Vermont Travel Notes

We got off to an early fall foliage here in Vermont but the colors are still

changing and we have many days left before we're past peak everywhere. I

was looking at the hillside across the street yesterday and was pleased to

see so much bright red and orange has shown up.


As usual, some hillsides are further along than others. Looking closely at the

trees here at the inn, I see some trees that have few leaves left holding on

and other trees that have only just begun changing and are still mostly green.


The tree above is in front our inn and always looks spectacular for a week or

so every year. It doesn't look very good the rest of the year and I hardly pay

attention to it. But when fall rolls around, this tree is one of the first to blossom

with a bright color that makes up for the other weeks of the year.


When the lighting is just right, this maple has a day-glo orange color that is

sometimes so bright, it almost looks fake - as though someone painted it a

color that you would only see on a hot rod, not a tree. It is past its peak now (I

took the photo about a week ago) but plenty of its sylvan neighbors here are

looking very good.


Some people here predicted a quick end to the foliage because of the early

start but they've been proven wrong and I think we have at least a good ten

days left and longer in some areas like the Lake Champlain valley.


Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Vermont's Killington resort has a "K55" deal available for a short time that you should
take a look at if you are thinking of skiing there a few times this year. The K55 is a
one day lift ticket that costs "just" $55 which is almost a 35% discount from the weekend
window rate of $85. The offer expires October
15.

The K55 is not good during the usual peak periods of late Dec-Jan, mid Jan
MLK weekend, and Presidents' Day week in late Feb.

You are limited to ten tickets but if you are going to buy that many, you should
take a look at some of the other discount programs Killington offers such as
the Express Card or the On-line Etickets. Of course the best deal is a
season pass. You can see some details and analysis on this Alpine Zone page.

Known as "The Best of the East," Killington is the largest ski area in the
East. It has 200 runs and 33 lifts spread out over seven mountains. But a
contender has mounted a challenge to that claim, Sugarloaf in Maine is
adding more acreage and will be larger in some categories. If you care, see
the "East's New Beast - Sort Of" article on Skinet.com.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Photo copyright Billings Farm and Museum

One of my favorite towns in Vermont is Woodstock and one of my favorite places in
Woodstock is the Billings Farm and Museum. In your travels around central Vermont,
Billings is one place I think should be at the top of your list of places to visit.

This coming weekend, October 9 and 10, Billings is hosting its annual Harvest Weekend.
Each day there will be an old time husking bee, barn dance, hand pressing
cider, preserving apples, making butter and ice cream, harvesting the heirloom
vegetable garden, "putting them up” for winter, shelling corn and beans, fence
building, Saturday rug hooking demonstration, apples-on-a-string, and 19th
century games. Hot-spiced cider and homemade doughnuts will be available.
Harvest Weekend is a Vermont Top Ten Fall Event as selected by the Vermont
Chamber of Commerce.

Billings Farm is a beautiful operating dairy farm with an excellent educational building.
It is open everyday until the end of October and then weekends November through February.
Admission is $12.00 for adults, $6.00 for children 5 to 15: $3.00 for children 3 to 4, and
2 & under are free. Billings is a great place to bring kids not only for this event
but also to see the educational exhibits plus horses, cows and sheep.

Billings is located just a little north of Woodstock VT at the intersection of
Route 12 and River Road. From Interstate highway 89, take exit 1 and go west on
Route 4 about ten miles to Woodstock.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

The 2nd Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival is being held at The Boyden Family Farm in Cambridge VT on Sunday, October 3, 2010.

There will be catapults and trebuchets in action throwing pumpkins hundreds of feet. Competition matches start at 1:00 in the afternoon.

Also, the American Chunker Air Cannon team from Merrimack, NH will be there early to launch its first public appearance. This incredible air cannon was recently completed after nearly a year's work and a $100,000 investment. The cannon has a barrel over 100 feet long and is expected to hurl a pumpkin nearly a mile. "Prepare yourself to be amazed at the latest and greatest in pumpkin smashing technology."

More information about this amazing device (big, expensive toy) is on the American Chunker website and their Facebook page.

To get to the Boyden Family Farm, you can plug this into your GPS: 44 Vermont Route 104, Cambridge, VT 05444

Or use this Google map.. The farm is Located in Cambridge at the intersection of Vermont Routes 15 & 104.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

I've watched Vermont fall foliage reports for a decade and the one I put the most faith in comes from Vermont Department of Forestry rangers. They are out in the field and they know what they're talking about. Heck, they even studied it in college. For years. At great expense.

Their report is available at the Fall Foliage page on the Vermont Dept. of Tourism page.

You will find reports on other websites but if you look closely you will see that they base their reports on the foresters' reports. In other words, they go to the website I mentioned above and rewrite it a bit.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Fall foliage in Vermont is off to a good start. Small spots of color have been visible for about a week and now they are gradually becoming larger spots. No bright reds yet, mostly yellows showing. It seems a little early to me but I think the foliage should last well into the second half of October because we've had good rain the past few weeks to help the trees avoid stress and thereby not shed their leafs faster.

The photo above is from a newsletter I got from Jay Peak, about an hour's drive north of us nearly on the border with Canada. Their leaves are roughly a week ahead of ours here in the Waterbury area.

So, is it leaves or leafs? Click here.

Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus