Green Mountains Part 2

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Our next hike in the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area is actually just a few miles from the hike we did at Silver Lake a couple days ago. However, since it is further into the mountains, the drive is longer and has a fair amount of dirt roads traveled to get to the trailhead. Our goal is Hogback Mountain Loop. Listed as 3 miles with just over 400 feet of elevation gain so it should be an easier hike. The trail starts behind Blueberry Hill Inn which looks to be a very nice place with a peaceful setting. This area is a big snowshoeing or cross country skiing location. There didn’t appear to be any guests today but I bet it gets busy in the winter months.

Beautiful Setting at Blueberry Hill Inn

Blueberry Hill Inn

After getting past the inn, the trail becomes a loop that goes around Hogback Mountain. We head in a counterclockwise direction but based on the expected terrain, either direction should be fine. Initially we are in a nice wooded area before the trail comes out into an open meadow area with a nice view of the surrounding mountains.

A Toad Blends in Along the Trail

Coming Out of Woods into a Meadow

With a View

As we come around the south end of the mountain, we see a lot of low shrubs loaded with small flowers. Given the name of the inn, we assume they are blueberry bushes but later google will correct me and tell me they are huckleberries. The trail passes an alternate parking area and follows a forest road for a tenth of a mile or so before cutting back into the woods.

Huckleberry Flowers

Forest Road

As the loop comes back around to the split point, we see signs for a Beaver Pond. We were still feeling fairly energetic so we decide to go check it out. I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but the trail started to get much wetter as we approached the pond. There was one stretch of trail where a string of boards were laid out to help us get through the muck with relatively dry feet. We took advantage of the nice setting and ate our lunch. We saw the beaver lodge and kept a lookout for any beavers in the pond but didn’t see any. After lunch, we head further north and eventually loop back around and intersect with our trail back to the inn and our car. This was a rather nice simple walk which ended up being just over 5 miles.

Beaver Pond

Beaver Dam

Blue Damselfly

Pink Lady's Slipper

Beaver Lodge

We had parked in the lot for a rustic old building named the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center. It was open so we head inside to check it out. There was nobody around but it was a very nice lodge with large windows, tables and chairs and even a refrigerator stocked with lots of beverages. Prices were marked and there was a pay box to get snacks or drinks on the honor system. Whether the place sees more hikers on the weekends (we are there on a Tuesday) or if it is mainly used in the cold winter months for snowshoeing enthusiasts? I guess we will never know. On the way back to camp, we stop at an unusual roadside attraction. There is a geocache just across the street from it, but even non-cachers may find it worth a visit since it isn’t every day you come across a gorilla holding an actual VW Bug over its head!

Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center

Inside the Outdoor Center

You Don't See That Everyday!

We were experiencing some rather hot and humid weather so we weren’t really in the mood for much of a hike but the next day we head over into Middlebury again to try out the TAM - Trail Around Middlebury. This is an 18 mile trail that, not surprisingly, loops around the town of Middlebury. Much of the trail utilizes existing park trails but does at times just follow along roads. We pick a section that has a few geocaches in the Battell Woods Natural Area. We did a very limited section of the TAM and some of the other trails at Battel before deciding it was too hot and head over to the Drop-In Brewing Company which as only a quarter mile from the trailhead. It’s a small brewery that seems to have rather unusual hours - noon to 5, 6 on weekends. I’m not sure if people in this town aren’t into nightlife but if you want a beer in person, you will need to cut out of work early. Initially we were the only people in there and we had a nice chat with the bartender about other hikes in the area and other breweries nearby. A few people did stop while we nursed our beer in the nice air conditioning but mostly to just get four pack to go.

Start of TAM Trail at Battell Woods

In the Woods

Drop-In Brewing Company

One of the places we had read about which sounded interesting to us was the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes only about 35 minutes away from camp. Right on the shore of Lake Champlain, this museum has about a dozen buildings and several other outdoor displays. We pulled in to find a school bus with 30 or more grade school aged kids already wandering around the grounds.

Main Grounds at Maritime Museum

This is a free museum and the woman that greeted us gave us a bit of a rundown on what we will see here as well s the history of the museum. Our first stop was in the Hazelett Watercraft Center. This two story building has a large number of boats with many canoes. Most of the, were in excellent shape and I could easily identify as a boat. They did have one specimen that was labeled as a dugout canoe but didn’t look much different than an old tree that had fallen in the woods 50 years ago and was almost rotted into oblivion.  It if the experts want to call it a canoe, who am I to argue with them?

Bark Canoe

This is a Canoe?

Child's Skiff

One other style of boat that was present here was an ice boat. This was a very large boat with outriggers of large ice skates and a couple of big sails. I guess they were fairly common during the long harsh winters in this part of the country. They look like they would be very difficult to captain since there isn’t a deck to walk on to deal with the sails.

Ice Boat

We did a pretty decent job of staying ahead of or behind the school children so that we could check out the displays in relative peace. There is a lot to see here and even though we are not boat people, we enjoyed seeing some of the old boats and equipment. One of the outdoor displays was educational explaining the mechanical advantage provided by various block and tackle configurations.

Rustic Building

Boat Motor Collection

Block and Tackle Display

The homemade “yellow submarine” was possibly the most unusual display. It is a one man submersible built in 1942 and was used on the lake until 1980. We had to wait for the kids to exit the building called The Roost. This building is a cabin style built in with a very eclectic interior.

We All Live on a Yellow Submarine

Unusual Figurehead

Inside the Roost

A short walk down a trail leads to the lake and a large dock. There are many boat building and boating skills classes that are offered at the museum. All the boats along the dock were built here. They are very colorful.

Museum Dock on Lake Champlain

Colorful Boats

We head back to the car and grab our lunch and eat at a picnic table while the school children get various lessons from museum volunteers. There are several buildings on one end of the grounds that are dedicated to boat building and restoration. This included two different blacksmith shops and the main boatbuilding shop.

Large Blacksmith Shop

History of Cut Nails

Boat Building Shop

In the middle of the grounds is the 50 foot long replica 1776 gunboat - the Philadelphia II. By now the kids had gotten off the boat and we were able to go on the deck and check out the impressive boat.

Replica Gunboat

On the Deck of Philadelphia II

One last building to explore concerned Lake Champlain and the American Revolution. It still had kids wandering around, but they were fairly quiet since they were reading signs trying to answer questions on booklets as part of the program they were completing. They likely had more attention to the details of the displays than I did! We ended up spending 2 hours exploring the maritime museum and enjoyed our visit.

Revolutionary War Building

Since it was only midafternoon, we did swing through downtown Vergennes to check it out. Much like Middlebury, Otter Creek flows through Vergennes with some nice waterfalls. We start our visit at Falls Park which provides a great view of the falls from below.

Falls Park Vergennes Vermont

View of Falls in Vergennes

Based on a couple of geocaches, we suspected there was a trail along the creek downstream of the falls so we headed for a short walk to see if we could find them. As we were walking the trail, we spotted a field of flowers that were incredibly vibrant. We had to stop by to get a closer look.

Super Vibrant Flowers

After completing the short trail, we head up to Main Street to get a closer look above the falls. These falls are a bit unusual. The creek is about 330 feet wide coming into the falls, but instead of dropping the 37 feet over the falls in one wide swath, there are two “islands” with buildings on them splitting the falls into 3 sections. It is possible to walk down onto these two islands to get a closer look. One of the sections has a great amount of tree debris stuck just above the falls. There is a cable going over this part and it appears occasionally some brave person needs to lower themselves into the logjam and break it apart.

Logjam Above Falls

One of the buildings on the western island appears to be a residence of some kind. The wall of the house is right along the falls and one of the windows is just a few feet about the water beyond the falls. The sound of crashing water is nearly deafening, I cannot imagine trying to sleep or watch TV with the constant sound of the falls!

The Window a Few Feet from Falls

We head across Main Street bridge and walk down a trail on the opposite side of the creek. This trail looks to go for some distance but we decided to just get a quick look before heading back to the car and calling it a day. Vergennes is a cute little Vermont town.

Just Below Falls

We knew there was a stretch of rainy weather expected for a few days. The forecast showed the rain first arriving late afternoon on Friday so we headed out to another section of the TAM. This time at a woods known as Chipman Hill. Besides the Trail Around Middlebury, there are quite a few other trails and several geocaches. We planned on hiking a few miles, finding a few caches and heading up to some viewpoint at the top of the hill. The trails were nice and we were successful at finding the caches we looked for, but then our phones made the noise our weather apps make when there is some imminent issue. Sure enough when we check the radar, it looks like a pretty good rain is moving fast in our direction. We decided to head back to the car and see if things cleared up equally quickly. We only got a little wet before making it to the car. We had our lunch with us, but even stalling that long, the rain appeared to be here to stay. We gave up and headed back to camp to wait out a few days of rainy weather.

A Trail in Chipman Hill