Hump, it was compulsory that we took one of the more popular tourist attractions in the area – the Von Trapp Family Lodge, from “The Sound of Music “ fame.  This is where they ended up when they escaped Austria, and now they have a massive tourism centre with lodge, delicatessen, Austrian-style beer microbrewery, restaurant, biking and walking trails.  We at this stage, of course, were only interested in their beer.  The Dunkel lager is a fine brew.

From Stowe, it is just a couple of hours drive, through lovely country-side, to New Hampshire.  And New Hampshire has NO sales tax (like our GST), so it’s a very sensible place to shop....

Click here to see photos of Vermont