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Published: February 22nd 2007
So after spending all night on the bus from New York,
NYE in NYC + a goodbye, I had a couple hours sleep before getting picked up to go road trippin', my partners in crime, Nick, Eliza and Ryan.
Our first stop was a place that has since become one of my favourite places in the world,
Mont Sutton. Ryan knew a family that rents a cottage about 10 mins from the mountain, the Yeldon's, officially the nicest family in the world. The picturesque yellow cottage sat among pleasant green fields off a quiet country road in a charming bit of rural Quebec. The only downside was the pleasant green fields which normally would have been covered in a thick layer of perfectly white snow; alas it was not to be.
The purpose of this little stop was quite simply for one reason only, snowboarding. When one is spending a year of their life in a part of the world renowned for being bitterly cold and covered in snow one should make the effort to take up pastimes which would be impossible in one's home country due to it being blisteringly hot. Thus it was that a boy from Perth, Australia sat in a
Chris, Nick and Me.
Rumours continue to swirl that we were drunk and had been specifically banned from going outside to the barn. I can neither confirm nor deny these rumours.car excitedly looking forward to his first snowboarding experience. The site of the historic
first ride, Mont Bromont (pronounced bro-mo) the only place around that had night skiing. To put it simply the conditions were terrible for snowboarding, it was horribly icy and certainly not ideal conditions in which to learn.
As anyone who has ever learnt to ride will tell you the first time is painful and horrible, let me be the first to wholeheartedly confirm this. Spending the entire first run down the mountain alternating between falling on my arse or on my wrists was not the best of times especially as I was falling onto ice the whole way down, it hurt. The second run however was infinitely better; by this time I was managing to put my turns together and manage to actually carve continually instead of having to stop to change direction. I was rapidly gaining confidence and as we reached the bottom of the hill and with visions of me being the best snowboarder ever I promptly lost it and landed right on my back on a sheet of sheer ice, ouch.
The next day we rode at Sutton and it was
Me, Nick, Eliza and Ryan
On our amazing walk, near the cascades awesome, I was getting better pretty quick and was having a brilliant time just slowly making my way down the hill, beautiful pine trees either side, the blue sky above and the white stuff below and ahead down in the valley a scenic view of white, green and blue, it was bliss. Since this blog is about 6 weeks behind schedule I have been riding quite a few more times, I will try and dedicate a blog to snowboarding in the future.
Our first night after Sutton was spent in
Burlington, Vermont, a little student town with very little to do. The only thing of interest that happened here was that we managed to once again skip around the USA's stupid, stupid, archaic drinking laws and get into a pub for a pint, HA HA. Being that I am now an expert at this type of high level felony I believe the key is confidence, bad facial hair and going early when the bar is just starting to fill up. For any other crime tips send me an email and I will see what I can do.
Leaving Burlington the next day we stopped in the town of
Montpelier, Vermont, famous for being the smallest capital city in the States. It was a quaint little town set against rolling hills of grey, green pine trees; it had a cool main street where we got an excellent breakfast at a place that had been open for close to 100 years. We also quite by chance came across this place called
Quechee Gorge, a massive slice through the earth through which the tumbling waters of the Ottauquechee River (pronounced AWT-ah-KWEE-chee) flow. It was quite spectacular in the late afternoon sun with the mist and spray creating some nice effects. Then it was onwards to our next destination Boston.
I didn't really want to come back to
Boston since I had just spent a wonderful few days with Jacqui here and the memory of her leaving was still fresh in my mind, needless to say I just sulked the entire time we were here and made a nuisance of myself😊 That night we did what every red blooded male wants to do every day, we drank beer, ate burgers, watched sport and looked at busty, scantily clad girls, all at the same time and all in one fine upstanding establishment,
Low Clouds
On the road out of Montpelier, Vermont that’s right you guessed it
Hooters. Its really pretty cool place but I won't bore you, I'll let the pics do the talking😊
The next day we wandered around the city, through the beautiful and ancient campus of Harvard University and the steel and glass towers of the downtown area. It really is a wonderful city steeped in history and revolution and is a great place to spend a few days, see
Sporting Lore and a City of Contrasts: Boston for my previous trip here.
We spent the night in the town of
Salem, famous for the
Salem Witch Trials during the late 1600's. I was looking forward to having a look around the museums and learning a little more about this bizarre time in history, unfortunately we seemed to have arrived at a time when everything was closed, all museums and places of historical interest were shut for no apparent reason, it was a little frustrating to say the least. The only place we could go and have a look at was the old cemetery where some of the major players in the Salem Witch Trial saga were buried, it wasn't that interesting😊
Mt. Washington The Highlight of the Trip The few
Nick, Eliza and Me
Illegal drinking in Burlington hours that we spent hiking around Mt. Washington were amazing. There had been fresh snow the previous night and the trail that we walked was pure and untouched, it was a winter wonderland of perfect snow covering everything in sight, perching precariously atop branches of evergreen pines and rendering the subtle nuances of the ground a flat clean white. In essence it was bliss, the trail we walked was untouched, I felt as though we were exploring some hereto undiscovered path up the mountain, going where no man has gone before. I think it was the thrill of the new and undiscovered, the combination of the amount of snow on the ground and the silent sounds of a forest in hibernation with the only sound being the water of the stream slowly making its way through the freeze.
Our intended destination was a place called the
Gem Pool and a little further up the
Cascades about half way to the summit. The cascades especially were awesome, a steep frozen waterfall that looked as though it was covered in frosting. It was truly memorable.
Then it was time for the homeward drive and back to the real world of
State House
Montpelier, Vermont university having turned an official 10 day holiday into one much closer to 3 weeks!!
Note on Photos: Since my camera was still busted most of the photos are courtesy of Ryan.
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I worship snow
That blog was pure genious my friend, I am filled with awe and envy here at work (yes, "work"). I wish I was there again amongst the velvet snow, gliding down mountains, drinking beer, eating meat in the company of voluptuos young ladies.