6-9-12 Mount Worchester

I tried to summit Mount Worcester earlier in the spring but was turned back from the summit because of snow.  This time there was no snow to be had and it was a beautiful day for a hike.

I liked this picture for the fact that Sal is the only part not in motion when the truth is almost always the opposite.

There are veins of marble though these mountains and this particular one glows so white in the sun it is startling.

From the top looking south towards Mount Hunger.

To the West with Mount Washington in the distance.

And to the west Mount Mansfield and the quaint but expensive village of Stow at its base.

I actually continued on down to the Skyline trail towards Mount Hunger but turned back when I realized the next bit would involve a descent down 400 feet which I then would have to climb on the way back.

My contribution to the trail.  There were a couple of other ones on the way down so I has to add as well.

Sal has this odd tendency of eating grass.  This is his sampling the local fauna.

5-28-12 Shelburne Bay

At the end of a Monday I felt a craving to go kayaking in Shelburne Bay.  It meant putting in at 8PM but still there were an hour and a half of daylight.  The water is clear enough you can see into the depths.

5-18-12 LaPlatte River

LaPlatte River is an inlet for Shelburned Bay.  Part of it is a wild life refuge and a nice place to explore in a kayak.

Later in the year I know it will be choked with algae and weeds but this early in the year it is still nice and clear.  I know there are fish there but my attempts at fishing have yet to produce results.

A new bow in the form of a Samick Sage recurve

So after obsessing over it for well over a month I finally went out and bought a bow.  While I have a 22. rifle in my possession the kind of target shooting I enjoyed the most was always bow.  Take a rifle and it's scope, zero it in and then the mystery is done.  But take a recurve bow and just a slight change in the wind... So I finally bought one for myself.  Here is my Samick Sage 45# right handded bow.  Sure I am left handed but with a bow I am right.

5-6-12 CAT Trail Camel's Hump

It is still mud season so still sticking to the lower trails so back to the CAT trail.  It was a beautiful day and the forest was just starting to turn green.  As I walked along it honestly felt like an entirely different space, the budding leaves added something to the trails I have walked many times.

Another miscellaneous flower.  I really need to start learning these so this can be much more interesting posts.

This is the usual hidden waterfall but this time the water was really flowing and crystal clear.  I checked Sal's exploration just so he did slide on loose leaves into the water.

A frog... er actually a toad.  I heard something and ended up doubling back to find this little guy, Sal completely missed him.

So this is about where I went off the path.  I saw a rock wall off to the side and decided to explore some more and practice walking quietly in the woods.  This must have been farmland at some point, but I can't imagine to trying farm on these hills.  I tried to teach Sal how to move slower and quieter but being the attention deficit dog he is it did not work.  He runs full tilt after everything so wildlife is easily startled and as he and start exploring off trail in wider areas I want him to learn silence so we can see more things.  I have a feeling it will be a long learning curve.

This seemed to be the last week for fiddleheads and managed to grab a pocket full (carefully selecting one or two from each plant so it was not detrimental to them) and when I got home made a stir fry.  The stir fry became my leftovers for the whole week so I have had the pleasure of eating what I foraged for all of this time.  It makes me want to do more.

5-5-12 Little River again

I have been to Little River State park many times at this point but it is spring and it is much better to stay off higher elevation trails due to mud and more importantly trail erosion. So I ended back in the moderate lowlands again.  The park was busy so I jumped onto the VAST snowmobile trails to get away.  There I found a wide variety of flowers.  No idea what they are though.

 It almost looked like lady slippers or something, but also at the same time not at all like lady slippers.

 This looked like a red trillium but I am sure that isn't it either.

 This is where the snowmobile trail ended after several miles.  The forest here seemed to be fairly old and I sat listening to a very active group of birds sing their hearts out.  I also took the time to verify that this was not the trail I thought I was on and that this road wasn't even on my map.

 The stream running underneath it was quite nice.

 On the other side.  Then back to retrace my steps to where the trail should be.  I tried to teach Sal to walk quietly through the underbrush but he... he wouldn't slow down long enough to learn.

 Cool mushrooms, nature knows how to rock the color.

 There is an old sawmill deep in the woods, the last two times here I did not get to it for various reasons but this time I made it back.

People had been arranging debris in a variety of ways.  I will have to return to those snowmobile trails later.

4-29-12 Winooski River

I have spent a fairly large amount of time on the water in my life in kayaks, canoes and sparingly sailboats.  As it gets back into the season my urges become stronger and I ended up on the Winooski River above the Vergennes Dam.

It was beautiful (as you can see above) but windy.  So windy, in fact, that when I turned around and tried heading back down stream the wind was producing whitecapped waves heading upstream.  I quickly discovered that those same winds were equally capable of pushing me upstream as well.  Moral of the story: sometimes despite all expectations you will have to paddle both ways,