Vermont Travel Notes

I know that now might not be the right time of year for this, but I just ran across a great fall foliage video that is enjoyable to look at no matter when you see it.

It is an unusually well done amateur video with good editing and music. Videographer Roger Shealy shot this footage last October during a visit to Burlington and Lake Champlain.

This video will inspire you to visit VT to see the foliage colors even if you have been here to see it previously. They always look great but last year was a spectacular year for color - many more red leaves than I ever remember seeing before and the orange and yellow leaves were extremely bright too. The season started early but remained a long time.

Start saving your $$$ now and plan to travel to VT and see this year's foliage show!

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

The Christmas Bird Count is a 109 year old event held each year all around the country. It is sometimes held on Christmas day but often takes place on other days in December and early January depending upon each local group's preferred timing. In Vermont, there are about 20 bird counting groups with the earliest counts starting December 14 and going through January 5.

This is a great way to get out and see some Vermont scenery and enjoy a day with local and out-of-state birders. You don't have to be an expert. There will be at least one experienced birder leading each group.

Detailed information about this year's count is available on the Vermont eBird.org website page. This website is a good source of information not only about the Christmas bird count but also year around information about birding in Vermont.

Two other birding websites I like are Virtual Birder (it has weekly reports of rare bird sightings around the state) and the Vermont Audubon (including links to the group's state office and local chapters).

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Today's Megapickles photograph of a Lake Champlain scene reminds me of a Salvador Dali painting - it just needs a drooping clock hanging over the tree . . .

One thing I do most every evening is go to Megapickles Photoblog (see link in this blog's right hand column), one of my all-time favorite web sites. John H is the website owner. He publishes a photo every day, usually of outdoor subjects but he switched to indoor subjects and even a self-portrait earlier this year after slipping on ice and ending up in a leg cast. Some of his recent photos around Burlington and Lake Champlain meant he had to get up well before dawn and drive around looking for opportunities before heading off to his day job. That job is as a Political Science Professor at St. Michel's College.

Not only does John post a photograph each day but also he includes a note about what music he is listening to at the moment. He has an deep affinity for classic and jazz music - his collection of albums and CD's must be staggering.

I suggest you take a few minutes to poke around his website - I'm confident you will enjoy it and appreciate the amount of work that goes into it. There are many brilliantly composed and rendered photographs there.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor

Shortly after I wrote the entry below about the Dog Party at Dog Mountain, I ran across this quote which I've seen before but had not remembered for a long time. As a dog owner, it's one of my favorites:

"We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us." - Maurice Maeterlinck

Maeterlinck was a Belgian poet, playright, and Nobel Prize winner who lived 1862 to 1949.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor

I took a quick snapshot this afternoon of the hillside across the street. The foliage colors this year are magnificent. If you ever wanted to travel to Vermont to see the fall colors, you couldn't do any better than this year. Some of the upper elevations are a little past peak but still look very good and some areas have yet to peak. You still have time.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Brewster River photograph from my favorite photoblog: Megapickles . . . see the September 16, 2008 entry.

The Brewster River runs north down from Spruce Peak to the town of Jeffersonville VT where it empties into the Lamoille River.

More Brewster River photos are available here.

There is a widely photographed falls you can find in Brewster River Gorge. Locally, it is sometimes called Jefferson Falls.

If you want to fish the area, stop by an excellent little fly shop called Green Mountain Troutfitters to arrange for a guide, get the current flies, etc.

Be sure to drive Route 108 from Jeffersonville to Stowe or the opposite way from Stowe to Jeffersonville. It goes through an area called Smugglers Notch and it is one of the prettiest drives in Vermont.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor (except the photo from the Megapickles website