Phil's Phrantic Pholiage Tour

[pwt54]

Well, I’m back after a long foliage tour. I took route 100 south from Stowe to route 11 in Londonderry. Colors were pretty much gone down to the Pittsfield area near the road and at the higher elevations, but there is a strip of color in the middle elevations. Colors from Pittsfield south to Londonderry were mixed because of the amount of Pine and Oak trees. What colors were there were good. Weston village was a mad house! In Londonderry I turned left onto route 11 east and drove to route 121 to get to Grafton. I do not recommend this road for foliage. It’s just a nice ride that I haven’t done in a while. Take route 11 east to route 35 south in Chester village to get to Grafton. Colors are better. In fact colors look early around there. Grafton was calm except for the auction. At the east end of the village is a bridge. Right next to the bridge is the Kidder Hill Road. This road goes to a covered bridge. In the center of the village is the Townshend Road. This goes to the cheese factory. When I got to the factory I stopped for a break I went in and tested the cheese. Then I tested it again! I finished the Townshend Road to route 30 in Townshend and turned right. An observation here. I was driving into the sun most of the way down to Townshend. When I look at the hills ahead the look gray and bare. When I looked behind the colors looked dull. When I looked to the side the colors were bright. And when I got to that “Bare hill” ahead and looked the side, there was good color. I drove route 30 west to Manchester. Colors looked early until I got to the Jct. With route 11 near Bromley Mountain. There were a lot of bare trees up there. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the tent caterpillars chomped all the leaves there. I continued route 30 toward Manchester, but took some side roads to bypass Manchester. I drove route 30 west through Dorset to route 315 in Pawlet and drove route 315 to West Pawlet and 153 through West Rupert back to route 30 . Nice ride and the colors were coming along. Still early yet. Then I turned left and drove route 30 to Wells and then a side road out to route 133 north and drove north to Middletown Springs. Then I took route 140 east to route US 7 in Wallingford. A word about these 2 roads. They are paved country roads with views and some color. Route 140 goes from route 30 in Poultney to route 103 in East Wallingford. Route 133 goes from route 4a in West Rutland to route 30 in Pawlet. You can make a loop tour by taking route 140 from East Wallingford to route 30 south in Poultney. Drive route 30 south to route 133 in Pawlet and the drive route 133 to west Rutland. I went up to the Ponderosa in Rutland for supper. In the parking lot was a 1961 to 1963 red Ford Thunderbird convertible with the optional cover over the back seat. What a rig to leaf peep in ! What a great way to boost the oil company profits. Then I went home using routes US 7 and 116. By the time I got to route 116 the sun was setting so it was hard to tell how good the foliage was. From what I could see it looked good. Maybe BM can help on this. You may want to add route 116 to your list. Right now I would say anywhere south of route US 4 and along the Champlain Valley west of route 116 and south of Burlington is the place to be.

[bvahjen]

pwt, thanks for the tour you made near me. Sunday I went the back roads from Chester to the top of Okemo, climbed the fire tower and looked out. What a view! We then took 123 over to Ascutney and the toll road and hiked out to the hang glider launch. Bingo again, awesome views! I will follow your routing next time since it covers the area west of us. Thanks for all you do!

[pwt54]

That tour I did to help the leafpeepers. If it wasn't for that I'd still be wandering the back roads down there.