Foliage Report Route 12

[pwt54]

Yesterday my brother and I had planned a foliage tour of the Adirondacks, but at the last minute we decided to scout out central VT after what we saw on route 100 the day before. Good thing. After a big breakfast at the Wayside in Montpelier we went to I-89 south and headed for the Northfield exit. Before we got to I-89 we stooped and looked back at the hillsides in the Calais/Woodbury area. Things are looking good over there. That’s good because ctyanky was planning to wander around there. We got off exit 5 and headed down to route 12 south and turned left. We drove south on route 12 and were disappointed with the colors. The maples have gone by. When we got to route 66 in Randolph, we decided to take that to route 14 and see how things were over there. In Randolph Center we pulled off the road and use our binoculars to check out Roxbury Mountain and the surrounding hills. Lots of color over there with plenty of red and orange showing. We are thinking that folks should do route 12 south from Montpelier to Northfield and then do route 12A to the end in Randolph. (Note; look for the general store in Northfield Falls on the right side and turn right on the road just before it. 3 covered bridges. Also, 1/3 of a mile south of the general store and on the right side of route 12 is the Slaughterhouse Road. Covered bridge there.) Onto route 14. I’m not a big fan of route 14 between East Randolph and route 107 for foliage viewing. The trees close to the road are not colorful and block the view of the hillsides which are colorful Route 14 north and south of this area are pretty good, however, and the road itself is a nice country ride. We took route 107 west through Bethel and onto route 100 south. Colors are good in this area. Even sections of route 12 that we could see looked good. Route 100 south from route 107 to route 103 in Ludlow are peaking and looked good. (The maple creamees at the Green Mountain Sugarhouse were great and they now serve them all year.) We took route 103 to route 140 and then route 140 west to Tinmouth. Some bare trees in the highlands in Mt. Holly, but otherwise it’s early but nice right now. Next weekend should be ready. We drove to the cemetery on the Old Otis Road that I wanted to photograph. Bummer! All of the maple trees turned yellow. Snapped a few photos and went to the Danby Pawlet Road and turned right. I was planning on driving to route 133 but my brother bugged me to take a road called the Lilly Hill Road. He does have a good idea once in a while. NICE road! It has some great views and while the colors were early, it shows a lot of promise. I’ll be back during next year’s peak to check it out. This road goes between the Danby Pawlet Road and route 133. We took routes 133 and 140 to route 30 in Poultney and route 30 north to route 73 west to route 22A north. The colors were early all the way. The weekend after this coming one will be the best time for this whole area. We checked out the snow geese at the Dead Creek Wildlife and they were up to the fence. We stayed there until sunset, when the whole flock just lifted up and flew to the back field. Then we went home.