Vermont in August

I flew out for a slightly longer visit this last Wednesday to meet up not only with Joe but also Linda and her man, Aaron. We had a really fun time. It was great not only to see Joe and Linda but also to meet Aaron, his sister Alana, and some of Aaron's old friends from Middlebury (featured in some photos in this trip's set on my flickr page are his friend Heath and his adorable five year old, Caleb). Caleb and Linda became great hand holding buddies.

While Joe was slaving away at the brewery, I took a couple short hikes with Linda and Aaron in Green Mountain National Forest.

We also took a morning while Joe was still at work to go see some of Aaron and Alana's old homes. Their favorite (and you can see why in the photos) was a house they rented on an apple orchard farm. It has since grown dramatically and the owner/farmer of Champlain Orchards, who rented to their family and remembered them fondly, graciously let us walk around the farm as we pleased, pick a few apples and raspberries, and say hello to their hogs and their new piglets. What a beautiful farm and what gorgeous views out across the countryside and Lake Champlain.

It also helped that we had a great tour guide for the farm--a yellow lab named Pippin who likes sticks, getting muddy in the local pond and eating apples.

We spent a day hiking a portion of "The Long Trail" near Stowe. The total Long Trail starts in southern VT and goes all the way north to the Canadian border. Part of the southern Long Trail overlaps with the Appalachian Trail. The portion we hiked climbed up to the highest mountain in VT--Mt. Mansfield. Quite a strenuous hike. Destiny, one of Joe's fellow Otter Creek Brewers and originally from VT, also joined us and has had a lot of experience hiking those trails. At some points I wasn't sure if I could do the hike but we all made it and it was well worth it despite the steep ascent, rock climbing and scrambling, fog, wet trails, cold and high winds. The fog lifted up a bit just as we neared the peak and we were able to see out to lake Champlain. My muscles and knees are still feeling that hike. After we finished, we treated ourselves at a local brewpub called The Alchemist, had Belgian fries and (what else but) great beer.