My sister Claire and my brother in law Gregg came down from South Hero, VT for a visit on Sunday. Claire and Gregg are regular readers of Nature Finds, upfront when I am overly cryptic and are my greatest supporters. I typically get them down to Vernon in the colder months as it is difficult to motivate them to leave the lake during the warmer ones. It seems however, that Vernon had been calling them down with the promise of seeing first hand some of what I had been writing about. Preparing for their day trip was my first first experience with hosting Ecotourism in town, and so I set Wayne straight to work.
I'm unsure who it was that first initiated the conversation of creating a farmer's market in Vernon years ago, or who ultimately brought it to fruition with the Facebook group Vernon, VT Farmers Market; but it is in my estimation exactly the sort of innovative community mindedness that a small agricultural town in southeastern VT can thrive upon while preserving it's rural charm. Because Wayne is a planner and likes to have a map in hand, I brought up the Facebook page and gave him instructions to find some vegetables and anything else that looked good for the day. Wayne came home thirty minutes later with one zucchini, two yellow summer squash and a container of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. It seems that he wanted to visit all of the town's driveway stands to make sure that I was happy. I was and so there wasn't a need to make him go into Brattleboro.
Claire and Gregg had two requests, they wanted to take a swim in the Broad brook waterfall and they wanted to take a hike in the town forest. The day being overcast and relatively cool compared to the hot dry summer we have endured, I opted to just play tour guide and left my swimsuit at home. We noticed that the brook was dry in places, as we crept up the dirt road and were surprised that the small parking area at the waterfall was filled with cars sporting out of state plates from Louisiana, New York and Massachusetts. A few other things had changed since we last swam in the pools there, an official no parking order was posted on a tree along the road, a no trespassing / private property sign was posted on the rocks just before the bridge and people have stacked rocks in an attempt to dam the brook and make the pools deeper. Wayne sensed my soap box lecture on the plague of stone stacking coming on and hinted that everyone just wanted to have fun. As it turned out, the relatively big group that was there, was having plenty of fun and it made me smile to see happy people. We decided to keep our social distance and settled for walking along the bank remarking on the beautiful rock formations that could be seen now that the water was so low.
Once at the town forest, we opted for the Red trail which is traditionally a muddy walk in parts as it skirts the upper swamp. Claire and Gregg wanted the full experience, asking me to point out things that I had written about. As we neared the swamp, I noticed that Gregg's feet were somewhat bouncy as the trail slightly compressed with each step. This prompted me to talk about how areas of the forest floor are made up of deep moss. I must have entered my own world as the next thing I knew, there was Gregg laid out on his stomach in the middle of the trail "Oh no! What happened? Are you okay?" It seems that Gregg had spied an interesting plant and wanting to get a closer look laid down purposefully in the middle of the trail. Typically anyone attempting that maneuver would have emerged as a soaked swamp creature; but today he was completely dry. It's a good thing that he didn't choose to hit the trail where he earlier found a sizable pile of coyote scat! "Hey I found a Black Gum tree over here!" Claire announced while pretending that the sign on the other side didn't say Black Gum Tree. Gregg hurried over and they ceremoniously posed for a tree hugging picture.
When we emerged from the forest, there was a family from MA at the trail head parking and the woman asked me if I was Donna. Saying that I wasn't she followed up asking if I was the person who wrote about Vernon. Confirming her suspicions, she mentioned my pizza story and shared some beautiful pictures of mushrooms that she had captured on the White trail. Honestly, they were beautiful with one being orange and tiered like a blooming flower. I admire people who take nothing but a photograph and good memories with them while wandering out and about. Dang, I'm feeling a lecture coming on about leaving no trace so I had better wrap this up.
We drove back to our house and, thanks to Vernon VT Farmers Market, we ate a supper that included veggies with cookies for desert. I hear that the Gilbert's stand will have Red Velvet Woopie pies on Wednesday! See you there. -Norma Manning
(In place of a lecture see below)
Leaving No Trace: Rock Stacking, Ausable River Association
Here is How You Can Protect Vermont's Hiking Trails, VPR
Hiking Resources, American Hiking Society
One of the Vernon Farmer's Markets
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