Massachusetts to the 'Northwest Princedom', Stow etc.

[DGehman71]

Traveled from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and made only about 200 miles, from Massachusetts to Inn at Buck Hollow Farm in Fairfax. Most of the stops were at quilt shops -- tomorrow's our big day, in and around Cambridge, Jeffersonville and Jericho.

The best color was around Winchendon, Massachusetts, just south of the New Hampshire border, but we didn't know that at the time and so took no photos. But we have high hopes for tomorrow, as colors were developing as we drove... blazing sunshine.

My preview shows these as too big to see, complete with sliders. Apologies for that, if the final view is the same. I'll make them smaller and re-load them, if that's the case.

Exiting Smugglers Notch:

Exiting Smugglers Notch Sm.jpg (144.51 KiB) Viewed 20213 times

South Rd. - glorious tree:

South Rd Med.jpg (134.05 KiB) Viewed 20213 times

Panorama from the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe:

Trapp Pano.jpg (49.61 KiB) Viewed 20213 times

Dave

[Jacky CW]

Thanks for sharing

[Andy]

Thanks, Dave. But, FYI, yup, they are too big and have sliders on both axes on my large monitor

[DGehman71]

Tried resampling to 800 pix wide, but still no go -- still sliders, but now the pix are blocky. Anyone point me to help in uploading pix?

[DGehman71]

I upload mine from Smugmug- choosing "medium" embeddable links has worked well!

Hmm - I'm uploading from my computer and don't seem to have any option for which kind of upload (e.g., 'medium').

I'll try sending them to my Flckr account and using another method of putting them on this board.

Meanwhile, we left yesterday in heavy high fog (and, later, between Montpelier and White River Jct on I-89, a few real clouds), but increasingly glorious color. I'm guessing this weekend (barring any rain) will be the best show.

[DGehman71]

Wrapping up:
At the end of this post, a re-try with the photos. [a bit later: preview shows broken links... If these don't show, they are in my Flicker Photostream, http://www.flickr.com/photos/60233898@N00/10068423666/

All in all, this was one of our best mini-vacations. The weather was perfect, assuming you liked the morning mist on the final day (we did). Color was bursting wherever we went. Our vist all took place in about a 30 mile radius of Cambridge: Jeffersonville, Waterville, Jericho, Fletcher, Pleasant Valley, Underhill.

We do have to go back. First, despite having a modicum of experience traveling, we did around 1/10th of what we planned. Second, the percentage of good photos is very low, even for us.

But here are some, anyway, hopefully in usable size:
Trapp Family Lodge, panorama:


South Road, Fairfax, setting sun:


Outside the B&B, rising sun


Same view, 10 o'clock sun:


Mist rising - dead-end road off Pleasant Valley Rd


Mist in the hills, Lower Pleasant Valley Rd


Very early sun, backlit, at the B&B

[Aspen]

Dave, your foliage pictures will preserve beautiful memories of your 2013 visit to Vermont. Have been enjoying all the pictures and posts viewers have been sharing. Enjoyed your flickr slide show. Your Kanc painting brought back fond memories of our drives there. My favorite areas of the Kanc that are awesome for photography and painting are :
driving the Kanc and pulling over when the trees are colorful along the sides of the road, walks to Sabbaday Falls and the Rangers' Station (nearby entrance when driving in from Lincoln, NH or is at the end of the Kanc if coming from Conway) where people may park, walk up to the highway's bridge for an awesome view and photography of the wooden bridge over the stream with beautiful foliage on the banks. People may walk down to and over the wooden bridge.
The Scenes of Vermont Fall Foliage Forum is an asset for planning when and where to find outstanding foliage on the Kanc. Unless one is a local or is close by to this beautiful drive, timing/planning to get there at the right time for its bursting colors is so critical.
One last note about your flickr slideshow, love your trifold painting of that scene in Ohio. Unique way to paint and display a panorama scene.
Vermont is one of many special states that contributes towards America the Beautiful. This outstanding Forum brings out the beauty and goodwill in so many wonderful people. God Bless America!

Aspen

[DGehman71]

Thanks, Aspen, for all your kind words.

The triptych was one of my most interesting commissions, a large dining room wall to cover (the paintings are designed to hang about a foot apart). It's US 23 in southern Ohio, maybe 20-30 miles from my wife's hometown, set in the 1930s-40s. I worked from aerial photos online plus historical USGS topographical maps, the latter to see placement of farms (some now gone) plus the historical roadbed of 23 (two-lane then, 4-lane and slightly rerouted now.)

We did the Kankamagus only once. My wife saw the foliage; I saw only the tail end of the car ahead of us -- total stop-and-go traffic, from start to finish, plus 20-30 minutes to get moving from NH 16 actually onto the Highway. And it was a year with the dullest color we've ever seen. My painting was based on Creative Commons source material available on the 'Net,taken in a much better year.

I've added a foliage route to the Great Vermont Driving Routes thread in this forum -- Bryce Road between the two Pleasant Valley roads.

Dave

[Aspen]

Thanks Dave for adding the Jeffersonville/Cambridge: Pleasant Valley/Bryce Road Route to the Great Vermont Driving Routes thread. This will permit many to experience the beautiful foliage that your pictures conveyed this weekend, the days ahead and also be a great drive to the Old Red Mill in Jericho throughout the year.
Spent several hours reading about the Old Red Mill and discovered some very interesting information. There is a nice walking path along the Browns River at the Old Mill Park behind Old Red Mill. Also, many of us were taught that "no two snowflakes are alike" and probably took that for granted. Actually, one of Vermont's native sons, Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley made that discovery by photographing thousands upon thousands of snowflakes which amusingly he also called snow beauties.

A couple websites to surf for a wealth of information on the Old Red Mill and Snowflake Bentley are:

http://www.jerichohistoricalsociety.org

http://www.snowflakebentley.com/index.htm

Aspen