7 days in July with Ice cream and Bingo

Sunday to Sunday                                                    Most Recent Posts:
June 28 – July 5, 2026                                           June in Vermont
Moose River Campground                                      Flat Tire Slows Trip
St. Johnsbury, Vermont

July only looked slightly different than June.  My weeks often consist of two days of hiking and 2 days of kayaking.   I hang around the river here over the week-end to let the workers have the lakes and trails.

I had a beautiful day on Keiser  pond. 
I went there for the 2nd time hoping to see the hatched baby loon.  But no luck.  The parents were there but not the baby.  No idea what happened.   It’s sad though.

Here’s some of the beauty I did see.

I heard well over a dozen birds but these two were the only ones I saw

Easter Phoebe

Red Winged black bird

One of the hikes I did this week was on the local Rail Trail.  I used to carry a bicycle with me but I found I’d rather walk or hike than ride and getting the bike on and off the bike rack was too difficult for me alone.    The nice thing about Rail Trails is that they are like interstate highways, wide and flat or with a gradual slope unlike the mountains of Vermont.

That’s not to say there is no slope.

Every  Monday evening at 7:00 the St Johnsbury Band performs on the courthouse lawn and one of the local businesses provides free ice cream.   It’s such a wonderful small town tradition.  There were a lot more people than this picture shows but most of them were behind me or in the ice cream line.

Here’s the ice cream line.   3 flavors to choose from.  2 scoopers so the line will move along.  1 scoop per person but they are big scoops

My second kayak trip was to Lake Hardwick.  The beginning is at the put in of course.  Turns out Lake Hardwick has some sort of invasive water plant here at this end of the lake so you have to put in to it and head the other direction.  You can sort of see it at the end of the ramp and further out in the lake.

Kind of a hazy day.  I didn’t see much at all on or around the lake but the quiet beautiful environment was wonderful  The Lamoille River is on the other end of the lake and turned out to be the best part of this paddle

I had just come around the bend into the river from the lake when I saw what looked like a telephone pole in the middle of a marsh.

A closer look revealed an osprey platform.

Complete with resident osprey.

Not sure you can see this clearly but I thought it was hilarious.   As I was paddling back the 50 mph speed limit sign looked like it had been set for the river.   Obviously at this spot the road is right there but still, It struck me as  funny.

This handsome green heron was another highlight of my paddle.

There’s the stuff in the lake.  Now all I have to do is get this kayak back on top of the car.  I always wish I had a paddling buddy at this point.

 

Another thing that has become a dangerous weekly habit is a stop at the too near to the campground Milkhouse Ice Cream.

I could easily go there every day if I weren’t afraid of the consequences especially given that I also have ice cream at the band concert every Monday.  Milkhouse doesn’t have only 3 flavors, it has dozens.  Two big signboard lists of flavors.   I didn’t count them but there are a lot.   Wish I could sample every one before the summer is over…..well every one except the ones with coffee ice cream.

Here I am last week.   Two scoops on a cone.

There is never not a line.  I just  love the cow!

And this week, two scoops in a cup.  doesn’t it look like the cone scoops are bigger??  My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures.

Speaking of food.

I took myself out for breakfast  this week to the Kitchen Counter in downtown St. Johnsbury.

I call this the farm breakfast because it’s what David used to make for us one day every week-end.  His had the worlds most flakey made from scratch biscuits.  I miss them and him.

The campground had a bingo game on the 4th of July.   I LOVE bingo.  Not the serious kind that costs a lot of money, but this kind at $1 for 3 cards.  Last month I won 3 of the 9 games.  YEA!!!

This month, for the first time since I’ve played at Moose River, I didn’t win one single game.  Boo hoo!

There was also a char broiled roast beef dinner potluck on the 4th.

Carmen and Linda, two work campers, organize all the food people brought.

The right cake for this day.

Yes this all happened in one week.  It didn’t make me tired at the time but retelling it did.   I may have to increase the number of days I hike and kayak to keep up with all this eating and ice cream.

June in Vermont

June 3-15, 2026                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Moose River State Park                                                 Flat Tire Slows the Trip
St. Johnsbury, Vermont                              Pretty Sure Google Killed My Phone

I tried to do an entire month in one post and paid dearly for it as when I went to post it, Live Writer made me take all of the way too many pictures out and put them back in one at a time as it gave me error messages in random order for each photo. But here it is, let me know if it was worth the number of hours it took to redo the entire post.

In addition to the small size of Moose River Campground and the river itself, what I like most about being here is this area and all the things I love to do here.

Its main street is filled with gorgeous houses.  So it’s a wonderful place to go walking and get some exercise as are the side streets off of it.

The United Community Church has a labyrinth in its yard which I love to walk at the end of my walks around town usually on Saturday morning after going to the Farmer’s Market.

The gorgeous Athenium Library is a frequent stop for me.  It is simply beautiful and has wonderful programs.   Since I have been here for the summer before, they graciously gave me a library card.  It’s SO wonderful to be able to check out real books and set my kindle aside for now.

This room is through the door on the right in the picture above.   I just love the  curved staircase.  The library’s adult book discussion group is held in here if the RSVP ers are a dozen or less.   June’s read was Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaughey.    Everyone had read it and amazingly everyone liked it.

If a book you have put on hold comes in, they wrap it in brown paper and put it on this cart with your name on the spine for you to pick up.  It’s like getting presents at Christmas!

The architecture of down town (Railroad Street)  is wonderfully detailed in ways we sadly don’t do anymore

Of course I also love the local bookstore, Boxcar and Caboose.

Every Saturday morning I start my wanderings around town with the Farmer’s Market.

There seems to be something different every week.

And boy does Vermont have ponds and lakes.  There are more than a dozen within 45 minutes of the campground.  I’m absolutely serious when I say each of them has at least one pair of loons.   These pictures are a combination of Molly’s Falls State Park and Kaiser Pond.   Between the rains and the crud I got with its endless cough, I was only able to get to each one once.  Really have to make up for that in July.  Enough rain……enough coughing.

And here are the loons in front of the sign warning not to come near the nest.

I can spend hours watching them and hoping to hear their call.

I have never seen a loon doing the back stroke before.

Fishing

 

Taken with my zoom lens.

Not loons   but beautiful even if they are mallards

I hike at Dog Mountain, home of the Stephen Huneck Gallery, on several days in order to watch the blooming of the Pink Lady Slipper.  

I join the pack when I’m here for the summer and get this get Huneck art key or dog tag.

Gallery on the left, Chapel on the right.  From the rear.

You can read about the chapel at the website link above.

Many wildflowers to see on my hikes.

and ferns galore.

Foam flower precedes the blooming of the Lady Slipper so I know when I see them that I’m not too late.

Seems odd to call this butterfly the White Admiral.

And here they are, the stars of the show.   the showy Pink Ladyslipper.

Other fun spots on the trails at Dog Mountain.

Dogs are off leash here at Dog Mountain and there are tons of tennis balls for them to fetch and this pond to swim in.

It’s an outstanding setting.

And here’s home sweet home for the summer.

My favorite spot by the river.  Notice the rocks on the edge.   Those disappear when it rains which it has now started doing.   You can see the difference in the river level in the video at the end of this post.

Reading a book about Cape Cod while sitting by the river in Vermont.

Other books I read this month were:  The Midnight Train by Matt Haig,  The News from Dublin by Colm  Toibin,  Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McGonaghy, Transcription by Ben Lehrner,  Whistler by Ann Patchett, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, The Astral Library by Kate Quinn and Land by Maggie O’Ferrell.  I full expect some of these to be on the Booker, National Book or Pulitzer lists for this year.   Have you read any of these?  What would you think about my doing a separate blog post each month about the books I’ve read??

I also sometimes do yoga mornings in this spot.

In June there were two potlucks, this one with the Seasonals who are here from May to October and  were kind to invite me.  They are here for 5 months, I’m only here for 3.

Above is a work camper with a Farmer’s hand tan.  I’d never seen him with his sleeves rolled up before.    And to the right is Mac the popular mascot.

There was a second potluck for Father’s day but apparently I took no pictures of it or of the Bingo game that afternoon.  I LOVE Bingo and won 3 out of 9 games but not the big prize at the end unfortunately.   I did get this picture of the notice on the porch.

And this picture of Mary the campground owner and creator of the sign who did not want her picture taken.

As for the rain, those of you who follow me know that I got flooded out from this same site twice in the summer of 2024.  I went west in 2025 and they had a drought here.  So severe you could walk across the river and the grass was brown.  

This year we’ve had multiple days of rain in June and my mat and picnic table got swamped as you can see.   But so far (fingers crossed) no flooding.   Check out this video for the sounds of the river.  You can see most of the rocks are under water now.

Probably more of the same in July but I’ll let you know then.