SW Vermont report 10/13

[ixl]

Well.. I devoted this, the one nice day of the week, to photography around my "neighborhood" in far SW Vermont. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with what I found when I drove around.

I went through most or parts of Bennington, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Manchester, Sunderland, Rupert and Sandgate. There are certainly good stretches of color in certain places, but only a few, and mainly in the mid-elevations. But the tops of the mountains are now nearly completely bare, likely courtesy of the wind storm we had yesterday.

And most disappointingly, the colors in the valleys are simply not up to the standards of what I saw further north. In most towns it seemed that there were few green trees, but also few that had very good colors. It was okay, just not great. So I took only a handful of shots, none of them impressive.

I would recommend that those who have the choice try to go to one of the areas further north that still has good color. --c

[pwt54]

I've noticed the same thing. Draw a line between Bradford and Middlebury and below there seems substandard to us veteran leafpeepers. Everything above there is great. I don't know how long the colors will stay good up here. The area around Ludlow, Weston, Grafton and Chester seemed ok however. The Andover Road between Weston and Chester had some good colors last Sunday. I didn't get a chance to go lower so I don't know how the colors are south of Grafton. Maybe the southeast will be good. The only good thing I can say is the Red Sox are losing so there is a good chance hell won't freeze over this year.

[ixl]

I'm just glad I chose this particular year to drive north for leaf photos. As I understand it last year was bad up north, I guess this year it is our turn.

I'd even consider coming back up north this weekend to the Middlebury area, but I have a sneaking suspicion that after the next three days of rain and wind, there won't be much left. Hope I'm wrong... --c

[nehal]

I'm sorry ixl,pwt that you had a disappionting trip on a nice day. Thankyou for the update. Now things are more confusing than ever! We had almost booked a hotel. We will be seeing the Lake George area on Saturday, since this weekend might be our only chance there. Can you recommend which areas to cross into Vermont, that might have good color for Sunday,10/17? We don't mind going East Vermont. Thanks in advance.

[pwt54]

I'd have to agree with BM. Judging from IXL’s report and what I’ve seen, The Champlain Valley from about Route US 4 and North and west of the Green Mountains has very good foliage. This next to the Lake George Area. You can use route US 4 to cross south of Lake George or better yet, take 9N to the bridge to Vermont north of Crown Point. After crossing the bridge the road splits. Take the right road, route 125 east, to route 22A and turn right. Go about a mile and pick up route 125 east again on the left side and take that to Middlebury. When you come to Middlebury you have 3 choices. When you come to the stop sign on South Main St./route 30 south, turn right and take route 30 south to route US 4 and take that back to NY. Or, at the stop sign, turn right and go to route US 7 south and take that to Route US 4 in Rutland and back to NY. Or, take route US 7 south only as far as route 125 east in East Middlebury. In East Middlebury pick up route 116 north on the left side and drive that up to Burlington. This last one will be long and put you in a bad position to get back to NY. I would prefer the route 125 to route 30 south to route US 4 west ride.

[ixl]

Thanks bm...

Unfortunately, there's really no way I can do it on Friday. If the weather had looked promising I might have tried renting a car for this weekend (we have one vehicle and I can't leave my family stranded.) But Friday just won't work -- and while it won't be as bad as Saturday it will still be dismal photography weather.

I think I am just going to plan on doing your area (greater Burlington, lower elevations) next year. Does it usually peak around this time? --c

[admin]

I am amazed by what is happening in the Northeast Kingdom, or maybe i should say ...not happening. There is still some good color here and wonderful picture taking opportunities with the clear sky on Wednesday and Thursday. The best bets are secluded spots like roads buried in valleys that make a kind of foliage tunnel effect as you drive through them. Mind you, this is on dirt roads only! Also, strange as it may seem, the Eastern Townships across the border, only peaked last week. The Lake Massawippi area and North Hatley are really nice!

By the way, I am trying to update and improve the foliage-vermont Vermont leaves identification pages. If any of you have some decent close ups of leaves that are either not included in these pages or look better than mine, please send them to me!
(publish@pbpub.com). Help would be appreciated since the search engine results I get are not very good!

Tim

[pwt54]

I called the Alburg Welcome Center and she said that Alburg was nice but couldn't say what the rest of the Islands looked like. Generally if Alburg is good so are the rest of the Islands.

[dfpvt]

I largely agree w/ ixl: we seemed to have peaked Tuesday or early yesterday at the mid-elevations and a lot of the color has toned down. There was even a noticeable difference between sunrise and sunset yesterday.

But, it's still very pretty, if not as spectacular as it was. The yellows predominate this morning along Route 7, but there's still quite a bit of red and some green. The color at the mid-elevations is still bright, but there are more bare branches than 24 hours ago.

The Lake Champlain area is warmer than the southwest, so you may find nicer foliage along the lake this weekend, and the New York side may have nicer color than the VT side. I too would try 9n from L. George, and either cross to VT via the Chimney Pt. Bridge, or continue up to Westport on the NY side.