Easter weekend

We were fortunate to have some lovely weather for Easter weekend in between the lingering snowfalls we still keep getting...well, I say snow, it's mostly sleet and ice just now so not so nice... but Spring is definitely just round the corner... we hope!

We decided to take a ride out to a few of the state parks and natural areas around here and managed to 'do' (!) 3 peaks in one day.

First up was Mount Philo, a 168-acre park overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. This is Vermont's oldest state park created in 1924. Various hiking trails lead from the base to the summit but we didn't brave them because there's still so much snow around. A narrow, steep road also leads to the top which we went part way up before chickening out due to the steep iciness and the numerous screaming sledders hurtling down again at a high rate!

We set off up the snowy track, Safi leading the way as usual.

Adam and Saf wait for Jayne and Bump to catch up while two sledders head back up for another shot.

Jayne and Bump look on as Safi and another doggy engage in the universal nose to butt canine greeting

Next we headed over to Pease Mountain. This is a low (800ft) but prominent hill in Charlotte, VT and is a twin of sorts to the better known Mt. Philo we'd just visited. This was not a particularly successful stop-off either, again due to all the remaining snow and iciness. Still, we did find an outdoor ice rink which we assume the school create and use in the winter months.

Safi was the only one brave enough to venture out onto the ice rink below Pease Mountain

Next we headed to Camel's Hump, one of the most easily recognisable of Vermont's Green Mountains. Apparently, the Waubanaukee Indians first named it "Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wadso" or Saddle Mountain. Samuel de Champlain's explorers in the 1600s called it "Lion Couchant" or resting lion. The name "Camel's Hump" however was used on a historical map by Ira Allen in 1798, and this stuck to become it's official name in 1830. Originally a gift of 1000 acres from Colonel Joseph Battell (who had bought it to preserve the wooded mountain view from his home), today's Camel's Hump State Park is some 20,000 acres.

I've included this picture mostly so you can see how gorgeous the weather was... barely a cloud to be seen and beautifully sunny... still pretty damn cold mind.

You can see the snow-topped Camel's Hump a little clearer in these two shots...

We drove up a long, narrow, twisty, muddy, icy track and finally reached the car park towards the top of the mountain


We set out along the wooded trail to see how far we could get

Turns out we didn't get very far at all before we came across a steep sided stream which Jayne and Bump were in no fit state to cross. We'll definitely be back tho' once conditions improve, and certainly once Bubs is here - there look to be a great many trails here we'd love to explore some more.

On the way back down the mountain we stopped to take some pictures of all the pipes and tubes running between the trees, taking sap from the maple trees down to a bulk storage tank by the side of the road.

With the use of a section of trusty drainpipe supported along a wooden rail, the collected sap looked like it could be transferred to a vehicle on the track for transport to the nearby sugar shack for boiling down into syrup.

More about sugar shacks and maple syrup in the next post...