9/27/2021 - Summer's Last Gasp? - Lake Elmore State park

About two weeks ago I saw a social media post from a weather report showing we were in "Summers last gasp".   Hoping that wasn't quite true, we planned a trip to nearby Lake Elmore state park this last weekend 9/25-26. 

Lake Elmore State Park is a great Vermont State Park just a short drive from Montpelier, Stowe, or Morrisville.  It has lake access, spacious campsites, and is fairly quiet.   It offers a scenic hike to a fire tower with panoramic views of both sides of Elmore Mountain and a much shorter nature trail.

We invited a few other families to join us on this trip and we were delighted Mike and Rachel and their kids were able to make it.

Elmore is only 40 minutes from home, but some strange force in the universe decided it wasn't going to make this an easy trip for anyone.  Friday morning Mike emailed letting us know he found a flat tire on his truck but hoped to have it repaired in time to depart.   He Made it.   But we too found a tire problem when we tried to leave town at 5pm.    We heard the distinctive thump, thump, thump of a low/flat tire.  After a quick inspection, I found one of the inside dualies on our motorhome was very low.   We thought a trip to the gas station might help but nope.   We needed the spare.  We returned home, and due to a dispatching problem with AAA, we were not on the road until after 9pm.    Arriving around 10pm at Elmore we parked on our site and crashed for the night. 

Saturday morning started with some cooler temps but things quickly warmed up.  Mike, Rachel, and the kids joined us for breakfast.  Over breakfast we some of us decided on a hike to the fire tower.   Mike and his daughter opted for a paddleboat ride across the lake.    On the hike, we encountered an unusual amount of dogs on the trail.   Great to see all the dog people taking their pets along for some time outdoors.  The tower hike has three different levels of hiking.  Easy, Moderate, and Moderate+.   A portion of the trail can be done as a loop if desired.  We chose straight up/down.   The views were wonderful.  Especially the panoramic view from the top of the tower.   When we finally returned to the campground our daughter decided she was going to swim.   Which didn't last long, but she's braver than the rest of us for trying.   We spent Saturday night around the fire cooking a dutch oven enchilada bake.  Which seemed to be well-liked by everyone.  

Sunday was another nice breakfast shared with Mike, Rachel, and family.   Pancakes!  Something Mike and I cook a lot of at the Family Camp-out our families usually host Labor Day weekend.   We took our time to pack and our family decided on another short hike along the nature trail before we departed.   

Rachel, Andrea and myself.

The hikers: Andrea, Rachel, Rachel Logan, and Aaron 

Lake Elmore from the fire tower trial.

Lake Elmore from the top of the fire tower. 

Rachel goes swimming!

Rachel unimpressed. 

The Fate of a Habituated Rock Squirrel

The Fate of a Habituated Rock Squirrel

Story by Rachel Brassard

The Food

Sandsilt the Rock Squirrel had found the perfect food source. It was constant, reliable, and delicious! And the best part was, it was so easy to get. All Sandsilt had to do was look cute and friendly, and the dumb Peoplemonkey things would feed him. It was great! He barely even remembered how to forage, but Sandsilt didn’t need to forage anymore. He had found a good, steady source of food, and he was positive it would never run out. Sandsilt would never need to look for food again.

He was sitting on one of the walls of flat rocks that the Peoplemonkeys made. Sandsilt didn’t know what was the point of these walls, they were short enough that he could jump up on them and run along them, and a People could definitely get over it. Peoplemonkeys did weird things. But the wall was very handy for running on and begging for food, as Sandsilt was doing now.

A small People came around the corner, and Sandsilt did his best to look adorable and cuddly when it saw him. It worked. 

“Yes yes. Feeed me. FEEEED SANDSILT!” Sandsilt chirped. The small People turned around and yelled something to another Peoplemonkey. The other Peoplemonkey was bigger, and Sandsilt could tell that he was a male, unlike the smaller People who was female. The male People took a shell off his back, reached inside and pulled out a bag of food. Sandsilt ran toward him, stood up his hind legs and begged. The People said something to the other one, then handed the food to her. And then she fed him. 

“Yum yum yum! Good People. Good Peoplemonkey. Yum yum food!” Sandsilt had had this kind of nut before, he thought it was called peanut or maybe pooglenoot, or something like that. Anyway, it was good.

After getting food from that People, Sandsilt was wanting more food. He didn’t really need more, he wasn’t hungry, but why not? As long as there was food, Sandsilt would eat it. Farther down the trail, Sandsilt saw another Peoplemonkey, this one holding a piece of food. He ran towards it. The People was saying something to another Monkey who was walking beside him. Sandsilt ran up to them and tried to get the attention of the People. The one holding the food glanced at him, but didn’t give up the food, which Sandsilt could see was a white piece of, what was it called… Bread? Bryd? Bryd, I think it was. There was two pieces of bryd, with a green leafy thing, and a piece of… A piece of ham!! The most delicious thing Sandsilt had ever eaten. Ham. Oh, Sandsilt would have that.

Sandsilt ran right up to the Peoples and looked as adorable as he possibly could. The Monkey with the bryd glanced at him again, but still he would not give up the ham!

“Bad, bad! GIVE ME HAM, you Monkey!” Sandsilt screeched. The Peoples looked at him and just kicked dust at him.

“HOW DARE YOU?! THAT HAM IS MINE!” Sandsilt was fuming, rage coursing through his body, numbing his senses, dulling his self control. He jumped up to the wall, ran at the Monkey and jumped onto his shoulder. He ran down the People’s arm and attacked his hand, biting, scratching, even wacking his tail against the Peoplemonkey’s hand. The People screamed, but Sandsilt hardly heard. He dropped the bryd, the green leaf, the ham, and Sandsilt kept attacking, barely registering what was happening around him. The People flung his arm in the air, sending Sandsilt flying.

The end of the journey, but the beginning of something new.......

Our final stop on our cross country trip was New Haven/East Haven, Connecticut.  We didn't originally intend to make CT the last stop, but as we traveled Luke's college schedule solidified.  Orientation was going to take place August 18-20 and classes would start on the 23rd.   We adjusted our course and calendar to make sure Luke would be at the University of New Haven in time to get acquainted with the campus and attend the new student orientation.  It was also an opportunity to visit my in-laws on the beach in East Haven.  

It was a quick 2-day shot from the Chicago area, through Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, to Connecticut.  By this time, we were all tired of being on the road.  We made it arriving on Tuesday, August 17th.   

We attended some of the family events and helped Luke navigate some of the unfinished paperwork. Also, we checked out some of the campus restaurants, and took a look at the College of  Engineering building. 

While at Jim and Marie's we had a chance to swim in the ocean, eat ice cream, and visit. 

We thought Luke might attend his orientation and then come home with us for one last weekend.  After the first day of orientation, it became clear Luke was there to stay.  On Friday, 8/20 after 5 weeks of travel, we headed home to Vermont.  We left our son on his college campus with a big smile.  He ran off to catch up with his fellow engineering students, as they all got to know each other. 

GO LUKE!   GO CHARGERS!

  

- Aaron 

Illinois here we come!

After driving through eastern Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and the most cornfields anyone could imagine, we arrived at Erin & Ryan’s house. They live in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is a suburb northwest of Chicago. There was to be a neighborhood gathering at 5:30 pm, which we were invited to join. This is a regular Friday get-together with snacks, visiting, and cake to recognize the people with August birthdays. Afterward, we had pizza and salad that Erin & Ryan had ordered to their house. We also got to take showers, which was very welcome.

The next day, Saturday, we relaxed and since Erin & Ryan had just arrived back from their trip to Alaska, we shared photographs from our trips. In the afternoon, we decided to take a bike ride on a local recreational path. First order of business: check bikes. Erin is still riding the same bicycle she had in high school! And it had a flat tire. Ryan's bike is a similar vintage. Later, we walked to the Arlington Heights downtown area to eat at Javier's, a Mexican restaurant. It is a nice area, blocked off to traffic, and a lot of people seemed to be out enjoying this hot summer night. http://www.javiers.biz/

On Sunday on our way out of the Chicagoland area, we stopped at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for a few hours at the beach. The great lakes look just like the ocean to the unknowing eye, with big waves, and sandy beaches. But off in the distance, you can see the Chicago skyline.

To the ROCKIES!!!!

Hearing about the I-70 washout and the detour took us by surprise.  We considered skipping the Rockies but decided to continue.  The detour took us nearly 3 hours and over the 9,500 feet Rabbit Ear pass.  It's amazing to think the only available detour route would take that long and bring us that high.  When we reached the peak we pulled off and let RV transmission take a break.  Little did we know, that was not the biggest climb of the day.  After completing the detour, and back on I-70 we passed the town of Silverthorn, CO.  We started a climb that brought us to the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel.  The tunnel sits at an elevation of 11,013 feet at the East Portal and 11,158 feet at the West Portal. 

The tunnel traverses through the Continental Divide.  When originally opened in the 1970s, the tunnel was not only the highest vehicular tunnel in the U.S, but at that time it was also the highest in the world.  Needless to say, the RV earned a gold star for the day.  Once over the Rockies, we passed Denver, went through Boulder, and on to Estes Park, and the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

When we finally arrived in Estes Park we quickly found our campground, Hermit Park open space, Bobcat Campground.  Now, if you go to Google maps, and look for Bobcat Campground it appears to be just off the main road.  Not so in reality.  Hermit Park open space is off the main road, but it has many campgrounds and Bobcat was set 3 miles into the woods up a twisty, winding, switchback dirt road.  It was not a bad campground, but the 3 mile, 10 mph drive, was rough on the camper.  We had a nice stay but we set out the next morning to find a campground that was closer to the National Park.  With a great deal of luck, we were able to get a site at Moraine Park Campground inside the National Park.  From there we were able to access the bus system and head to Bear Lake and Glacier Gorge.  We did two short hikes and visited with some animals.  Rachel worked on her Junior Ranger book and dipped her toes in Bear Lake, while the rest of us took pictures and enjoyed the pristine environment.

A note about the Rocky Mountains in 2021:  For some reason, this is the only park that made us reserve a time to enter the park, and restricted us to specific parts of the park.  They also shut down 40% or more of the camping capacity, so if you plan a trip make sure to check the restrictions.

When we finally started to explore the park we found amazing views of the mountains, crystal clear lakes, and wildlife.  It was a great deal of work to get to this park, but in the end, it was probably worth the extra effort.   -- Aaron