We departed Sugar Ridge Campground on Route 2. Thanks again to Ray and Carol for the awesome hospitality and hosting an exceptional party with many of our Majestic Oaks friends!
Off Route 2 you will find the Groton State Forest, it is
massive! It is 26,164 acres covering portions of 10 counties. Acquisition of
Groton State Forest began in 1919, but glaciers covered the area 10,000 years
ago and their retreat created the mountainous terrain mixed with streams,
ponds, bogs, and wetlands. It is managed for timber resources, wildlife
habitat, and recreational activities. Many rare, threatened, and endangered
plants and animals are located within the limits of the Forest. The most sensitive
species are located around the cliffs, bogs, swamps, lakes, and forests around
lakes. Groton State Forest is home to seven state parks, eight lakes and
ponds. The area was once home to 12
sawmills and remnants are still visible. Groton State Forest is also home to
several state-designated natural areas, such as Peacham Bog Natural Area (748
acres) and Lords Hill Natural Area (25 acres). The Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) was instrumental in developing the area, constructing roads, trails, fire
lookouts, and picnic shelters and planting trees within the forest.
In Marshfield, Vermont, spanning the Winooski River as the
centerpiece of a town park is Martin’s Covered Bridge. The bridge was built
about 1890 by Herman F. Townsend, a prominent local bridgewright. It is one of
the few surviving 19th century bridges in the state that was originally built
on a private road, and is Marshfield's only surviving historic covered bridge.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. At one time
the bridge carried a private farm road; it is now open only to pedestrians. It
is a single-span 45 feet long and 12.5 feet wide, with a roadway width of 10.5
feet. It is covered by a gabled roof and its exterior is clad in vertical board
siding.
We came into the town of Plainfield. Did you know that in
1777, when Vermont became an independent state and decided that all territory
not granted by New Hampshire should be 'vacant' land, Plainfield was one such
piece of land between Montpelier and Marshfield. This piece of land left over
after a regular township had been surveyed, was granted to James Whitelaw,
James Savage and William Coit in 1788 and they called St. Andrew's Gore.
Plainfield is also home to Goddard College. Goddard College
is an accredited private liberal arts college located here, in Port Townsend and
Seattle, Washington. They offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
With predecessor institutions dating to 1863, Goddard College was founded in
1938 as an experimental and non-traditional educational institution based on
the ideas of John Dewey: that experience and education are intricately linked.
It operates on an intensive low-residency model. Each student designs his/her
own curriculum; the college currently uses a student self-directed, mentored
system in which faculty issue narrative evaluations of student’s progress
instead of grades. The intensive low-residency model requires students to come
to campus every six months for approximately eight days, during which time
students engage in a variety of activities and lectures from early morning
until late in the evening, and create detailed study plans. During the semester
students study independently, sending in "packets" to their faculty
mentors every three weeks. The content of the packets varies with each
individual, but focuses on research, writing, and reflection related to each student's
individualized study plan. You have to be self-directed individual to go to a college
like this!
Route 2 took us to Montpelier, Vermont which is the smallest
state capital in the United States with a population of just under 8,000
people. I captured this picture of the clock tower thru trees and it seems to suit this small town.
Hey Lyle … we saw Whales … in South Burlington, Vermont ... actually tales! Two 13-foot-tall
whale tails, made of granite, stick out of the ground next to the interstate. They
seem a bit out of place here … but maybe not! Once upon a time, what is now
Lake Champlain was the Champlain Sea, and was home to many large animals,
including whales. Evidence was found of this in fossils, and the famous
Charlotte Whale, found in nearby Charlotte. Homage to the Champlain Sea was not
the impetus for acquiring the sculpture, necessarily, but it does explain why
they are not quite so out of place as one might first believe. The name of the
whale tails sculpture is "Reverence" and is meant to symbolize the
fragility of the planet -- that is, if you think of granite as fragile. It was
commissioned in 1988 by a wealthy British metals trader named David Threlkeld.
Jim Sardonis sculpted each of the two 13-foot high tails from six tons of black
granite. The tails resided in Randolph beginning in 1989 and were to have been
placed in front of a motel and conference complex planned by Threlkeld, but
financing fell through and the complex was never built. The tails were offered
up for sale with a price tag of $100,000. A sale to the Hartford Whalers hockey
team seemed possible until the team moved and changed its name, but the tails
eventually found their way to their present location beside Route 89 outside
Burlington.
Burlington's position on Lake Champlain helped it develop
into a port of entry and center for trade, particularly after completion of the
Champlain Canal in 1823, the Erie Canal in 1825, and the Chambly Canal in 1843.
Wharves allowed steamboats to connect freight and passengers with the Rutland
& Burlington Railroad and Vermont Central Railroad. Burlington became a
bustling lumbering and manufacturing center and was incorporated as a city in
1865. Its Victorian era prosperity left behind much fine architecture,
including buildings by Ammi B. Young, H.H. Richardson, and McKim, Mead &
White. In 1870, the waterfront was extended by construction of the Pine Street
Barge Canal.
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| Photo Credit: Ben & Jerry's Website |
In 1978, the ice cream enterprise Ben & Jerry's was
founded in Burlington in a renovated gas station. Ben & Jerry’s officially opened for business on the corner of St. Paul and College Street in Burlington.It became a national brand,
with retail outlets in numerous cities. In 2007, the city was named one of the
top four "places to watch" in the United States by AARP. The ratings
were based on what was perceived as ideal qualities for older residents.
Criteria included the factors that make a community livable: new urbanism,
smart growth, mixed-use development, and easy-living standards. Forbes magazine
ranked the city in 2010 as one of the "prettiest" towns in America,
featuring a picture of the Church Street Marketplace on its cover.
Atop Union Station, you can see winged monkeys. The winged
monkeys represent the winged monkeys of Oz (they used to reside on the top of a
futon store called "The Emerald City"). There are two because one
disappeared after being snatched, presumably by a UVM student. It was missed so
badly a second winged monkey was commissioned, but soon the first monkey
reappeared. When the Emerald City store went broke no one wanted to see the
monkeys go, so they were moved to the top of the old Union train station, where
they reside now.
We decided to take the Lake Champlain Ferry from
Burlington Vermont to Port Kent New York. When we arrived, there was no one
else waiting and we thought we might have misread the time table. Another car
finally did arrive.
We started talking to the couple in the car while
we waited and we learned that she owned the RV Dealership that a resident of
our community, Dick Lane, works at in the summer in Maine. What a small world!
We were the only two vehicles on the ferry, there
were 2 walk-on passengers and 4 bicyclers.
We passed along a retaining wall with a
lighthouse at the end of it.
Our GPS tracked us on the line of the ferry and
it even showed us crossing the Vermont and New York border.
Outside of Port Kent, we came upon a stone bridge,
with a steel span and a sign for the AuSable Chasm and I had to stop!
At the end of the last ice age, about 10,000
years ago, melting glacier water carved this spectacular box canyon out of
extremely hard Potsdam sandstone. This deep layer of ancient beach sand, now
cemented by geologic forces, lay at the edge of a broad shallow sea over 500
million years ago. Headwater erosion, gnawing at the rock, created Rainbow falls
at the head of the Chasm. Now that dams divert water for production of electricity,
erosion has nearly halted.
Okay, but what is a Chasm? Webster defines a
chasm as a deep fissure in the earth, rock, or another surface. Seeing these
pictures, I can say this is defiantly a chasm.
Travelers visited AuSable Chasm as soon as
steamboats and railroads could bring them there. They came from city centers
and abroad to experience the awe-inspiring power of natural forces visible in
the carved canyon walls.
Within the Town of Chesterfield, you can visit
the Keeseville Historic District, which includes three historic bridges
spanning the AuSable River. There is a walking tour that explains the
architectural legacy of this thriving 19th century industrial
village.
Elizabethtown is known as the “Eastern Gateway to the Adirondack High Peaks”. Revolutionary War Veterans from Vermont first settled Elizabethtown in 1792. The pioneers arrived in an area known today as New Russia. At that time the Upper Boquet River Valley was known as Pleasant Valley. The Town was formally organized on February 12, 1798 and included an area of 822 square miles. The town, and the village at its center were named after two women named Elizabeth Gillilland, the wife and a daughter of landholder William Gillilland, who came to Essex County before the Revolutionary War. Their town hall offices are located in the former Baptist Church. The building was sold in 1964 to the town. They have maintained all the original stained glass and it is just as beautiful from the outside as it was back in the day!
We exited off Route 9, onto Route 30 in Pottersville, New York. We crossed the Hudson River in Riparius. The community of Mayfield, in Fulton County, is where you find the junction of Route 30A and Route 30. It is also where the Adirondack Trail starts.
We turned onto Route 5 in Fonda. Fonda is home to the Kateri Shrine. Kateri lived here in Caughnawaga (“By the Rapids”) from 1666, when she was ten years old, until 1677, when she fled to Kahnawake, a Christian village in Quebec, Canada. This village, across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal was called “The Village of the Praying Indians.” The original Caughnawaga, is in present day Fonda. It is the site of the village or “castle” where Kateri lived most of her life. It is the site of the only fully excavated Mohawk village of that era. Nearby, the holy spring, whose water was used to baptize her, still flows here. Many pilgrims claim cures after drawing its crystal clear water and praying through the intercession of Saint Kateri.
We came into some afternoon fog in Cherry Valley. It had been clear for most of the afternoon. It is amazing how the difference in air temperatures can create this valley fog.
We arrived at Cooperstown KOA in Richfield Springs, NY. You can see that they are keeping with the baseball theme in the name of their roads in the kampground!
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