Planning Around the Rain in Vermont

Saturday July 15-Tuesday July 18, 2023                        Most Recent Posts                   Moose River Campground                Lookin’ For Loons in all the Right Places
St Johnsbury, Vermont                          A Stunning Hike in Franconia Notch

The rain continues.  Not all day every single day but often at some point nearly every day.  The flood recovery continues in the southern and western sections of Vermont.  It’s been worse they say than Tropical Storm Irene in August of 2011.

Here in site 20 Winnona and I are fine and the beautiful river never really got threateningly close to us.  But all this has made me rather glad I am here for my first time ever anywhere 3 month stay.  There are so many days I can’t really go anywhere, it’s raining so no kayaking or hiking or it rained this morning so kayaking maybe but trails are too wet.  So I still have places I want to go even though I am  half way through my stay.   Hope the second half is dryer than the first.

There are things that the weather doesn’t stop like the park’s wine and cheese party.  It rained but that didn’t matter. 

David and I seldom stayed in private parks unless we wanted to be in one place longer than two weeks and even then we were never around the park so we were seldom part of the activities.

But I find that alone I appreciate the company and the events that they schedule in this small park.  I don’t drink wine or much of anything alcoholic unless it is far too sweet for the normal person but I enjoyed the “cheese” which was really snacks for everyone.  I should have taken this picture from the other end of the table.

And there are things that the weather only modifies thankfully.

Ever since I found out about it, I have been looking forward to the Albannach concert that was to be held at Dog Mountain. 

Albannach is a favorite band of David’s and mine.  They are Scottish highland drums and bagpipe.  They perform at Highland Games, Scottish Festivals, and Renaissance Faires as well as other venues. 

Dog Mountain has musicians there every Sunday and people bring chairs, the dogs run around and I understand it is a wonderful time.  All free.  But nearly all the concerts have been rained out this summer.  Amazingly it wasn’t going to rain for the Sunday of the Albanach concert so I drove up early to get a good spot.  When I got to the turn off, two people were there giving out directions for the indoor venue it had been moved to.  Seems the ground was so soft and the crowd expected to be so huge that they were worried about damage to the Dog Mountain grounds.  So everyone who wanted to, and that was a lot of folks, drove to Lydon where it was held in the community ice hockey rink.  Gotta love Vermont.

The muddy  parking lot you can see above was filling up when I got there an hour early and folks were in line.

As at Dog Mountain, you bring your own chairs. People filled up the arena even though it was a last minute change of venue.  It was amazing that they got a volunteer venue and moved the outdoor stage and all the sound equipment  to it (10 miles away) all on such short notice.  The weather has been very uncooperative here in Vermont.

At was a great crowd.  The space in the very front is reserved for dancing and it was filled for most of the concert.

Because I got there early, I had a spot relatively near the front.

I struck up a conversation with the two women next to me, Darcie and Cheryl.  Darcie took this shot of me.

The music was fantastic though loud in doors.  It’s more suited for outside in the Highlands or Dog Mountain or the other spots where I’ve seen them before.   Apparently they like performing here since they make significantly less money. They almost never perform at the same space two years in a row.  They’ve been to Dog Mountain four years in a row and I’m very tempted to return to Moose River to see them next year outside hopefully.

My phone speakers couldn’t deal with the sound so I’m not posting the video I took.

On non rainy days I alternate between hiking and kayaking depending on how much non rain free morning time I have and thus how far away I can drive to do these things.  If it rained yesterday, kayaking is in order since the ground may be too muddy for hiking.

This Monday I went again to Job’s Pond which was close enough to return home  before the predicted rain.  I’ve posted about Job’s before so I’ll just show a few pictures here and of course the loons.

Joes has a nice launch site. 

Around the pond are various views of the mountains.  I wish I knew what type rock this was that make them look so rugged.

The loons are the biggest attraction for me.

I was lucky to catch this loon “running” across the water to get up speed to “take off”

And I got him just as he was pulling his last foot up.

But I couldn’t swivel around in the kayak enough to get him in the sky sadly.  Still I love these pictures.  The one below is just a closer look at his foot barely touching the water.   How DO they do that?

I doubt I will come back to Job’s again.  It is lovely but there are many other ponds in Vermont to check out.

If you’ve seen Albannach or Loons, where was it and when?