New England in September, always a good idea. Even better, a visit with Mom, yay!
We flew into Albany and drove over to Vermont. I managed to capture a screenshot on my phone as we crossed the border - hello, maple syrup man:
The #1 project entailed painting Mom's bedroom. John was in his happy place wandering around Home Depot picking up supplies:
The Master Planner, pondering his next move:
Mom was very pleased with the result! Thank you John!
Looking through some old photos, take a guess at who these people are... (Hi Dad!!)
Kip was into trains back then:
The rest of this post is about another FKT run, because of course it is.
It was a good one - I got to run from the lowest spot to the highest point in Vermont! Such a fun idea and I was super lucky to have the opportunity.
We started at Lake Champlain in Burlington, with a "good luck" hug from Mom:
Checking my route notes for the first part through the city:
Group shot with my awesome crew before starting my watch:
The FKT page with additional pictures and writeup:
And we're off! Walking up the first little hill... I remember my legs feeling good once I started running on the sidewalks, and the grade stayed reasonable much of the time.
Admiring a pretty yard:
I almost went to UVM for college, and I imagine my life would have been very different if I had:
Crossing the Winooski River (we started saying "WINOOSKI!" whenever we went over it because it's fun to exclaim out loud):
Historical plaque about the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Ethan Allen:
This appears to be some kind of agrisolar:
One of several helpful crew spots along the way, so I didn't have to carry much beyond a water bottle:
Early fall foliage, a special treat:
An iconic spot along this route, the Old Red Mill in Jericho:
Mom and John had walked down to the mill, and they were hustling back up to the car when John snapped this picture:
I don't think they minded this as one of our crew locations:
John's picture from inside - lots of choices!
I wonder what's on this pizza...
A view of Mount Mansfield as I'm slowly getting closer:
In the sections with plenty of cars, there was almost always a sidewalk or good shoulder. The shoulder went away later, but at least it was a lot quieter there (just a bit of hopping off the road for the occasional car). It's convenient that a direct line from the lake to the top of the mountain works out so well.
A resupply at the library before heading toward a more rural area:
A pole-er bear!
Beautiful butterfly mural:
The start of the dirt road where the slope turned decidedly more "up", and the second-to-last crew stop (thumbs up for excellent support!)
Into the woods, hiking next to a creek, enjoying the shade:
John and Mom found a place to park along the road below the surprisingly-crowded trailhead. I changed into trail shoes and got a quick snack. Mom was game for driving the car around the mountain so John could hike to the summit with me - thank you both!
OK, now we're going uphill for real. STEEPLY uphill. From my writeup, "Big steps, large rocks, straight up the side of the mountain." A worthy finishing section for a unique adventure.
Taking a little break to eat a bar, at least there were plenty of places to sit:
It's not always easy to capture trail steepness in a photo but I think John did pretty well:
Another excellent picture from John's phone, including 3 barely-visible people on the edge of the mountain:
Finally the steep part was over and we had a few boardwalks to traverse (and people to dodge) to reach the top:
Hitting "Done!" on the various timers and trackers:
The summit survey marker, and I'm happy to see I had only one hole in my shoes:
Pacer extraordinaire:
Despite the random clouds, we could see Lake Champlain in one direction and down to the bottom of the ski area in the other:
The adventure wasn't quite finished... we had to descend the Cliff Trail to reach the gondola station. Nothing about this mountain is easy:
The "slow slide" method of getting off this big rock:
John is of course a mountain goat, with plenty of time to take pictures as I picked my way down:
At last, the chalet - reminds me of Europe:
A free ride down the mountain!
Mom was waiting at the bottom, and we had only one last little hill to climb to reach the car:
Thank you Mom and John for a wonderful and memorable day!
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