1 Oct 2023
Today, we are relocating to Vermont. Even though we drove it yesterday, I routed us along the Kancamagus byway so I could take some of the pictures I missed yesterday:
The sun is now facing the right direction to light up the trees:
Looking up river:
and down river:
Bluffs:
Some pops of color:
Beaver pond:
We spotted this site from the road and had to stop!
Look at that reflection!
Such a fun find!
Looking down the mountain:
Before we left town, we stopped at Leavitt’s Country Bakery for some donuts:
I recently learned that Matt really likes lemon bismarks and I had seen in a picture that they have some. Unfortunately, they were out by the time we got here, but Matt picked out a chocolate with sprinkles and I got an apple fritter that made for a delicious pre-hike lunch (breakfast was leftover lasagna/alfredo, which was tasty, but left no room for breakfast donuts):
Heading down to Quechee Gorge:
This is another easy lollipop hike- only about 1.3 miles, but it’s all downhill going, well, down to the gorge and all uphill on the way back.
It’s a little hard to see in the picture but this area sustained heavy flooding a couple weeks ago; all the trees below the trees still standing were taken out by floodwaters!
There were no good angles of the bridge you can see behind us, but here’s a view up river with a shadow of the bridge:
Today’s drive didn’t take quite as long as I expected and our hike was quicker too, but we can’t check into our next place until 4 or 5 (the emails I got had some conflicting information), so I decided we should check out some covered bridges to kill time.
This is the Quechee bridge:
When the flood rolled through, the waters came crashing over the Mill Pond walls and within a couple feet of the bridge, but it’s still standing strong!
Bridge #2, Taftsville:
This one had some cool structurals going on inside:
And a nice view of the dam:
Bridge #3, Woodstock Middle bridge, was quite popular (those two girls standing in the road were totally oblivious to our car) so we decided to just drive through and not stop for good pictures:
And finally, Lincoln covered bridge:
I know covered bridges are a thing out here, but after seeing a couple, I was kinda over them, so I found us another hike with waterfalls:
Not the most confidence-inspiring sign, especially after the road lost its paving partway down, but the area was well marked and the path was even roped off, leading right to the first fall, Lower fall:
Middle fall:
creatively named, I know…
The trail to the last fall was a bit sketchier- climb some tree roots and shimmy along a rooty, rocky path (that actually wasn’t quite as narrow as it looked from below):
Upper falls:
We made it!
