Vermont Trip-Part 1

Our trip to Vermont snuck up on us rather quickly. Before I knew it, Wednesday had arrived and I was finishing packing and loading up the car in preparation for our Thursday after-work departure. I felt like I had not prepared enough even though I had done plenty. We bought a new car in May specifically for this kind of trip. We had bought a bike rack for the car and frame adaptor for Melisssa’s bike. We even got the tent option with our car so we could camp in style.

Most of the camping we have done in the past involved carrying everything on our backs. This time around we would be car camping meaning we could bring extra stuff including our new 10 by 10 tent and queen size air mattress. The new tent was a castle compared to our little lightweight two person tent that we are used to using.

Thursday came and after picking up some Thai food on the way home from work, Melissa and I loaded the last of our things and the bikes and headed North towards Vermont. Our first stop would be the Philadelphia area where Melissa’s sister and family were kind enough to put us up for the night. We hit a few construction slow downs on the way up but we usually make this trip for Thanksgiving and it was really an easy trip compared to what we are used to.

It was after midnight when we arrived. Melissa’s sister and husband were asleep but their kids were up. You know teenagers, late to bed, late to rise-in the summer anyway. It happened that they were watching the LA Galaxy soccer game so we stood and watched the rest of the game and talked for a bit before heading up to bed. I must say, those kids are quite nice and easy to talk to.

The next morning we woke up and visited with Melissa’s sister and husband. We chatted for a while before they had to get going to work. The kids were still in bed of course but that was ok. We had nice but short visit before heading out to continue North to Vermont.

Our first planned stop was at a place called Grout Pond in the Green Mountain National Forest. Our plan was to camp out for two nights and get some moderate hiking in on either the Long Trail or the Appalachian Trail. However our plans changed along the way. It had started raining pretty hard during our drive and pretty much rained on us the whole time. By the time we got to near the Green Mountain National Forest, we decided setting up camp in the rain did not sound too enticing. So we found a small motel near the town of Arlington. It was a really nice little place and was about 10 minutes drive from a fairly dense area of restaurants and shops. After getting settled in to our room we drove to Manchester for dinner at a place called Mulligans. Melissa had her once in a blue moon steak and I had a veggy burger along with a pretty delicious salad.

After dinner we retired to the room and settled in for the night. The next day we made our way to Grout Pond to look for a camp site. This time we were foiled not by rain but by no room at the inn. All the campsites were full. But I had an alternative picked out so after a quick picnic lunch down by the pond, we followed our printed Google instructions from Grout Pond to Hapgood Pond which is also in the Green Mountain National Forest.

When we arrived at Hapgood Pond, there were plenty of nice drive in campsites. Many were taken but there were plenty to choose from. We parked and I got on my bike and rode around until I could find a suitable site. What is suitable you may ask? Well, I wanted to be away from screaming children, barking dogs, smokers, anyone else that looked like they might be loud.

I found a site and we setup our campsite. By the time we got finished setting up the site, there was not really time to drive to a trailhead and get a long hike in. So we ate some of our pasta salad and then went down to the pond to check it out. It was nice as far as ponds go. There was a beach with a swimming area with hot showers. After a quick dip in the pond, we had a quick shower and headed back to the campsite. We changed into some walking shoes and went for a quick walk on the trail around the pond. It was a nice little jaunt with some neat foliage.

After that, it was time for bed. I was still very tired after all the driving and lack of sleep leading up to the trip. It was nice and early and our queen size mattress was pretty comfortable so I thought I would get to catch up on my sleep and I was doing just that until just after midnight when the heavens opened up and the rain starting pouring from the sky. More RAIN! Here we were trying to camp and enjoy the great outdoors and it was raining. Whereas back in Richmond, it was so dry that all the grass had long since burned up in my yard. We could really use this rain back home.

So I did not get a good night sleep and when morning came, I just wanted to bug out of there as fast as possible. So that is what we did. We broke camp and got out of Dodge by 8:00 AM. I was tired, gritty, hungry and a bit bummed that we had hit all this bad weather. But a bad day on vacation beats a good day working. Plus we have satellite radio in the car and driving was really easy, especially because Melissa was driving now. So we jammed 80s hits (80s on 8 on XM Radio) and had a very pleasant drive.

Driving in Vermont is very different than driving just about anywhere else I have been. There is no real traffic and there are no billboards, no sprawl, no backups, no headaches at all. Before you knew it, we had arrived early at our destination for the rest of the week-the Wildflower Inn in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. In Part 2, I will tell you all about the next phase of our trip.