We wake up to a light but steady rain, and a similar forecast for the next three days — when we plan to be in Vermont and New Hampshire, looking for leaves.
Rain creates several challenges: it can be uncomfortable (wet), your vision through a wet face guard and windshield is compromised, and wet roadways present potential safety hazards.
Our clear preference is to not ride in the rain, but if we waited for the skies to clear completely, we might never leave. But a lull in the rain could be an opportunity for us to leave Colchester, where we overnighted at the Motel 6.
So we kill a few hours, watching the Weather Channel on TV, having complimentary coffee at the motel, eating breakfast at an across-the-parking lot McDonalds, and debating the merits of the two US Presidential candidates. I’m an Obama supporter, Ray is not. Our debate ends and the rain is still falling. It’s 11 am, and thinking the rain might continue (or suddenly end), we leave Colchester — with a revised ride plan.
We don’t know it at the time, but it will rain off and on all day long. Spoiler alert: we arrive safely at our destination, wet, cold, but unhurt.
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We’re on our way to the famous Stowe ski resort. En route, we pass by Mount Mansfield. At 4,395 feet, it’s the highest mountain in Vermont. Mount Mansfield is one of three spots in Vermont where true alpine tundra survives from the Ice Ages. The mountain is believed to be named after Moses Mansfield, an early settler whose previous home was in Mansfield, Connecticut. Implausible as that may seem, an alternate theory is that the mountain was named for Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer), better known as an actress and early Playboy playmate. She was 20th Century Fox’s answer to Marilyn Monroe. Almost everything in this paragraph is true.
Stowe is a year-round attraction for New Englanders. Now that the leaves are turning, active Vermonters are putting their golf clubs away and getting their ski equipment ready for the upcoming season. Click here to see why Stowe would be a great place to vacation, if it wasn’t so darn far away. Far away — what am I talking about? I’m at Stowe!
Hard to believe — as much as I loved skiing, I’ve never been to Stowe until today. Many of you know that I graduated from the University of Utah (“America’s Team”). Yep. BS, Broadcast Journalism, 1973. Why Utah? It was a way of avoiding the draft, and at the same time, allowing me to ski every day. Seemed like a brilliant academic strategy at the time: skiing as a form of higher education.
While at the U, I taught at the Alf Engen ski school at Alta, Utah (“Bend zee knees, five dollars pleeze”). Thirty years later, Sarah and I went to Val d’Isere in France, where we skied for a week on our honeymoon in 1999. I love skiing! But we live in La Quinta because we like to be warm and hate to be cold. As a result, skiing has pretty much become a distant memory. When it’s 75 degrees and sunny all winter where you live, how can you in good conscience, go to a ski area and intentionally inflict cold upon yourself?
Still, after reading about eastern US ski areas for so many years, it’s exciting to finally be visiting one of them.
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Stowe fun fact: it’s the former home of Maria Von Trapp, matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers, inspiration for the Broadway musical and Hollywood film, “The Sound of Music.” Where else (other than Wikipedia) could you possibly get this kind of knowledge with so little effort? Yes, “Ride With Gary,” the blog full of information, some of it useful.
After leaving Stowe, we take a slight side trip 10 miles south of town — to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont. Lifelong friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (my people!) completed a correspondence course on ice cream making in 1977, and the following year with a $12,000 investment, they opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. The rest, apparently, is sweet history. Can we buy you a cone? Click here to choose a flavor. Ben & Jerry’s fun fact: in 1992, it was the first brand-name ice cream to be taken into space aboard the space shuttle.
If you’re craving sweetness, and are in Vermont, you can try the “Vermonster,” a large ice cream sundae served in a “Vermonster Bucket” at Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops. Its ingredients are 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, 4 ladles of hot fudge, 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1 chocolate fudge brownie, 10 scoops of walnuts, 2 scoops each of 4 toppings of your choice, and whipped cream. It contains 14,000 calories, and 500 grams of fat. Every year, Ben & Jerry’s holds the Vermonster Challenge, a charity event where teams of two or four people get together and try to be the first to finish the monstrosity. Click here to see how two Texas boys finished off the Vermonster a few years ago. Supersize me!
Click here to learn more about Ben and Jerry.
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Our original plan was to leave Ben & Jerry’s and head north on VT-100 toward the US/Canadian border, riding to Newport, the last city on the way to the province of Quebec. Newport is about 5 miles from Canada, eh — and it surrounds the southern shore of Lake Memphremagog. Seventy-three percent of the lake’s surface is in Quebec. Little-known fact: the Canadian band “The Tragically Hip” mentions Lake Memphremagog in their 2002 unreleased song, “Problem Bears.”
The US/Canadian border, officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest international border in the world shared between the same pair of countries. The boundary, which originated with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, is 5,525 miles long. For comparison purposes, the shortest international border is two miles — between the Holy See (Vatican City) and Italy.
But we never make it to Newport, or to Canada. Our weather-related route adjustment keeps us from turning northward.
So instead of heading north from Ben & Jerry’s, we head south toward another major Vermont resort — Sugarbush, just northwest of the town of Warren on VT-100 in the Green Mountains. Sugarbush, which receives on average, 262 inches of snow every year, is well known to skiers in New England. To learn more about Sugarbush, click here.
Throughout our day as we ride through the Green Mountains, we continually see road signs warning us about the dangers of moose — which apparently have a tendency to wander across the roadway. It’s a bit disconcerting to see signs that say: “Moose Crossing, Next 8 Miles.” WTF? I saw a moose up close last summer in Alaska (Denali National Park) and the thing freaked me out; it was like a giraffe! So the thought of a moose appearing in my lane makes me think about evasive techniques on rain-soaked roads. It won’t be a pretty picture. Fortunately, the only wildlife we see is road kill.
Speaking of the Green Mountains, here’s something you probably didn’t know. The Vermont Republic, also known less formally as the Green Mountain Republic, existed from 1777 to 1791, at which time Vermont became the 14th state. Vermont not only takes its state nickname (“The Green Mountain State”) from the mountains, it is named after them. The French Verts Monts is literally translated as Green Mountains. Glad you asked?
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From Sugarbush, we follow VT-100 south for about 35 miles, and turn west on US-4 near the ski resort of Killington. At 3,050 feet, Killington claims to have the largest vertical drop of all New England ski areas.
At the ski area’s Snowshed Lodge, today is the second of the three-day Killington Brewfest, an opportunity to sample microbrews made in Vermont and across New England. The Brewfest, now in its 17th year, offers live music, food tastings and over 60 regional artisan brews on tap — until 6 pm tonight. Tempting as that sounds, it’s been a long day in the saddle, so we continue riding west. There’s probably a cold beer somewhere in Rutland, Vermont – tonight’s destination.
Ten miles later, we arrive in Rutland. In the 1800s, high-quality marble deposits were discovered in Rutland, and with the arrival of the railroad in 1851, marble quarries turned profitable. Rutland soon became one of the world’s leading marble producers.
The city is home every September to the Vermont State Fair. At this year’s Fair, free entertainment included racing pigs, the “Daredevils Unlimited Wall of Death,” and a petting zoo. The grandstand entertainment (not free) included a four-cylinder demolition derby, Allstar Weekend with special guest Burnham, and Scotty McCreery (“I Love You This Big”) with special guest Jenna Jentry.
Notables from Rutland:
- John Deere, who invented, developed and manufactured the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837
- Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee, who later became a model and actress — and was known as “Suzy Chapstick,” for her role as a Chapstick spokesperson
- Carlene King Johnson, Miss USA in 1955
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For the second time on our trip, we’re riding on college football Saturday. Rutland is home to College of St. Joseph, which may not sound like a football hotbed, but read on. The football in Rutland today is what the rest of the world actually considers football: soccer. The Fighting Saints today hosted Paul Smith’s College. It’s a big rivalry in the Yankee Small College Conference.
As a reminder of how college sports should be played – with actual student-athletes not seeking professional contracts – the two schools faced off in a women’s game at 1 pm, then a men’s game at 3.
Before heading for dinner, we scour the Rutland Herald’s on-line edition in search of the College of St. Joseph football score. Click here to read the Rutland Herald, which may be your best shot at today’s football score and other major news in the Rutland area.
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Day Nine Summary: Skiing as a form of higher education, recalling Maria Von Trapp, the sweetness of Ben & Jerry’s, Killington Brewfest, Suzy Chapstick, The Fighting Saints. Today’s ride total: 140 (mostly wet) miles.
Lodging tonight is at the beautiful Ramada Inn ($87.20 tax) in Rutland.
To view today’s complete route from Colchester, Vermont, to Rutland, Vermont click here.
What will tomorrow bring?
Riding With Gary 