St Johnsbury Part 4

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When we were camping in the Green Mountains a month ago, we had made it to the area around Montpelier Vermont but not really done any sightseeing. Since this is the state capital, we decide to take the one hour drive one day to tour the state house and also wander around town. They offer docent guided tours at various times so we head over on a Tuesday morning to check it out.

The Vermont State House

Our tour started at noon and consisted of one volunteer and about 10 visitors. Starting in the main lobby, we get the general history of Vermont becoming a state as well as the selection of Montpelier as the home to the capital. Since the state government was not in session at this time of year, we were able to easily tour the building and see all the rooms. We next head to the senate chamber. As with the rest of the building, this room has a lot of ornate detail.

Fancy Staircase

Senate Chamber

Ornately Carved Senate Podium

Next stop was the house chamber. This is a larger room but equally ornate. We were limited to only viewing the room from the visitor area in the rear of the room.

Vermont House Chamber

Light Fixture

The Lieutenant Governor’s office has a similar style to the rest of the building. Personally I don’t think I would like to have an office like this but maybe it appeals to politicians.

Lieutenant Governor's Office

Official Seal Press

We finish up our tour in the Cedar Creek Room. This large reception room has 7 foot by 15 foot painting on one wall showing a scene from the Battle at Cedar Creek during the Civil War. There are also a couple of stained glass panels in the ceiling of the room. We enjoyed the tour and learned a few things along the way.

Ceiling Stained Glass #1

Ceiling Stained Glass #2

Last Look at State House

We found a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch before touring the downtown area of Montpelier. The town has two rivers running through it - the North Branch of the Winooski River which feeds into the main Winooski River. We had a couple of Adventure Labs to act as tour guide to the area and enjoyed walking all around and seeing some of the beautiful old buildings.

Riverside Living

Large Steeple

Library Statue

One of the bridges we crossed over has a vertical pole extending from the river up towards the sky. Marked in five foot increments, from 500 feet at normal river height to 535, it also shows what the water level was during different years the river has had serious flooding. As recently as 2023, the river was several feet over the sidewalk we were walking on. Worse, back in 1927, the river crested 8 feet higher than 2023. I suspect there was major devastation and destruction from water this high.

Historic Floods in Montpelier

Agency of Agriculture Building

Beautiful Victorian Home

Just to the southeast of town is the Vermont College of Fine Arts. We wandered around the very small campus before heading east to our next destination.

Vermont College of Fine Arts

The Bragg Farm Sugar House is near the town of East Montpelier. It had been recommended to us as a good place to learn about the Vermont maple syrup industry and also try another maple soft serve ice cream cone.

Bragg Farm Sugarhouse

They don’t provide guided tours of their operation, but they do have a 15 minute video they will show back in their sugar house. It was very well done and talked about the old school sap bucket hanging on a maple tree in the woods versus the newer sap collection with a maze of tubing. Bragg Farm was still using the old school technique. In fact this building we were in was where they store what must be many hundreds of sap buckets all stacked up waiting to be put to use this upcoming winter. The evaporator in the middle of the room was huge and there was so much firewood stacked up outside the sugar house to help with the boiling down. They had 4 different darkness levels of maple syrup to sample and after trying them all, we picked which one we liked the best and bought a bottle of it to go along with our maple ice cream. Definitely worth a stop.

Sap Buckets

Evaporator

As we headed back towards camp, we stopped to find a geocache hidden at the Coburn Covered Bridge. It isn’t too far off of US Route 2, but as we headed down the dirt road, it was clear that this portion of the Winooski River had flooded in one of the recent rain storms. The road was muddy and we could see all sorts of debris in the fields and farm houses. There were pictures of other floods showing the bridge deck covered in a couple feet of water. Based on the debris still in the bridge, it seems like the water level was that high not too long ago. The inside of the bridge is a sign denoting the water level of a 2023 flood. It looked to be about 5 feet above the deck!

Coburn Covered Bridge

Water Line from 2023 Flood

We wanted to get out for another bike ride and picked the Ammonoosuc River Trail. This 19 mile rail trail extends from Littleton NH southwest to Woodsville NH. Starting the ride from Littleton would be closest but we really wanted to see a new area. Starting at the trailhead in Woodsville had a few advantages. We knew there was a really nice covered bridge nearby and by going this direction, the first half of our ride would be generally uphill, making the return trip easier. Plus Woodsville isn’t too far off of I-91 so it will be a relatively easy drive. We arrive at a parking area near the Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge which spans 256 feet across the Ammonoosuc River. Originally built in 1827 to handle vehicles, today it is only open to pedestrians.

Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge

Pedestrian Section on Right

It is a very impressive bridge simply by its size. Besides the single vehicle lane down the center, there is a pedestrian walkway on one side. Even the location is impressive with some sort of dam and falls and what was likely the location of an old water powered mill.

Falls Below Bridge

Walking on Pedestrian Side

Beautiful Wooden Structure

From here, it’s about a half mile to the official start of the rail trail. There are a series of ninety-some geocaches hidden along the full length of the trail. We realize that there is a trade off between finding caches and getting a decent bike ride in. We opt to be somewhat selective and not go for every single hide. This trail is not quite as smooth as the Lamoille Trail we recently rode. This one is a true multiuse trail with ATVs and dirt bikes permitted. Having motorized vehicles definitely tends to tear up the trail surface and leave loose rocks, ruts and less enjoyable bicycling.

Wide Gravel Trail

Pig Checks Us Out While We Look for Geocache

Dragon Graffiti

The trail is often within view of the river but not always. There are a couple bridges that go over the river so sometimes we are on the south side while other times on the north side. It is definitely rural land and we don’t see too many other people for much of the ride.

Ammonoosuc River View

When we get to the town of Bath NH, there is another covered bridge. The Bath Covered Bridge is 375 feet long and is still open to vehicles with a pedestrian lane on one side. It is perhaps one of the prettiest settings we have seen for a covered bridge.

Beautiful Bath Covered Bridge

The trail actually goes underneath the bridge so in order to actually see the inside of the bridge, we need to get up to street level, we must climb a short and steep dirt trail that seems to have been washed out in recent heavy rains so pushing our bikes up it was quite difficult. Once at the bridge deck, we spend some time checking it out and crossing to the other side where the town of Bath sits.

Very Rocky Path

Inside Bridge

We found there was a bench on the far side and it was lunch time so we sat and enjoyed the view while having our PB&J sandwiches. After lunch, we head back over the bridge and down the rocky path to continue our ride northeast. Just a few hundred feet north of the bridge was the home of a true railroad enthusiast. They have a nicely maintained caboose on tracks right next to their home.

View from Lunch Stop

True Train Lover

We continued for another 3 miles from the Bath bridge but were starting to run into a fair amount of ATV traffic. It wasn’t clear if more people ride this section or if it was late enough in the day that folks were out for a ride. In any event, each time we would need to stop and cover our faces to avoid getting too dusted. Some riders were more courteous than others. By now we had made it 8.5 miles. Not a real long bike ride for us but we had stopped for 15 geocaches along the way and found a dozen of them so getting this far had taken a fair amount of time.

Old Trestle Bridge

On our return ride we definitely can tell it is generally downhill. We stop for a snack at the Bath Covered Bridge again before continuing on. We came across one maple tree that seemed to be turning colors way too early for fall since it is mid August. Hopefully it doesn’t sense something we aren’t aware of! By the time we made it back to the car, we had over a 15 mile ride that was pretty good.

Back at Bath Covered Bridge

Early Fall Colors

The following day we would head out for a hike. Bridal Veil Falls seems to be one of the more common names for waterfalls. We have visited falls with that name in Michigan, South Dakota and North Carolina and surely have looked at many other trails with that name elsewhere in our travels. Our goal this time was to Bridal Veil Falls in New Hampshire near Franconia Notch. This hike isn’t listed in AllTrails but there were a couple of geocaches to point it out to us. The parking area for the trail is on Coppermine Road and the initial half mile of the hike follows a dirt road.

Starting Up Coppermine Road

There are quite a few homes in the area and from what we can see of them through the woods, these are not run down shacks but fairly nice homes. They apparently don’t want hikers parking in their neighborhood so the parking lot is outside of the development. We see the turn for Coppermine Trail on the left and start up the nice path in the woods.

Starting Up Coppermine Trail

Another half mile up the trail, we come to Coppermine Brook which the trail follows the rest of the hike to the falls. There is a geocache here that points out something we undoubtedly would never have even noticed on our own. There is a plaque mounted on a stone right next to the brook. It reads ‘In Memoriam to Arthur Farnsworth “The Keeper of Stray Ladies” Pecketts 1939 Presented by a Grateful One’. The plaque was placed by actress Bette Davis who had a summer home near here and is placed here to honor her second husband who died in their NH home.

Coppermine Brook

Bette Davis Placed Plaque

It was a pretty hike but does gain over 1050 feet in the 2.5 miles to the falls but it never was overly steep - just a steady uphill hike. Just before the falls is a shelter built upon lots of rocks.

Bridge Over Brook

Shelter

We had one more cache to find near the falls, then we sat down and had lunch while enjoying the view and the sounds of the falls.

Mushrooms

Front Section of Bridal Veil Falls

The trail basically ends at this point but it is clear that the better waterfalls were another few hundred feet up the brook. While we were eating, a family of 5 showed up. They initially just looked at the falls from a similar viewpoint before the father and teenage son decided to see if they could make it any closer to the real falls. I carefully watched their approach to the climb up the falls and it didn’t look too bad going up. But I wasn’t willing to follow them until I witnessed them being able to come back down safely. After they explored the falls, often out of sight of all of us, they headed down. There were some spider crawls to navigate one slick looking section but they made it. So I decided to to give it a try. After making it part way up, I noticed a different possible route to get to the falls. I was able to carefully make my way up and got a good view.

Looking Back at Chris

Upper Section of Falls

As I was standing up top, I noticed the other group had left and it was just the two of us again. I knew I needed to be extra careful on my descent to not slip and fall since Chris may have a hard time getting to me if I needed extraction.   At one point, I needed to take a very big step to get over some water and as I leaned over to balance with my hands, I heard a splash. I looked down and saw my phone had slipped out of its holder. Fortunately it was only a foot or so deep and I was able to get it out without any apparent damage.

Chris Takes My Picture

As we proceeded down, we saw that our maps showed some trails on the other side of the brook and there was a bridge to get there. We weren’t at all sure what the trails would be like but we decided to give it a chance.

Vibrant Mushrooms

New Mushroom Growth

The trails turned out to be pretty nice but it was clear that these were actually setup to be for mountain biking. Just from the names of the trails and how they tended to be more circuitous which makes for better biking. We didn’t see any cyclists and it was pretty clear that these trails were above our skill level for mountain biking but worked out fine for hiking. By the time we made it back to the car, we had close to an eight mile hike that was worth the visit.

Heading Down Mountain Bike Trail

The Long and Grinding Road Trail