MT ASCUTNEY - OUR LAST WEEKEND

September 30, 2012

Vermont 50 Mountain Bike and Run

It’s about 48 degrees and raining this weekend but we are at full occupancy Saturday night for the Sunday Vermont 50 Mountain Bike and Run.  This is half of the Vermont 100 Endurance Race and yet another opportunity to see if you can survive another year.

The Vermont 50 Ultra Ride or Run is one of the premiere mountain bike and running races in the US with 650 riders and 500 runners challenging themselves on the mountain.  The proceeds benefit the Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports organization which is a non-profit providing sports and recreational opportunities to individuals with disabilities.  The organization offers year-round daily sports programming to people with disabilities.

The race course is top secret due to the numbers of people participating and the fact that much of the race course is over private land.  It begins at the Ascutney Mountain Resort in Brownsville (we look down on that resort from West Peak and Brownsville Rock).  It has about 8,900’ of vertical in 50 miles and the first time you are on the course will be when you are participating.  The course is divulged with the race packet you receive just before the race.

Mark is participating in this race so we have a special interest in its outcome.  He called around mid-morning to say he was 20 miles into the race so we’re looking forward to a good finish!

 FAREWELL

This is our last weekend working here.  Hard to believe the summer has gone by so fast.  Guess it’s true, time flies when you’re having a good time.  This summer would not have been as special as it was if it wasn’t for Mark and Lucy, the two best rangers!  They are perfect for this park.  Young, energetic, live and love the mountains, outdoors, biking, hiking … you name it.  They are great ambassadors for the Vermont State Parks and Mt Ascutney .  They really made our summer.

In addition, you can’t top working with Ed, Al and Kelly. We are going to miss these friendships when we leave.

We’ll be spending the next couple of days getting things cleaned up; laundry, site, hopefully getting rid of the mice and going to our favorite haunts to eat one more time and just an all-around good-bye to this side of Vermont. 

From here we are heading over to Bennington where we’ll catch up with my cousin Sharyn.  I have a few places to visit on that side of the state before leaving Vermont entirely.

We’ll be heading up Route 7 to Arlington and Shaftsbury where my mother lived after graduating from Castleton and taught in a one-room school house.  My mother taught grades K-12 and skied to school.  Them were the days! I don’t know if we’ll be able to find that little building, it was a museum many years ago.

Norman Rockwell drew subjects from this area and my mother recognized many of his characters.  The model for Santa Claus was my “Great Great Uncle Nips” …. I haven’t really figured out where he fit into the family genealogy.  The doctor who is giving the little boy a shot in the butt was my mother’s family doctor.  So, we’ll see what’s up there.

Going south, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least take a run through the Berkshires where I lived for many years and my kids were born.  One of my favorite places is Stockbridge, MA and that has a large Norman Rockwell museum as well as the Red Lion Inn which was a favorite place to eat.  My front windows of my home were adorned with “Country Curtains” from the Red Lion Inn, for any old New Englanders who know what I’m talking about!

Saturday we’ll head down through Rhinebeck NY to check out West Point and Hyde Park and then on to Gettysburg where we’ll meet up with the Aldens as they sweep through Michigan and head across Pennsylvania for their RV trip this fall.  Looking forward to seeing them again.

Leaving Gettysburg we’ll be in the last leg of the trip home heading into the land of blue grass and moonshine! 

As we reluctantly leave New England, we are looking forward to rejoining our family and friends in the south.  It has been one helleva summer and we are blessed.

OUR TAPESTRY .. A VERMONT STORY

As our time of leaving draws closer, I had one last trip to make to walk in my family’s steps.  As I’ve written, throughout the summer, Vermont is where my history began.  It’s a funny story, a family story.

My mother is a Vermonter.  She was born in West Rutland, Vermont February 15, 2013 to Elizabeth Brodeur Noyes and Earl Franklin Noyes.  Elizabeth (Lizzy) was a first generation American from Quebec, Canada and one of four siblings.  Earl Noyes came from a long line of Vermonters who settled in the state in the 1600’s.   When I was twelve, my mother took me to a cemetery where I was able to trace my Noyes family back before the Revolutionary War by reading the tombstones.  Unfortunately, I could not find that cemetery this summer.

My father teased my mother about “taking you off the mountain and putting shoes on your feet”.  He, however, loved Vermont and spent as much time up here as possible.

My Grandfather (POP POP) was employed by the Vermont Marble Company and my mother graduated from Castleton College through a scholarship provided by the Vermont Marble Company.  This was during the beginning and height of the depression.   Pop Pop remained employed with the Vermont Marble Company throughout the depression and he grew his own food as did many of the residents of Rutland, Vermont.  The depression may have been a different experience for my Mother than for folks in the cities.  Everyone helped each other out, and that is the characteristic of Vermont that has not diminished with time or circumstances.

VERMONTERS EMERGE

Now for the funny story.  Back in the 1960’s, my cousins (Fairbanks) started a genealogy of the Blood family.  Back then, this research was done by hand, traveling to locations and reading the books.  My father, a history buff, was first to order “The Story of the Bloods” when it was completed.  He settled into his office to read about his family, that he was convinced sprang forth from the grounds of Illinois…..perhaps arriving, centuries ago, in space ships directly to the mid-western soil without passing through any other parts of the US. 

He emerged from his office with the book in his hand.  At first he didn’t say a word, then laughed the big hearty laugh that so easily came from him.  He was bigger than life. We sat down to hear about

“The Story of the Bloods”

Two brothers arrived from Scotland in the 1700’s to settle in…wait for it…Vermont. 

Robert Blood had several large dairy farms in Rutland where he raised his family.  He married Thankful Proctor and had Johnathan Blood who had Horace Blood, all farming in Rutland.

Imagine his surpise …… to find out he was a VERMONTER!

The threads of the tapestry become more tightly woven over the years, but essentially Horace ended up migrating westward, fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, setting up dairy farms in Aurora, NY as part of the “western movement” and eventually the family settled in Illinois …. becoming, what my father was so proud to boast, “THE FRIENDLIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH”.   The threads don’t end there, though, but weave back to Vermont.

VERMONT MARBLE COMPANY

Our last journey through time came yesterday when we drove over to Proctor, Vermont to visit the Vermont Marble Company.   Earlier this summer, we visited Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vermont to learn about Vermont granite.  This trip was to see where my Grandfather spent his days working at a company that was so much a part of my past.  

The Vermont Marble Company is located in a picturesque town of Proctor, Vermont in the valley of the Otter Creek (unfortunately the brewery was 30 miles away).  The rail lines ran right through this town which was the primary reason the Vermont Marble Company was located here.  

CAN HE LIFT IT??  HE THINKS HE CAN!

The Vermont Marble Company was established in 1880 by Redfield Proctor and quarried from several locations surrounding Rutland, West Rutland and Danby, Vermont.  Redfield Proctor (1931-1908) was a politician serving as the 37^th Governor of Vermont, US Secretary of War from 1889-1891 and US Senator for Vermont from 1891-1908.

Many monuments in DC were produced by the VMC…. Washington Monument, US Supreme Court building, Arlington National Cemetery, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The Vermont Marble Museum is housed in the original buildings so as I walked through the exhibits, I looked up to see the building.  This is where my Grandfather spent his working days, in and around these buildings. 

I looked past the exhibits up into the rafters to get a sense of what it was like when my Grandfather worked here.

As I was walking around, I wondered whether my grandfather imagined that one day his little granddaughter would return at 65 years old to walk through these buildings.     

This is how it looked in the last 1800's.

This is how it looked in the 1930's when my Grandfather was a foreman.

Amazes me how the sculptors could take stone and mold it so beautifully.

Vermont Marble Company provided headstones for Arlington National Cemetery.

YULE QUARRIES, MARBLE, COLORADO

Vermont Marble Company was one of the largest in the world and not all of the marble came from Vermont.  The Company owned quarries in Colorado, as well.

Here another thread of the tapestry comes together … several years ago my brother was traveling through the West and stopped in Marble, Colorado to visit the quarry museum there.  He purchased a book for me about  Marble Colorado quarries because he remember hearing that Pop Pop  had spent time in Colorado, probably during the period when they were cutting and transporting the marble to Vermont for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

The book tells the history of the Yule Marble Quarry in Marble, Colorado and the acquisition of it by the Vermont Marble Company.  One of the executives from the Vermont Marble Company working the transition between the two companies was …..Robert Blood……..a future generation of the original and a descendent of ours!  So now there are two familial connections to the Vermont Marble Company!

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWNS

The Vermont Marble Company won the bid to create The Tomb of the Unknowns.  The  marble was quarried from the Yule Quarry.  The block was cut from the mountain weighing 124 tons and cut down to 56 tons, the largest piece of marble ever quarried in the US at that time. 

The Vermont Marble Company sent a special derrick to bring the block out of the quarry.  It took four days for the block of marble to move from Yule to Marble, 2/3/31.  It was then shipped to Vermont for cutting to final dimensions and carving the pilaster and bas-relief.  It was completed in September 1931 and shipped to Arlington National Cemetery.  There were issues with imperfections with the base and new bases were quarried until December when it finally came together.  Then the carving work on the die block began.  Piccirilli Brothers who carved the statue of Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial supervised and the tomb was assembled 4/9/1932.

The Vermont Marble Company recruited immigrants to come work for the company going to Ellis Island NY to bring them up.  Housing was provided for the workers and everything they bought came from the Company store.  

In the later years, the Vermont Marble Company started importing marble from Europe.  That was Pop Pop’s last position with the company before he retired.  He would assess the marble coming in from Italy and Europe and determine the grade.

I have a beautiful piece of marble that he gave to my mother.  I grew up with it as a coffee table top and it is now a treasure in my living serving as a coffee table.  It’s Imperial Danby.  I now know its name!

THE TIES THAT BIND, THE TAPESTRY THAT IS OURS!

This was the last place that I needed to visit before leaving Vermont behind.  As we headed over to Proctor, I once again passed my grandparents home.  And, once again, in each of the windows were starfish and the very large sailboat was sitting in the top window looking down!  I cannot get over that!

The culmination of this journey was finding my cousin Sharyn.  She and I spent every summer and every Vermont vacation together.  I had not seen Sharyn in 20 years.  We met up in Bennington where she lives with her husband and has three grown children now.  Her daughter, whom I met when I last visited New England is now a beautiful woman.  Where does the time go.  Sharyn has been active in Bennington politics for 20 years as Vice Selectman of the town.

When I knocked on the door to her house and she said, "Come on in" my heart melted.  Her voice was exactly as I remembered it.  We are going to meet up again before we leave Vermont.  I feel optimistic that another 20 years will not pass before we meet again!

We left the museum, took Billy for a walk around Proctor and noticed the buildings made of marble.

An interesting note to this building .... I'm not sure the last time I was this sign on the door.  Are there still "Fallout Shelters" in the country?   It's like a step back in time.

A HAUNTED CASTLE

We emerged from the museum to a beautiful, bright autumn day.  We drove out of Proctor and came upon Wilson Castle.  It is an English-style mansion built in the late 1800’s sitting back from the road on a meadow-like lawn.  

Across the road are three buildings that formerly housed the stable, carriage house and employee residences.

It has 32 furnished but unoccupied rooms and during the summer and fall is open for tours.  The most interesting fact about the castle is that it is believed to be HAUNTED!

It has resident ghosts, turrets and towers, stained glass windows and creepy tales.  Searching for “haunted castle in Vermont”, Wilson castle comes up.  Paranormal researchers have found activity evidence, according to an internet article.  Paranormal investigators have recorded EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) as ghost hunting sessions.  (Or could this be caused by the huge radio tower used for local FM broadcasts and cell across the street??).  Visitors have reported feeling something or someone touch them when they are alone in specific rooms, others hear someone playing a game of billiards on the second floor antique pool room. 

The castle is owned by descendents of the original family and hosts murder mystery parties as well as weddings and other fun events!

Across the street stood the outbuildings and I saw a for sale sign on the street.  We stopped down there to take a look asking Dave, “Wouldn’t be fun to have a summer place like this?”   He said, “Yeah, we could spend the summer replacing bricks!”.  Oh well!

We headed back to Ascutney enjoying the mountain views. 

The color seems to be creeping up the mountain rather than the colors falling down the mountain.

Last night we had dinner at the Harpoon Brewery…..probably our last time there.  Thursday nights Jason Cann plays the guitar and sings and he is wonderful.  It was packed and we had to wait for a table, so took our IPAs to the patio and sat around the fire pit, listening to the 

music.  

Several other couples joined us out there and we had interesting conversations around the fire.  In fact, we turned down the first table offer because we didn’t want to leave the fire pit.  Eventually we came inside and had dinner.  Then, on our way out, stopped by the fire pit to chat with a couple who had been there when we left for dinner.  It was a great evening, one of the many I will miss when we leave.

GETTING TO KNOW A PLACE

One of the beauties of hosting in a place for an extended period of time is getting to know a place.  

You can travel through Vermont and see what we have seen.  

You can appreciate everything we have appreciated being here.  

But unless you spend a certain amount of time in one place, you never quite get the essence of the area.  You can come away with impressions but they will be a snapshot in time as you pass on through.

Living here for the past four months we have felt part of this community.    There are many people who move here out of choice from other areas of the US.  

It certainly isn't because it's an inexpensive place to retire...it is not.  

It isn't because there are plenty of jobs to be had...there are not.  

It isn't because the climate is moderate....it is not.

To move here is a deliberate act; people who move here are looking for and finding specific qualities they cannot find elsewhere and are willing to pay the price to do so.  No one forces you to move to Vermont. There is a special quality of life here.   

I asked the couple at the fire pit what brought them to Vermont.  They are out of LA and moved up to North Adams, MA. and settled on Ludlow, VT.   They are probably younger than us by about 10 years, us being geezers and all! 

They laughed and said, "Liberals in the woods".  

Vermont is the only state with a Progressive party.  Much of the legislation is liberal.  They are the first state to enact Single-Payer Healthcare reform.  Howard Dean is from this state!  

There are also many conservatives up here, but people generally accept each other without a lot of discussions about it.   "You don't discuss politics, religion or money."  

If you are a Tea Party conservative, you'd probably be gnashing your teeth.

In my opinion, it is a great state and I'm proud of my Vermont heritage.  

I LOVE VERMONT

  

CRYSTAL CASCADE FALLS & CELEBRATIONS

9/25/12

CRYSTAL CASCADE FALLS

Last night the temperatures dipped into the 30’s and our furnace hardly shut off all night.  Another beautiful brisk autumn day.   Sun is out and we are ready to climb the mountain.

We headed over to the Weathersfield Trail to hike to Little Cascade Falls and Crystal Cascade Falls 1.1 miles up the mountain.

Vermont has been extremely dry this summer and both of these falls are seasonal so we do not have high expectations of great waters cascading down.  However, by “Land of the Waterfalls” standards, it would be listed as a “waterfall” as any water trickling out of a rock is labeled “a waterfall”!

The trail is a continuous climb of 1.1 miles crossing Little Cascade Falls whose water was seeping rather than dripping..  If you didn’t know it was a falls, you’d think it was a pile of rocks. 

The trail continues in a climb through spruce, hemlocks and hardwoods to the gorge where a wooden ladder is placed to assist the climb up over the gorge.  From here the trail has a moderately steep climb to Crystal Cascade Falls.  We stopped to catch our breath and enjoy the beautiful vista over the mountains.

Crystal Cascade Falls is 1510’ where the Ascutney Brook flows down across the rocks off an 84-foot sheer cliff marking the stretch of the mountain’s ring dike origin.  It is the exposed circle around the mountain where molten magma oozed up forming the core. 

There was not a lot of water flowing; this fall would best be seen after the snowmelt or after a hard rain.  However, there was enough water for Billy to have his fun and drink his fill. 

He found a pool and laid right down in it to cool off from the hike up.  Where we stop and catch our breath, Billy never slows down so he expends a lot more energy than we do!

He was so excited running from puddle to puddle that I kept him on the leash because his feet were sliding out from under him and I was afraid he’d slide right off the edge down 84’ to the bottom…..not a good thing!

 LOOKING DOWN OVER THE LEDGE 84 FEET

 It is a beautiful panoramic view of the mountains laid out in front of you.  To get to the bottom of the walls, you’d need to bushwhack your way down but you’d have the full effect.

The views up here were beautiful and we spent some time resting up and just enjoying the day.  As usual, the hike down was worse than the hike up!  As steep as the climb was, the descent was the same and it’s hard on the knees.  However, when we reached the bottom, we felt good and it was well worth the hike.

OUR LAST SUPPER CELEBRATION

Time is drawing to a close quickly here and we have no idea how it went so fast.  This has been a fantastic summer mainly thanks to Mark and Lucy and the crew of Al, Ed and Kelly.  We have totally enjoyed ourselves and are clinging to every day we have left.

Mark is from the Chicago area so as a special celebratory meal; I ordered four pizzas from Lou Malnati’s Tastes of Chicago Pizza.  I will never be satisfied with any other pizza again …..  when I get home, I will order more of these pizzas and have them in my freezer.    They delivered within 24 hours of shipment  and we just popped them into the oven.  So, we lit up a fire in the fire ring, Lucy cooked up the pizzas, we broke out our Rowen’s Creek bourbon from the small Willet’s Distillery and had a feast!    It was a totally enjoyable evening to be treasured.

SPIRITS INVENTORY

You can tell we’ve been away a while, our inventory of spirits is way down.  Most of the wine is gone; bourbon supplies are way down most of the bottles empty.  I think we could probably get into Canada without paying duty on our liquor supply!  I will miss Harpoon IPA and Harpoon IPA Rye beer when we get home.  Neither of these labels are marketed in Florida.  The Ginger Bourbon we picked up in Charleston is long gone and I don’t think we’re going to stop there on our way home …. We have a couple inches of Ancient Age and Old Weller so a trip to Kentucky is in our future!

IT’S BEEN A GREAT SUMMER!

FALL, HIKERS & CHEESE - ALL THAT IS VERMONT

9/24/2012

It is 10:09AM and 48 degrees outside and 58 degrees in the MH!  

When the curtain drops on summer, it really drops here.  We are now getting consistently low to mid 60 days and hi 40- hi 30 nights.  When the sun is out, it is beautiful yet brisk.  

It’s as though summer is a distant memory with those 90 degree days.  

I'm not complaining .... I'm juss sayin'

Vermont is settling in for the winter; gliding to the start with sunny, cool autumn days.  Colors are starting to change gradually.  The peak color is Columbus Day weekend; so either the color is going to change overnight or it won’t be a brilliant autumn…..but it will be a beautiful one.  Just being here it’s beautiful.

Had a really busy Saturday on the mountain this weekend.  Cars were streaming in one after the other to drive to the top and hike the summit.  Dave took the panoramic pictures that Ed had taken up there and stood at the observation tower with the pictures so hikers could see what they were looking at.  They were thrilled.  Eventually these pictures will be framed and placed up there.

I was at the meet and greet Ranger’s Hut going over hiking maps with the hikers.  I’m amazed how  much we know about this mountain after being here the summer.  She has become a great friend of ours and we will surely miss her.

LOST HIKER

Got a call around 3:30 from a woman who wanted to know where she was and how could she get back to her car!

It took me a minute to discern that she originated on the Weathersfield Trail and had gotten off the trail.  She said she was following orange blazes….there aren’t any  orange blazes on our trails.

 I walked her through from the trail head to Crystal Cascade Falls however at that point she didn’t know where she went.  She named some of the signs she had passed; Devil’s Hole and Catwalk but neither Kelly nor I recognized these on any of our trails.  We got her cell phone # and  suggested she try to retrace her steps and that we would do some research and check on her progress.

In the meantime I called Mark’s cell (he was spending time with his visiting parents) and explained where the hiker said she was.  He and Lucy conferred (both know the trails up here) and couldn’t come up with a location.  The suggestion was for her to retrace her steps to the white blazes and follow them down.  We figured there were other hikers out there on the trail she would meet up with….and a trail down is a trail down to the bottom of the mountain.

Kelly  called her back and she said she heard traffic and wasn’t so panicked. 

About 4:30 I called the cell phone but got no answer and tried again at 5:30 when I left a message with our phone number and asked her to confirm she made it off the mountain.  Had not heard anything by 6:00 so Dave drove over to the Weathersfield Trail parking area to see what cars were still there.  There was one from Massachusetts so he waited and honked the horn and finally the hikers emerged …. but they weren’t the ones who were lost.

At 6:30 the phone rang in the Ranger’s Hut and it was our lost hiker.  She had made if off the mountain and was home and thanked us for checking on her.

ANOTHER GOOD DAY!

Sunday morning Mark and I looked at a mountain biking map to try and figure out where the hiker went.  He surmised she climbed down to the bottom of Crystal Cascade Falls and got off trail.  As I was looking at the map I saw Catwalk and Devil’s Drop.  They were mountain biking trails.  She had gotten way, way off trail in the W. Windsor Forest over by the Mt Ascutney Resort. 

Sunday was busier than Saturday.  Everyone wanted to go up the mountain.

Around 4:30 a car drove in and the young girl asked if she could go up the mountain and retrieve her car.  They had driven up and were hiking around the top.  She followed a trail which took her down and when the sign said “Parking Lot” she thought it meant the summit lot, but actually it was the lot for the Wethersfield Trailhead.  They walked out to the road, figured out they were a ways away and called her mother to pick her up!  Guess it beat walking the Wethersfield Trail back up!  At least she wasn’t lost.

One can get good cell phone service here on the mountain.    The top of the mountain is full of cell towers so if you get turned around you can always call for help.  Since Mt Ascutney stands alone if you’re lost and take a descending trail or just start walking down, you’ll end up at the bottom either near a road or on a farm.   Unless you are hurt, hopefully you won’t be eternally lost!

  

Vermont is a great dairy state with farmstead and artisan cheese available at Farmers Markets and local stores.  If you have a few cows and want to try making cheese, there is definitely a market here.  Unfortunately if you don’t live in the Vermont area, you don’t get to have that wonderful cheese.

CROWLEY CHEESE

There are few genuine American cheeses originating in the US.  Most came with various immigrants bringing their cheese making recipes from their countries and settling here.  Crowley Cheese began in 1824 and the Crowley Cheese Factory built in 1882 is A National Historic Place – the oldest continuously-operating cheese factory in America.  The cheese is made by hand and traditional methods.

When I was a kid, Crowley Cheese was strictly a Vermont cheese and unattainable anywhere else but at the Crowley Cheese Factory.  On our way home from Vermont, my Dad would make a short detour to the Crowley Cheese Factory and buy a large 5 lb wheel  of cheese.  When we got home, he would cut it up and freeze it for use during the times between visits.  He may have timed his Crowley Cheese runs with our trips to Vermont because he almost always  would be running low on Crowley Cheese and we’d stop on our way home from Vermont to get more cheese.

Therefore, I had to make a point of going to the Crowley Cheese Factory.  It may be a National Historic Site ….. but it is also a Betsy Historic Site.

MAPLE SYRUP

I’m starting to pull things together for Christmas baskets.  This year’s theme is, of course, Vermont!  The most important item in a Vermont basket is Vermont Syrup so I’ve been scouting it out trying to find the most reasonable price to pay for the quantity I’m bringing back. 

Vermont Maple Syrup is liquid gold…..and when you’re hooked, there is no going back!  I grew up on it and cannot imagine anything else although I’ve had to compromise and buy maple syrup from other areas.   Just cannot do Aunt J or other karo-based syrups.

Vermont Maple Syrup is everywhere and prices vary from place to place.  I picked up a few bottles at Crowleys but remembered passing a roadside stand selling syrup.  Anyone who has a sugar stand (Sugar Maples) taps and makes syrup and sells it like a lemonade stand.

We stopped on our way back to Plymouth at the Maple Syrup stand.  I walked up to the house and knocked but no one answered.  

Dave said there were checks in the envelope so appeared to be a serve yourself stand….a custom I find so endearing about Vermont!  Here was a stand just full of maple syrup from gallons to ½ pints! 

We decided what we wanted, I wrote out a check and put it in the envelop along with other checks written that day. 

I think we have enough now.  I had to be sure and purchase another 1/2 gallon for us as we are about finished with the 1/2 gallon we purchased in June.

From here we headed over to Plymouth to the Sugar House for our last Maple Creamee.  It is a good as it gets!  I checked their prices for Maple Syrup and was very, very happy we picked it up at the roadside stand.

Another beautiful day in Vermont ends and our days are closing in on us quickly .... too quickly.