Green Mountains Conclusion

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

With just a few days left here at the Green Mountain Family Campground, we try to get a few more day trips in. Our next hike will be the one that is closest to our campground. The Abbey Pond Trail starts less than 3 miles down the road. We have driven by it countless times over the past month but never stopped to check it out. It is listed as a 4.3 mile out and back hike with 1220 feet of elevation gain. We had heard that it had been seriously damaged in a storm that hit last year in August but at least it was open again. Here’s a look at the pond we hope to get to see.

Our Destination - Abbey Pond

The trailhead is about a half mile up a dirt road adjacent to a large gravel pit. Being a Friday morning, the place is open and although we can’t really see what is going on, it’s a very noisy place with a nearly constant “beep beep beep” of a backup alarm. We will hear this noise for a good portion of the first mile. We don’t have to go very far to see how damaged the trail was from the storm in early August of 2023. They had received over 6 inches of rain in just a few hours! From the washed out sections, we could tell this had been a very well constructed trail with all sorts of large plastic grid panels that must have been laid down and covered with gravel to provide a strong base for the soil above.  But they were now just scattered along a deep, carved out gully from the rushing rainwater.

Chris Surveys Missing Trail

This first mile is the steepest portion of the trail gaining 1000 feet - roughly a 19% average slope. At least we have something neat to see at the 1/3 mile point. The Abbey Pond Cascades is the natural path of the water takes when rainfall isn’t excessive. There was supposedly a geocache hidden near here, but after spending 10 minutes searching for the container, we gave up and decided it likely hadn’t survived the storm.

Abbey Pond Cascades

A bit further up the trail, we can hear the same stream just to our right. I venture over to check it out more closely. This section of falls was equally nice.

Another Section of Falls

As we continue up the trail, we have lots of portions that are in fine shape, but other parts are a rocky mess and took some time to get through the obstacles. There was only one really bad part. When we got to it, we surveyed the situation to try to determine which path was the safest and driest. It looked like the water had carved out 6 or more feet of the trail. The only path we saw was to hop from one rock to another right along the roots of a tree that had almost succumbed to the torrent but was now giving us something extra to hang onto.

Extremely Rocky Section of Trail

Chris Attempts to Stay Dry

The last half of the trail, being flatter, also seemed to have handled the flooding much better so we were able to hike at a faster pace. There was one intentional stream crossing that had large stepping rocks that appeared to still be in their intended spots. The geocache hidden less than a quarter mile from the pond, had survived and was in good shape. We finally could see Abbey Pond and looked for a place to sit down and have lunch.

Very Bright Mushrooms

Rocks Across Water

First Glimpse of Abbey Pond

The trail brings us to the north end of the pond which also appears to be the outlet side. There was lots of indication of beaver activity with some of the felled trees looking to be very recently downed given the wood chips all around the base. We managed to get over the narrow outlet and find some large flat rocks that worked well for lunch. We kept a close eye on the pond, hoping to see some beaver swimming around but all we could see was their lodge in the distance.

Recent Beaver Work

Our Lunch Spot

Beaver Lodge Across Pond

We had only seen a few others during our hike up and nobody was at the pond while we sat and ate lunch. On our way down, we saw two others guys heading up and we told them where the best pond viewing point was. It was slow going down some of the real rocky, damaged sections. Steep down is always harder than steep up, but this was dramatically worse since these rocks were only somewhat stable. I remember coming up to one very large rock and looking beyond it to pick which rock looked most stable. I had just assumed the large rock would be stable enough to support me without moving. So I was shocked as stepped onto it only to have it teetered 6 inches nearly taking me down in the process. Yes, going down this trail can be dangerous if you get too complacent.

Chris Picks Her Next Rock

When we got back to the main cascade, we checked it out a little bit more before continuing to the car. We knew we were on the right track since the “beep beep beep” became audible again. I bet this was a really nice trail prior to the storm and I assume that a crew will eventually make it out here to try to make it nice (and safe) again. With all the extra detours for geocaches, we came in at just under 6 miles total.

Abbey Ponds Cascades

Mushrooms

More Washed Out Trail

Since it was just midafternoon, we decided to head to Woodchuck Hard Cider in Middlebury. They have a taproom where visitors can sample their wide array of hard cider choices. We saw they have a self guided tour so we head up to the room that explains their history and also overlooks the production floor. We spend 15 minutes just reading about the process of making hard cider and watch some of the activity on the floor below. The line that was filling the cans seemed to be having some issues. It would start up and look like it might get up to speed, only to stop again while workers looked over monitors to determine what was going wrong.

Old GMC Pickup

Overlooking Cider Tanks

Tap Handle Artwork

Canning Line

We head to the bar and each order a flight of their dry ciders. We were talking with the bartender about our hike and asked him about the flood that took place last August. He pulled up some pictures on his phone to show some of the flooded roads in the area. While we were enjoying our cider, in walk two guys and sit next to us. They looked familiar and then I realized that they were the guys we had talked to near Abbey Pond a couple hours ago. They were also just traveling thru the area and had the idea to stop for cider after their hike - what a small world!

Woodchuck Cider Mascot

We were glad to have gotten in this hike to Abbey Pond when we did since the next day was rainy. With our last full day upon us, we head southeast of camp to explore the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail. The famous poet used to have a summer home nearby and these woods are said to have inspired some of his works. The interpretive trail is about a mile long but there are lots of other trails in the woods with a few geocaches for us to find. So we are able to extend the walk to roughly 2.25 miles with over 400 feet of elevation gain. There are several sections of boardwalk over the swampy areas and every so often is one of his poems printed onto a sign for visitors to read.

View Along the Interpretive Trail

Boardwalk

The Road Not Taken

The Water Tower Trail to our caches was a bit more challenging. With yesterday’s rain, there were lots of sections with running water and mud to get over or around. After successfully finding them, we head back down and complete the Interpretive Trail. With a quarter mile to go to the car, a dark cloud came over and started to sprinkle on us. Fortunately it was short lived and we got back to the car to have our lunch at one of the picnic tables in the parking area.

It looked like the rain was isolated and we should be able to get one last hike in. Just a few miles down Route 125 at Middlebury Gap is where the Long Trail passes through the area. We don’t want to do attempt a real serious hike, but there is a hike to a place called Silent Cliff that sounded interesting. Listed as 1.5 miles out and back with just under 600 feet of elevation gain, we figured we could have this hike be our final one in the Green Mountains (for now). It follows the Long Trail for nearly half a mile before splitting off.

At Long Trailhead

It was definitely a steep uphill climb for that first half mile with some large stone steps to climb. We ran into a couple of young women with fully loaded backpacks and camping gear who made the climb look effortless. We took our time and made it to the well marked side trail.

Steep Trail Section

While the Silent Cliff Trail turn was clearly marked, the trail itself was definitely a much less traveled trail. It wasn’t really that hard to follow but it was obvious that it doesn’t see much traffic or maintenance. The third mile or so to Silent Cliff was definitely less strenuous but does have a fair amount of up and down. We made it to the end of the trail and the overlook to the south. The view wasn’t all that great simply because of the trees growing up the face of the cliff below us. It was remarkably windy too. So much so that I felt I needed to stay back from the edge a bit further than I might normally do.

View From Silent Cliff

The hike back to the car was less strenuous but still challenging with the steep descent and wet trail conditions. This was an okay hike, but wouldn’t put it high on our list of ones to do. Having been at camp for a full month, we did have a fair amount of stuff to put away for our travel day. Next stop - the Adirondack Mountains near Plattsburgh New York.

Our Eighth Year of Fulltiming in Review

As of this date, we have completed our eighth year of traveling all around the country. It seems like only yesterday that we pulled the motorhome out of the driveway of our home in western New York. At the time, we didn’t have any real definite plans as to where we would go or how long this journey might last. We just knew there were a lot of places we wanted to see. While our initial pace was a bit more hectic than we wanted, over the years, we have settled into a more comfortable travel flow and have gotten better at staying in interesting places for longer periods of time in order to more fully experience what an area has to offer. I’m not sure we have any better answer to the question about how much longer we plan to travel. We are enjoying this lifestyle and feel like there are so many new places we want to visit and quite a few previous locations we wouldn’t mind seeing again. So as long as our health permits, we see no reason to come off the road.

In last year’s review, I commented that we had crossed the Mississippi River six out of seven years. Only during our 4th year did we stay out west for the full year and I had placed some blame on COVID for that fact. Well it turns out that we didn’t move across the country this past year either but this time we stayed in the eastern part of the United States. 

So why did we stay east? Well, we started out year #8 in western New York to visit with friends and see as much of the natural beauty of the region as we could fit in. Since we were on this side of the country, when we left in mid October, we decided to spend the winter season in Florida. During our 5 months exploring Florida, we ended up buying an RV lot at a place called The Great Outdoors in Titusville Florida. Check out this blog post if you’re curious about the reasons and logistics of getting a lot at TGO. Our pattern had been to head out west after spending a winter in Florida, but with our owning a lot, we figured we should plan on coming back the next winter so we made our plans for the warmer months to tour around the New England states visiting some places we didn't get to see when we were last in that area in 2018.

We managed to fit in some pretty amazing stops over the year. We were able to revisit many of the state parks in the Finger Lakes region that we used to explore during our 32 years living in that part of New York. Heading down through Virginia we explored more of Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped to visit friends in North Carolina on the journey south and even made it to a couple of coastal towns we had never been to before - Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. Our timing in St Augustine Florida was perfect to experience the wonderful Christmas lights the city is known for. 

We ended up spending a total of 67 nights at TGO over three visits - first as renters and then as owners later in the winter. We had a wonderful 2 weeks working on several Habitat for Humanity builds in Vero Beach. We even made it down to southern Florida near Naples to experience alligators up close and personal. As Florida heated up, we started the trip north with longer stops in the mountains of North Carolina for hiking and Martinsburg West Virginia to find some creative geocache hides. We had several nights in Saugerties New York to get in a few hikes in the Catskills Mountains before ending up in our last stop of year #8 in the Green Mountains of Vermont where I am writing this post.

Below is a map of the general route we traveled in year #8. It’s clear that the route from western New York to Florida in autumn was very similar to the route from Florida to Vermont this spring but we managed to see mostly different places on each part of our travels. Below is a screenshot of the Google Map I created to keep track of our journey and there is a link below the image that will open up the actual map. It is possible to pan and zoom on the map to see better details. Each of the 34 stops has a pin and clicking on any pin will open a popup window giving the name of the stop and links to the blog post(s) that are associated with each stop.

Click Here to Bring Up Interactive Google Map

Another style of map that I customarily create are “heat maps” for the past year. This shows that we only camped in 9 different states last year. The states that we did camp in are shaded in red with the darker reds representing more nights in the state and the lighter reds meaning fewer nights. A second heat map includes the data from all 2922 nights over the 8 years. From the legend below the map, we can see that Florida has now overtaken Arizona for the state we have camped at most often. We are still stuck on 44 states as fulltimers. Oklahoma, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Alaska and Hawaii are the states missing from our full time travels. However, we have actually camped in 4 of these 6 states but did so prior to going full time. Technically we need to still camp in Rhode Island and Hawaii. One of these states is much more likely than the other! Since we have “filled in” most of the states on our maps, I have one last heat map that shows each state broken down by county. This helps to better visualize with finer granularity of where we have camped within each state. We have camped in 252 different counties but for reference, we have found geocaches in 1026 counties!

Heat Map of Year #8

Heat Map of First 8 Years of Fulltime

Same as Above But at County Level

As former engineers, we are both rather detail oriented. So I have all sorts of data that gets recorded in various spreadsheets to help track our travel statistics and costs. Below is a table of the condensed statistics for each year. With so many years under our belts, I was finding the table was too much of an eye chart so now it only includes the past 6 years. I don’t bother tabulating costs that we would have if we weren’t traveling fulltime and still owned a sticks and bricks house. So groceries, dining out, health care, insurance and the like are not part of this table, just things specific to our travels.

Condensed Stats for Past 6 Years

So how did the data compare to past years? We have slowed our travel pace a bit with only 34 stops. Since 10 of those were just overnight stays as we made distance between two “real” stops, we averaged almost 15 nights per stop. The distance we drove the motorhome was the lowest we have ever had. The reason for this is obvious. We only traveled in the short direction of the lower 48 from New York to Florida to Vermont instead of heading between the east and west coasts. And to go along with the fewer miles driven in the motorhome, our diesel costs were lower working out to be 43 cents per mile. Our cost per night at campgrounds was up to the highest we have had since we started this journey. One stop that definitely didn’t help in that regard was when we spent a month renting a site at TGO to check it out to see if we might want to buy a lot. While it wasn’t our most expensive stop in the 8 years, it was close to the top and having 30 nights at $84 per night really adds up! 

One other item I needed to deal with now that we own an RV lot is how to determine what the lot costs us when we are staying there so my campground cost figure in the table reflects the true cost. I don't plan to account for purchase price of the lot since we will likely sell the lot some time in the future and we may make money, lose money or break even so it is too much of an unknown to deal with in the present. Maybe if I had been an accountant, I could figure out how to deal with this aspect. But there are ongoing costs to us more than just the purchase price. We also owe the home owners association fees and property taxes whether we stay there or not. When we are not staying on the lot, it is in the rental pool at TGO and earns us income. In fact we just recently received our rental check for the first quarter of 2024. We only stayed on the lot for 15 nights but owned the lot for 75 days of Q1 so the income was fairly decent from the rental pool. Until we get a full year of rental income and know how many days we stayed on the lot, I am using the past two years of historical data from the rental pool to put in a realistic cost per night when we are there ($25 per night) and will update the numbers once we have some real world experience with being lot owners.

For the past few years, I have been using our yearly reviews to highlight some of the hikes (or bike rides) that we encountered over the year that we felt most were special. We didn’t get in nearly as many hikes this year as we did in year #7 - about 85 versus 120. But there were still some very good hikes worth mentioning. For each one I’ll give a synopsis of the hike, one picture from the hike and include the link to the blog post that more fully describes the hike with even more pictures that might explain why we believe this hike was included in our best of list. In chronological order, here are our top 10 hikes.

• Gorge and Indian Trail Loop - Watkins Glen NY

Hands down, one of the most spectacular hikes in the region. Watkins Glen State Park is situated along a deep gorge that has Glen Creek flowing to Seneca Lake. The must do hike is the Gorge Trail since it follows the creek up the gorge with many waterfalls including one that the trail passes under. Plan for a crowd if it is a nice summer day and there are lots of steps going up nearly 500 feet in a mile. Tacking on a section of the Finger Lakes Trail and the Indian Trail bumps the full hike to 4.2 mile with about 900 feet of elevation gain. But the added sections of trail gets you to more secluded hiking as well as a trail that follows the rim on the north side of the gorge back to parking.

Blog post with Watkins Glen Hike

Walkway Next to Falls in Gorge at Watkins Glen

• Gorge and Rim Trail Buttermilk Falls SP - Ithaca NY

The common phrase in the Finger Lakes region of New York is “Ithaca is Gorges” and for good reason. The quirky town sits at the southern end of Cayuga Lake and has numerous gorges in the surrounding hills. Buttermilk Falls State Park is a little southeast of town and has a beautiful 1.6 mile loop hike called the Gorge and RimTrail. There is a fair amount of climbing with over 450 feet of elevation gain but it is a pretty hike on both sides of the gorge and falls. Another hike in the area is north of town in Taughannock Falls State Park. Technically we completed this hike in year #7 and it wasn’t able to make the cut with all the excellent hikes we did that year in Colorado and Utah. But it is probably the best gorge hike around Ithaca. Here’s a link to this bonus hike. 

Blog post with Buttermilk Falls Hike

Some Smaller Falls Along Trail at Buttermilk Falls SP

• Erie Canal - Pittsford NY

The Erie Canal runs between Buffalo and Albany and we did about 10 trips during our stay in western New York to different sections of the canal. As a manmade canal, the terrain is generally very flat and while hiking on the path next to the water is pleasant, this is better suited for a bicycle ride (or two). It’s hard to pick a section that is prettiest but the area around Pittsford is very nice since this upscale town has lots of shops and old buildings. Further west, the section of the canal near Spencerport is very nice as well.

Blog post with Bike Ride Along Erie Canal Near Pittsford

Erie Canal in Pittsford

• Bearfence Rock Scramble - Shenandoah National Park VA

This trail, while not particularly long (just over a mile loop) or with much elevation change (about 300 feet), is one of the more unique hikes we found along Skyline Drive in this park. As the trail’s name implies the first section of this loop requires some pretty interesting rock climbing to complete it. A sign at the trailhead warns about it not being good for people with a fear of heights but Chris managed to handle all of the climbs without having a panic attack. Once to the top, the views are spectacular on a clear day. The trail could be done as an out and back but all the rock climbing would need to be repeated. The better option was to cut over to the Appalachian Trail and take the easy route back.

Blog post with Bearfence Rock Scramble Hike

Chris Scrambles at Bearfence for the View

• Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve - St Augustine FL

Don’t let the name scare you away from this place. This little spit of land sits between the Guana and Tolomato rivers and has many miles of hiking and biking trails. The trail conditions will change depending on what time of year you are here and how recently it has rained. Our original planned loop of 9 miles needed to be adjusted based on the “flooded and deep mud” conditions posted on the whiteboard at the trailhead. Hiking here would be fun but in order to cover more ground, we came with the mountain bikes. The bikes had the added benefit of allowing us to get through some of the puddles without getting too wet.  It’s a fun place to explore. As bonus for coming here, there is a really nice visitor center to explore after your exercise.

Blog post with Bike Ride near St Augustine

Starting out the Bike Ride at Reserve

• Multiple Trails Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park Naples FL

This place requires several miles of driving on dirt roads to get to either the West Main Tram or the East Main Tram. Both trails can be explored with hiking or biking. We chose the latter to cover more territory. The trails are basically old logging roads in the swamp of southwestern Florida. There are many miles of these trails and it was a scenic place to explore. What made it even more exciting were the dozens of alligators that you will likely come upon during your ride. In fact each of our 3 rides there were cut short by large gators blocking the way and us not wanting to be eaten. In the 12 miles of trails we biked on, we conservatively came across 40 gators!

Blog post with Fakahatchee SP Bike Ride

Large Gator Blocks Our Path

• Cove Creek and Caney Bottom Trail - Brevard NC

A 4.6 mile walk in the woods of Pisgah National Forest with 600 feet of elevation gain. There are several waterfalls along the loop trail and there were quite a few spring wildflowers out during our visit. This was a very peaceful hike with lots of nature to see along the way in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Blog post with Cove Creek Hike near Brevard

Cove Creek Falls

• Chesapeake and Ohio Canal - Paw Paw WV

This rail trail runs over 180 miles between Cumberland Maryland and Alexandria Virginia. It is quite popular with through hikers and bikers and there are tent camp sites every 5 to 7 miles to accommodate them. The old canal was built along the Potomac River to carry barge traffic back in the mid 1800’s to early 1900’s We got a recommendation to try out the section of the route not far from where we were staying named the Paw Paw Tunnel. The 3118 foot tunnel has a narrow path on one side and the water filled canal on the other side (bring a flashlight) and after passing thru it we continued east for almost 15 miles before making the return trip. With views of the river and the old locks that made the canal possible it was a rather scenic bike ride.

Blog post with C&O Tunnel Ride

 

Entrance to Paw Paw Tunnel on C&O

• Overlook Mountain Trail - Woodstock NY

We only spent 4 nights in Saugerties but managed to get in 3 excellent hikes in the Catskills. Any one of the hikes could have been a top pick but this 4.6 mile out and back hike with about 1400 feet of elevation gain won out for a couple of reasons. The concrete walls of an old, unfinished hotel are still along the trail just shy of the mountain summit. It was fascinating to wander around the huge building to think what it would have been like back in the early 1900’s. At the top of the trail is a viewpoint to die for with a view of the Hudson River. A fire tower that can be climbed sealed the deal for making this hike the favorite of the three. I’ll admit that with that much elevation gain, it was a tiring hike but so worth the effort

Blog post with Overlook Mountain Hike

 

View of Hudson River from Overlook Mountain

• Mount Abraham via the Long Trail - Bristol VT

This hike just made it in before our eighth year came to an end but it was our favorite hike so far during our stay in the Green Mountains of Vermont. It is a 4.8 mile out and back hike that gains over 1700 feet in elevation and tops out at roughly 4000 feet. The trail is a popular hike but is quite rugged. With an average grade of 13%, it was tiring and the last tenth of a mile has lots of exposed rock climbs of 30% grade so it isn't for the faint of heart. But the 360 degree views from the top on a clear day are outstanding.. If you know where to look, there is the wreckage of a Cessna airplane that crashed over 50 years ago - all three passengers survived and hiked out!

Blog post with Mount Abraham Hike

 

Almost to the Top of Mount Abraham

Below is a map showing all 363 places we have camped in the past eight years. For additional information on any of them, click on the link below the map which will open the actual Google Map I use. Pan and zoom on the map and by clicking on any pin, a window will pop up with the name of the location and a link to the blog post(s) for that place. Those interested in hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or nature photography, may find some of the posts useful if you plan to visit an area we have explored. Our blog posts are more about the interesting locations we discovered during our stops and less about campground reviews so don't expect to find much information about what campground is the best in a specific area.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

What does year #9 have in store? Well we have places booked in the New England states through the end of August and hope to spend early September checking out some parts of Maine we haven’t been to yet. Then we will let the weather dictate our pace in heading back south with no real firm route plans other than to end up at our lot at TGO in Titusville Florida. But we don’t plan to sit still over the winter, we have already reserved sites at some state parks in south Florida, the Keys and the Everglades during early January to mid February. Then back to TGO until late April before heading north. We haven’t made plans for summer of 2025 yet but I suspect it will be somewhere out west?

The Shelburne Museum

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

We have been debating about a trip to the Shelburne Museum for a few weeks but never seemed to fit it in with all the hikes, bike rides and bad weather. With only five more days before we head out of Middlebury, we decided to take advantage of some nice weather and head there midweek to explore the grounds. The 45 acre property is just south of downtown Shelburne and not too far from Shelburne Farms which we visited a little over a week ago. I am not a big fan of museums in general, so I was likely the one dragging my heels about visiting this place but we watched a few YouTube videos and it looked unusual enough to pique my interest. Unlike Shelburne Farms which is free, the Museum does charge $25 per person to enter although it is good for 2 consecutive days entrance to the grounds. We arrive just before it opens at 10 AM.

The Round Barn at Shelburne Museum

Now is a good time to give a little background about this place in order to appreciate the eclectic nature of the collections here. Shelburne Museum was founded by Electra Webb in 1947. She was born into a wealthy New York City family but ended up marrying into an even more wealthy family - the Vanderbilts. Her husband was the son of the owners of nearby Shelburne Farms which is how she ended up in the area. Electra had come from a family that collected fine artwork, but she became more interested in everyday objects - pottery, furniture, weathervanes, cigar store indians. Her collections were quite extensive and as they grew in size, she needed a bigger place to store and display them which prompted the creation of this museum. Nowadays she might have been considered a “hoarder” but her wealth afforded her with the ability to purchase very unique items and use the large parcel of land to store them. Given the wide variety of items, the museum is described as a “collection of collections”.

There are several talks or tours at specific times around the museum grounds. We pick two of them - one at 10:30 and another an hour later. This gives us twenty minutes or so to explore the Round Barn. This is a very unique building. It is an 80 foot diameter round barn built in 1901 in East Passumpic Vermont and moved the nearly 90 miles to the museum grounds in the mid 1980’s. Today the barn is home to the collection of antique horse-drawn carriages. There were both fancy and utilitarian wagons and sleighs to check out on the two levels.

1849 Horse Drawn Hearse

1890 Berlin Coach

Concord Stage Coach

Next we head to the Prentis House. A two story salt box home constructed in 1773 in Hadley Massachusetts and moved to the museum in 1954. This house is not open to the public except during one of the several tours offered throughout the day. We waited around the gardens just outside the main entrance and the volunteer showed up to unlock the building and give us a history of the building and collection inside. It turned out that we were the only visitors that showed up for this tour, so we got a very thorough and personal tour.

Room in the Prentis House

The actual interior furnishings are not at all representative of how this home would have looked back in its previous life. Electra had the building moved and offered it to one of her socialite friends to decorate as she saw fit. There was an ornate furniture and drapes as well as some tapestries that Chris really liked. There was even an interesting chain driven rotisserie in the main fireplace. We spent a great deal of time wandering the building and talking with the volunteer about our visits to other historic buildings during our travels.

Tapestry

Rotisserie Drive Mechanism

We leave this house and head to the Stencil House which is right next door. It too is only open during guided tours. Built in 1804 in Columbus New York, it was purchased by the museum and moved in the 1950’s. The highlight of this home are the full wall stencil painted onto the wallboards.

Fireplace in Stencil House

Stenciled Room

We had spent 45 minutes with our guide but we needed to hustle to our next tour - the Ticonderoga. This 220 foot side wheel steamboat was built in 1906 and used to operate on Lake Champlain taking passengers and cargo from Westport New York near the southern end of the lake to St. Albans Vermont on the north - about 60 miles away.

The Ticonderoga

How did such a large boat end up here? By 1950, more modern ferries made the Ticonderoga obsolete and its decline in business meant it was destined for the scrapyard. In steps Electra Webb to buy the boat for the museum. Initially they tried to continue its operation on the lake but realized it wasn’t possible so a plan was formulated to move the boat from the lake to the museum! It was roughly a 2 mile land journey by specially designed rail track and in the winter of 1955 it was moved to its current spot.

The Other Side of the Ship

The Ticonderoga is open to the public during museum hours, but we felt a guided tour might provide more insight and history to our visit of this incredible vessel. We head up to the designated meeting spot for our tour. A volunteer that has worked at the museum for many years greets the group of 15 or so visitors. We initially sit and get some of the history of the boat, how it was moved and about the extensive restoration that took place to make it look like it did during its early years. Then we start our walking tour. This woman really knew her information about the boat. She was quite proud of the unique vertical beam steam engine which took a little bit of imagination to get a sense for how it operated.

Steam Boilers

Engine Drive Mechanism

Upper Rocker Arm of Engine

Some of the detail in the woodwork really caught my eye. As well as grand ceilings and dining area. This was not your typical ferry boat but was designed for the expectations of well heeled clientele. We didn’t necessarily get to go anyplace that we couldn’t have visited on our own, but we felt we learned so much more than we would have if we had simply toured the ship on our own and read the signs along the way.

Carved Staircase Newel Post

Fancy Ceiling

Dining Area

Cargo Deck

By now we were getting hungry. There is a cafe on the grounds but we just headed out to the car for the lunch we had brought along before heading back in. There was a large group of bicyclists in the parking lot. They were part of Vermont Bicycle Tours - or VBT as they are currently known. Back in the late 1980’s to mid 1990’s, we used this company to tour parts of Vermont by bicycle. Seeing this group brought back some distant memories of our younger days. The business used to do tours of Vermont, but now offer tours to dozens of countries across 5 continents.

Our morning tours were great but there is so much more to see here that we need to pick up the pace somewhat if we hope to see it all. We decide to walk the outer perimeter of the grounds and then attempt to get to the central buildings before they close. The first stop is the carousel. Built in North Tonawanda New York in 1920, this is a nice addition to the museum.

Carousel

Carousel rides are available but a sign stating they would return after lunch prompted us to checkout the nearby Circus Building first. This is a newer building (1965) that was constructed on site rather than moved from some far off location. It is has a U-shape or horseshoe design and it is quite large - about 518 feet from one entrance to the other. Inside are all things circus related. Lots of photos from circus shows from around the country, a few hundred circus posters from as early as the 1830’s. The building is basically a long hallway with antique carved carousel animals on the inner curve and Arnold Circus Parade on the outside curve. Some 4000 one inch to one foot scale figures line the 500 foot hallway. They were created between 1925 to 1955. The detail was amazing.

Ram

Horse

Circus Parade

Band Wagon

At the far end of the building are two hand carved wood circus models with horses, elephants, clowns acrobats and bleachers full of spectators. The amount of effort that had to go into creating such a display is beyond comprehension. By the time we got through the Circus Building, the carousel operator was back from lunch and we were able to get a ride.

One of the Circus Models

We Ride the Merry-Go-Round

Next around the perimeter of the grounds is the railroad section of the museum. A freight shed has all sorts of railway lanterns, a replica steam engine and some hand cars for rail workers. The old Shelburne railroad station is a beautiful building and restored quite well. The interior looks like it could still be in use today.

Freight Shed

Shelburne Railroad Station

Main Office in Station

There is also an old locomotive and luxury sleeping car. It’s not possible to enter the locomotive, but you can walk through the Grand Isle sleeping car - built 1890. The furnishings and woodwork were ornate.

Locomotive

Grand Isle Sleeper Car

Fancy Interior of Sleeper Car

We skip over the Pleissner Gallery. It is one of several art collections and Chris wanted to see some other artwork elsewhere so didn’t want to use up my limited artwork attention span. But we did stop at the next building - the Blacksmith and Wheelwright Shop. This was a fun stop because there was a volunteer doing some metalworking. We ended up spending a fair amount of time talking with him about how he got into this hobby and many other things. There were lots of woodworking tools in the wheel making side of the building but they apparently don’t have a volunteer to actually show the work in process.

Blacksmith and Wheelwright Shop

Hard Working Blacksmith

We took a quick look inside the 1840 Meeting House from Charlotte Vermont before exploring the Horseshoe Barn Annex. This building was built here in 1957 to house wagons, stagecoaches and other farm vehicles.

1840 Meeting House

Horseshoe Barn Annex

Lady Oxford Wagon

Inside Horseshoe Barn Annex

The more impressive building in this corner of the property it the Horseshoe Barn. Originally Electra tried to buy a dairy barn in Georgia Vermont but was unable to do make a deal with the owner so she had her staff build an exact copy of the barn. This two story building was built in 1949 and houses over 200 more horse drawn carriages, coaches and sleighs from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. It includes some incredible harnesses used  by the horses to pull them.

Horseshoe Barn

Sleighs

Beautiful Stagecoach

Next to the Horseshoe Barn is the Print Shop. There was some neat equipment in this large building. There was even a volunteer using some of it to make cards that would be sold in the gift shop. There is also a weaving display with some pretty old looms that looked like they might still get used from time to time.

Old Printing Press

The next building had a vast assortment of quilts, rugs and needlework. There was also a huge collection of hats and fancy hat boxes.

Detailed Needlework

Hats and Hat Boxes

The Variety Unit was a building full of, well, a variety of things. There were lots of dolls - many of which were just a little bit creepy looking. There were also some glass covered room vignettes that were rather detailed with furniture and dolls. Another section had a vast number of piggy banks but most were not piggies. There was a large collection of what looked like old Delft plates but turned out to be more modern design with unusual themes. There was even a large collection of glass canes!

Detailed Room Scene Miniature

Bull Dog Bank

Unusual Delft-like Plate

Glass Canes

The one room schoolhouse from Vergennes built in 1840 had some old desks that sadly were reminiscent of ones I had in grade school.

One Room Schoolhouse

Just down from the schoolhouse is the Stagecoach Inn. Built in 1787 in Charlotte Vermont and moved here in 1949, this building houses a huge collection of folk art. It’s a large 2 story building that is chock full of weathervanes, cigar store figures, ship carvings and decorative trade signs. We spent a fair amount of time wandering the rooms trying to take it all in.

Whimsical Weathervanes

Tradesman Signs

Cigar Store Figures

Jack Tar Figure

The 168 foot covered bridge came from Cambridge Vermont built in 1845 and moved to the museum in 1949. It has two vehicle lanes as well as a pedestrian footpath.

1845 Covered Bridge

Inside the Bridge

By now we were definitely getting worn out walking slowly around the grounds and checking things out. We started to opt to skip some of the buildings so we could get to some of the artwork I had promised Chris we could stop at before we left. The Apothecary Shop and General store was one we stopped at. It had a fascinating display of things a druggist would have from a long time ago. There were lots of unusual things to see including a very large collection of barber razors.

The Vermont House Gallery

Would You Like a Shave?

Museum Store at Diamond Barn

We had to stop at the lighthouse. Built in 1871 on Colchester Reef in Lake Champlain. It was home to 11 different lighthouse keepers and their families. In 1952, it was no longer in service and was moved to the museum and restored.

Lighthouse

Fresnel Lens

Our last stop of the day was at the Electra Havenmeyer Webb Memorial Building to see the paintings Chris has been wanting to see. This building was built after her death by her children in 1967. The outside is based on a Greek Revival design from a home in Orwell Vermont. But the interior is a recreation of six rooms from her 1930’s Park Avenue apartment in New York City.

Room in Webb Memorial Building

This is quite the place. Maybe just a little fancier than we are used to! There are all sorts of very ornate furniture and the spiral staircase between the floors is amazing. The French Impressionist masterpieces that were on display were definitely less impressive than I was expecting. Maybe it was simply because of the subdued lighting that the rooms had but the paintings seemed to lack a vibrancy. I guess it’s just as well that I don’t appreciate these since I can’t afford them!

A Dizzying Look Down Spiral Staircase

Edouard Manet Painting - Still-Life with Salmon

Manet - Venice Grand Canal

It was about 5 PM when we finally left the museum. While we know we didn’t see absolutely everything there is there, we felt that we had seen 90% of it and didn’t feel like there would be the need to come back tomorrow. We had considered finding a nearby restaurant but realized we had worn ourselves out and would just head back home. Shelburne Museum was a very enjoyable stop, just plan on spending a fair amount of time here if you want to see even half of the “collection of collections”.