A Visit to Stowe

Monday July 26, 2021                                              Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground              The Beautiful Homes of  Saint Johnsbury
Saint Johnsbury, Vermont                            The Fantastic Flume Gorge

Unfortunately I’m not going to finish up July before August is over but I’m trying.  Thanks for keeping your comments coming anyway.

A technical note:  My posts don’t show up well on a cell phone and the end of this one in particular may be a mess on such a small screen.  A laptop works great and I think a tablet does too.

Many people who visit Vermont want to come to Stowe for different reasons.   Skiing or to visit the Von Trapp Family Lodge are among the most popular.  People I talked to in the campground went for dinner at the lodge and shopping in the little town.

My reasons were none of those.  First I went to visit Moss Glen Falls where I found a 1/4 mile wooden boardwalk through prime beaver habitat, wetlands meadow and forest.  Beavers live in the ponds next to the trail and use small paths called beaver runs to move between their lodge on the main pond and Moss Glen Brook.  Of course I didn’t see any beavers since I wasn’t there at dawn or dusk.

But I also didn’t see any evidence of beaver because the vegetation was so lush the ponds weren’t visible and neither were any beaver gnawed saplings.  I did see Joe Pye Weed and Jewelweed growing beside the boardwalk.

I did read that in order to mitigate their damage, as in keep them from cutting down every sapling that comes up,  a mix of sand and paint was applied to trees along the trail.  Very clever I thought since beavers wouldn’t like sand in their food any more than we would.  But I didn’t see any painted trees either.

Once through the wetlands, the path went along the stream.

As I climbed I got to the waterfall, I got this glimpse through the trees.

The best views are from up here.

The view is at quite a distance and the ledge is roped off.  I could not see any trail down below.  Perhaps the locals know of one.

But my camera let me get closer looks at the 125 ft falls.

And even closer looks at the sections of the falls.

Sure wish I could have gotten down there on the rocks at the base and felt the power of the water.  Perhaps I’ll investigate that possibility more if I return to the area. 

But it sounded great even from this far away.

On the hike back, still no beaver but I did spot this guy hiding in the blackberries.

Secondly I went to see Gold Brook Bridge to add it to my covered bridges collection list.  Even with as many as I’ve seen, I’m not making a dent in how many there are in Vermont.

Love the sign just under the peak.

Gold Brook is lovely as it flows under the bridge.

I did go to the town of Stowe and walk around.  There is a central district with lots of independent stores and houses on either end of it.

I mostly wandered the streets taking in the atmosphere.  I’m so not a shopper that I only went in one of the stores.  Although Shaw’s looked cute. I am often visually overwhelmed by so much merchandise in stores today.  So I passed by, looking in the windows.

I know you’ve guessed that the store I went in to was the bookstore.  It’s not that it’s not overwhelming too but I’m so in my element that I don’t mind as much.

Back out on the street I enjoyed this little bit of nature.  Bees and butterflies.
I might have had lunch in Stowe if I’d had Laurel to tell me where to eat.  I’m terrible at picking interesting places.  I don’t know how she does it so well.

Since everyone enjoyed the Saint Johnsbury homes, here are a couple from the edge of Stowe Vermont.   I didn’t walk up and down the streets away from the commercial district so Stowe may have Victorian Beauties as well but these pretty much on the Main Street coming into town.

My last stop was also outside Stowe where I went to see Bingham Falls in Smuggler’s Notch.  

This time the trail took me up to the top and then down to the bottom.

You definitely don’t want to fall into the ravine as you walk down the rocky trail.

There were partial view on the way down.  It looked like a big falls.

The views from the side or the top of a waterfall never give me a good idea of what the falls will look like from the bottom.  But they sure do whet my appetite and create excitement.

This is a very popular place for swimming and jumping even on a Monday.  The rocks to get down to the base are huge.

Here I’m looking back down the river from the pool.

Looking back at the falls, this is the only photo I got with no one in it.

This girl on the far rock jumped in at least a half dozen times.  The boy at the bottom is her brother and the girl is her friend.

On of her many jumps. She just kept jumping and swimming back, walking over the rocks and jumping in again.   Her dad has the camera.

Her friend watched her over and over.  Finally she got the friend over on the side where she was and up onto the rock.  But the friend wouldn’t jump and then,  all of a sudden they held hands and I almost missed it.  The picture is too blurry but it’s so cute.   What a great memory for them especially for the girl who was afraid.

What’s the new thing?  BFF??

Can you see the girl in blue cut offs just sitting on the rocks on the left?  I hardly noticed her watching the girl on the other side.  She seemed to just be sitting enjoying the falls.

Boy did she surprise everyone.

What a great afternoon.  I might have jumped if David were here and I had my suit on but boy that water was cold.

On the way back to Winnona, I stopped in at Ben and Jerry’s flagship store in Waterbury.  From the parking lot you have to walk by these giant tanks??.  I suppose this is to show the relative amounts of sugar, cream and milk used.  I don’t think they are actually full of those things but I should have asked.

But ask whom?  Unfortunately there was no factory tour despite the fact that no one was wearing masks and Vermont has the highest vaccination rate and lowest number of cases in the country.  Also no free ice cream tastes only a line to buy ice cream and eat it outside.

Local Ben and Jerry’s have more flavors than were here.

I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing.  Clearly Ben and Jerry aren’t running this show any more.   Here’s my one scoop in a waffle cone.  More cone than scoop.

And check out the price.  A SMALL for $7.55. 

After my ice cream I stopped by the grave yard.

There are lots of “dead” flavors.

This is for all my friends in C’ville.  Dave’s flavor is in the graveyard but it had a 4 year run.

This is my favorite of their flavors and it has had 3 runs for a total of 10 years, but is currently in the grave yard.  I hope it will be resurrected again though at these prices, I doubt I’ll give it a lick.

I tried to get a picture of the entire graveyard but it was too big, with too many flavors.  They all have the cute rhyming epitaphs.

Not sure if these are the girls really responsible for all that milk and cream but they were munching away in a pasture by the parking lot and definitely added the awwwww   factor.

 

I’ll end with a collection of selfies.  I just cannot learn to do this right and it makes me laugh to see my efforts especially all in a row. 

Hope you got a smile out of it too!