Scenes of Vermont Forums

Greetings!
I live in a little harbor town in Michigan - directly west of Grand Rapids, Michigan or directly East of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almost every year my husband and I choose a new vacation destination. These vacations have taken us to Montana, Asheville- NC, Southern California, NYC, the beautiful Pictured Rock area in the UP of Michigan, and 8 years ago> our honeymoon in Ireland. We start basic planning of where to go after Christmas and we typically plan it for the fall. We settled on Vermont this year after finding a nice rental in Fletcher and realizing what a beautiful drive it will be from our home. We will be leaving Oct 8. after a work day and will arrive in Fletcher Vermont on Oct 10. We will travel to London, ON. for the first night and then on to Niagara Falls the next morning for a little sight seeing before continuing to Saratoga Springs, NY for that evening. That way we'll only have about 3 1/2 hour drive the next day to the cottage. We will be staying in Fletcher for that week leaving on Sat. Oct 17. I have printed off many suggestions from this sight for scenic trips, things to do, routes to take and have a pretty fat folder to bring along. Thanks to all contributors for this forum and all the great ideas. We are not married into any schedule and are just going to "play it by ear". We do especially want to vist Montreal, try to see many of the covered bridges in Franklin County and of course get some great pictures of Autumn in Vermont. We have been singing Moonlight in Vermont for the last few weeks and my husband wants you to know that if all the leaves are gone that week you owe him a beer! I think it will be quite beautiful and will gladly print off anything you think we need to put in the folder. Thanks! Michigan Leaf Peepers Marilee & Robert

Marilee: Greetings from the other ("sunrise" ) side of the state!

That late, you will probably find the colors in the Fletcher area late. You may want to plan to travel south and/or West to the Champlain Valley. The good news is that you will be able to find foliage within easy day's drives.

Yes, I am realizing, after reading this forum, that my Fletcher landlord steered me a bit late for full color. But no worries we will get great colors along the way and we plan to do a route around Lake Champlain early in the week. Our rental is very cozy with fireplaces and a hot tub so we won't lack for things to do. I've also read about 8 covered bridges in Franklin county alone, so we are going to see how many we can find.
Maybe I'll even get a picture that's good enough to share on this forum.... we'll see.

You will still have nice color in the Fletcher area early in your vacation. You will have to do southwest and southeast VT later in your vacation. I would pick a good day and go to the Peacham/Barnet area early in your vacation. The qutckest way would be route 15 east and route US 2 east to Danville. In Danville village, turn right at the flashing yellow light to get to Peacham. Later in your vacation I would do southwest VT. My favorite road would be route 30 from Middlebury to Brattleboro. That is a long drive. You could do route 30 down to route 7A in Manchester. Turn left onto route 7A north and drive that to route US 7 north and turn left. Drive route US 7 north back to Burlington and then back to Fletcher. If you plan to do covered bridges I would invest in a Jimapco or Delorme VT Atlas. The Delorme is harder to read, but it has good descriptions of the bridges. Most of our convenience stores, grocery stores, and drug stores carry one or both atlases. They will also help find the back roads if you are feeling frisky.

When traveling in Ireland we only had a basic map and quickly found out that there are very few road signs in the whole country. Someone in a pub told us that was because tourist steal the signs. Pretty crazy when we were traveling mountain passes.

Even though the foliage might be past peak at Lewis Pond, I am tempted to try and find it. Afterall it's located pretty close to Fletcher isn't it?

Most of our covered bridges are on side roads and can not be see from the main roads. Unless you know which side road they are on you will miss them. Our official State map does a lousy job locating covered bridges. It will be about 2 to 3 hours from Fletcher to Island Pond, where you start your drive to the overlook. I afraid the leaves will be mostly gone up there.

Marilee: Fletcher is a nice, quiet, "old Vermont" part of the State. You will enjoy your stay there -- and it is pretty easy to get places.

I wholeheartedly agree with PWT that you should make the drive to Peacham. Its like going back in time (btw, take your pottie break in Danville -- there are NO public restrooms in Peacham Village -- they won't let you use it in the general store).

If you downloaded my PDF, there are very specific directions to the parking area and farm field to get the view of the barn/church scene. Also, the cemetary is worth spending some time walking around in. Great views to the south. And ANY road going out of town is worth driving for a way. Its a wonderful, bucholic area.

On the covered Bridges, if you still have time, there is a $5 fold-out Vermont Covered Bridges Guide you can get from Amazon. Reasonably good directions. I don't completely recall, but seems like I may have found a website with some directions, too, back in 2005.

Even though the leaves may have peaked, its a nice drive up to Montgomery/Montgomery center, and if you have good eyes, you WILL see most of the several bridges there from the main road. Depending on how you get there -- Most direct route is probably to take 108 North to Enosburg Falls. Take 105 Northeast from there to 118 East. That will take you through Montgomery and Montgomery Center. On bridge (I think its Longley Bridge) is on the right before Montgomery. There are 2 or 3 bridges right on the side roads in Montgomery and you can see them from 118. The Creamery Bridge is through Montgomery Center and South on 118. Its harder to find, but the map should help.

Another thought (and I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND this, is to take the Boston Post Road (veer right off 108, just North of the village of Bakersfield). This will actually take you THROUGH the Longley bridge and onto 118 -- you will miss Enosburg Falls, but there's frankly not much there worth seeing.

At the bridge, park some where and just North of the bridge (right at the entrance from 118 -- to your left if you are facing back toward the gravel road) you can CAREFULLY climb down a path and if you follow it a way, you will eventually see a view back. Here is my photofrom that view.

I don't think Waterville is in Franklin County, but its immediately adjoining and easy to get to from Fletcher. If you take 108 south to 109 West, you will come right into Waterville. There are 3 bridges in Waterville. They are much more difficult, just because they are not immediately visible. But use the map and if you know where they are, they are really easy to get to. One of them will have a place where you can park and climb below for a nice shot.

You can do a "loop" if you want, in either direction. If you start in Waterville, you just follow 109 through Belvidere and Belvidere Center and pick up 118 North which will take you to Montgomery Center. Turn Right and stay on 118 and you will come to the bridges mentioned above. Or, start in Montgomery (I would -- the bridges are better, IMO) and follow 118 south the 109, turn left onto 109 and follow it into Waterville. When you are done, you can take 109 back to 108. Jeffersonville is only about a mile from there to the South. Fletcher area would be a couple miles north o 108, or if you are getting there from Cambridge, follow 104 back to the West. One last note (phew!! -- he's finally done!): I think its harder to find your way back to 108 from 118 on th Boston Post Road if you have never done it. Its pretty easy going from 108 to 118.

The Hectorville covered bridge has been dismantled and put into storeage until they have the money to fix it. They were working on the Creamery Bridge and I'm not sure if they are done.

Hi Andy,
Thanks for all of this great information! Your pictures are really amazing. I will print off the things I need from your wonderful PDF travelogue.

BTW - My husband lived in the Higgins Lake area of Michigan for several years before I met him. We love the U.P. and have been promoting it's beauty since our vacation there last year.

Is there a place in Vermont where I can get the Covered Bridge guide as I'm not going to chance ordering it from Amazon and not getting it. Thanks for any help on this.

We'll have use of a computer at the cottage (with dial-up) so I might try to get on this site if we need any quick help or perhaps just to update on how we're doing. Also this cottage is on Medcalf Pond so I am hoping for some nice pictures from there too.

Marilee,
Here is a website for a list of Vermont covered bridges-- www.dalejtravis.com
Click on the covered bridges then at the bottom right of the page you can get a list in pdf form of the ones in Vermont. Keep in mind that some of these are probably not what we consider real covered bridges but I think you can tell from the descriptions he gives. I haven't actually used his directions to get to any bridges but I think they look adequate.
For future use, I would recommend the Covered Bridges of Vermont book by Ed Barna. I ordered mine several years ago so I'm not sure if you would be able to pick one up somewhere in Vermont but you might. It is a great book with wonderful directions, parking tips, history etc. Hope this helps.

Marilee, I've checked this site and it works well for me. You should be able to find them.

Hi Marilee. I was just in the Higgins Lake Area today. Color there is a bit behind what we are seeing in VT. I would guess it is about 30% right now.

When you said cottage in Fletcher, I wondered if you might be on Metcalf Pond. That is VERY close to my uncle's farm on 108. Just a couple of back roads away. It should be a nice area.

On my website, there is a reflection shot in the Fine Arts section. That is just up the road from Metcalf Pond.

Hope you have a good time there.