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.