4th week in Vermont

---

Sunday: I think everyone knows that Vermont and particularly southern Vermont is known for ski resorts. There are 2 slopes within 25 minutes of my place and I think close to a dozen within an hour drive. But what do those resorts do in the summer? Well they try to make some money and keep some year round staff by having summer activities on the mountain. The chair lifts that go to the top of the mountain get called "scenic chair lifts". Bromley has one of the world's longest alpine slides. It drops 815 feet in elevation and is 2/3 of a mile long! Yes, you take a chairlift up to the top of the slide too.

In the evening ludlow had a summer concert series where the local community band was playing. To say it was a bad park location would be an understatement. There was a main road on both sides of basically a park made out of an intersection. The band was pretty mediocre as well. Not sure what to expect though when it's a community band and there's less than 2k people in the town...

Monday: Time to hike to the place that multiple people recommend I check out in Vermont. Almost every local told me to go here 😊 It did not disappoint. It's Vermont's deepest gorge and an amazing swim hike location. After spending so much time in Ithaca, I did need to wait to visit another gorge to be impressed but enough time has passed that it was great to visit another gorge. It was also laid out differently than all the gorges in Ithaca with their rim and gorge trail. This one had a bridge across the main part and you can hike down to the water and swim.

Tuesday: There are so many covered bridges in Vermont! The goal of the day was to go to Marsh-Billings-Rockefellar national historic park but en route one just must stop at all the covered bridges. Including the longest wooden bridge in America and the longest 2 span covered bridge in the world! Wowza. There was even a covered bridge that was built in the 1960s- a very unusual time for a covered bridge to be built. The historic park is the only park run by the national park service in Vermont. Vermont truly has a lot of trees and green land but is mostly privately owned- very different from being anywhere out west. The farm is pretty and the mansion and garden were pretty impressive. Very informative video too about the history of ownership and how it came to have 3 names on it 😊

Thursday: Today it was hotter in Vermont than it was back in Arizona... 94* with humidity and no AC. Life basically became a puddle. No fun... Vermont really isn't ever supposed to be this warm, it's extraordinary. The fact that I have no AC shouldn't be that big of a deal, it really shouldn't ever get over 85*.

Saturday: Travel day! Onwards! On our way we stopped back at dog mountain for a literal dog party that was happening all afternoon. Only stayed for about 45 minutes but copper actually splashed in the water! No swimming, just splashing around. The dogs were just absolutely having a blast. What a day. While I wasn't seeking out any covered bridges along the way I did come to a halt when I just happened to see one on the side of the road for pedestrian use only. Driving around in New England really gives you the perspective of how tiny these states are, they are just so tiny and so close to eachother- so different from the west coast where you go hundreds of miles within a state. It would be difficult to drive 100 miles and not leave a state up here 😊

---