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10 Oct Fall Foliage report
Hildene and back forest roads
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
view from the gardens of the valley at peak.
Another view, and a must see..
A church at the cross roads
One of those things that you find on out of the way places...
road side cemetery color.
Huge maple and a split rail fence.
Always a good subject even when the color is fading..
A unmarked stop on NF10
Greetings Leaf Peepers
The weather as many of you know has been less than perfect this Columbus Day weekend. And this morning was no exception. I woke early with my hopes being dashed soon after opening the front door. I walked around Danby and even with the misty morning the colors were very pronounced. In this area yellows and oranges are predominant. The Silas Griffith Inn provides breakfast for the guests and it was the best part of starting the morning.
This mornings trip had us head to Hildene, the home that Todd Lincoln built. This is a great place to visit and we talked on the way to the new barns they built with a couple from Ireland. They wondered if they had bought the Irish weather with them. We commiserated over the weather and talked about other places to visit and things to see.
After visiting Hildene we drove up route 11 to the east side on the Green Mountain National forest and found our way to Peru. We stopped for lunch at the JJ Hapgood general store and had a slice of their brick fired pizza (very good).
Across the street is the Congregational church with nice color and I took a few shots of this. We then headed up Hapgood pond road which leads to Mad Tom Notch road. The sun was peaking out every once in a while.
There are mostly yellows in the area and reds are few to be seen. We drove up to the AT/LT Trail crossing and since the road turns to larger rocks we decided to turn back in the pull out parking area. (2,435') We went down to Hapgood Pond which is a state park that has a picnic and swimming/fishing. Even with the Columbus Day weekend there were only 4 cars parked here.
We continued on the Danby Mt Tabor road (also known as NF10). As we drove along Danby rd I saw many barns with horses and a cemetery. It's very scenic and the connecting road (NF10) is listed as a Scenic road?. We saw along the side of a road a blue flag on a jury rigged pole. I looked over to the side and there was a very nice water fall which I caught several nice shots of before the light dropped below the mountain top.
A mile past this is the Big Branch overlook with a large pull out. This is not in the Gazetteer book so keep your eyes peeled for it (hard to miss). We went to the fenced over look but from there you can't really see anything. There is a trail down (not too hard but the climb up was a little strenuous). The path is also not marked so don't try it in the dark and wear good shoes for it.
We continued down the path and met Nancy and Jim from Colorado at the bottom. We traded stories and found out they were Yankee subscribers from way back. Jim's thoughts on the New England reds and the Colorado Golds was "How do you compare a beautiful blond to a beautiful red head" I agree; both are beautiful in their own way...
This end the days journey and we have one more day to meander our way back to Salem:-(
To Be Continued...
There are other ways to stay up on the fall foliage and activities in these parts. You can listen to 980 WCAP talk radio on Thursday mornings at 11:10AM EST on your AM dial. I'll be talking with the hosts about the upcoming fall foliage season. If you don't live in the area, you can listen on their website www.980wcap.com and catch it streaming on your computer.
Check my Blog several times per week as I keep logging a bunch of miles looking for foliage. The Yankee foliage forum is a great place to get updates or over on the Yankee foliage Facebook fan page
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