Relaxing in the Green Mountains

Day 7:

This might have been one of my favorite days on the whole trip and one of the days I have the least details to give. We awoke to the smell of trees and grass in Little River State Park.  Everything there is a bright shade of green. The only place we had in memory to compare it to was The Smokies, this may have been due to the fog that hung in the dense treetops in the morning making the colors more vibrant. It’s not like the heavy fog and rain of the Pacific Northwest, making trees into wizards with their long mossy tendrils in beardy evergreens, this is more like a spring mist that moves off throughout the day and lightly slips back in as the night turns cool.

I am a person who still requires a daily shower and find that most places we camp have accommodations for that. National Parks don’t typically have showers and I find ways to get by. State Parks almost always do. In the desert (like on our Utah road trip for instance) there were token showers that gave an allotted amount of time and each camper was only allowed a certain number of tokens. In some parks this is for pumping and heating the water, in the desert it is typically due to water conservation. This State Park had pay showers on a timer but they were reasonably priced so I showered ($.50 for 4 mins – I can work with that).  After cleaning up, we had breakfast played around at the campsite for a bit, and hiked down to the campground’s private lake access beach. It was incredibly clear water, made from a reservoir in the river. There were forested mountains surrounding us and boats, kayaks, and paddle boarders out further on the water. We swam, skipped rocks and played for a few hours. There was a group of three couples lounging in and out of the water and reading on the beach, and a group of ladies chatting and playing with a little boy by the water’s edge. Otherwise, we had the place to ourselves. It was so peaceful.

After our swim, we decided to go into the nearby capital city of Vermont, Montpelier.  It was a cute town – the smallest US capital we were told by a local who introduced us to his famous dreadlocked dog – we saw the gold domed capitol building, shopped in the local toy and book stores – buying a few used books for the drive, and hung out at a coffee shop reading and snacking. I checked out the local zines – there was a whole rack in the middle of the coffee shop – reading about opinions on society and the punk rock lifestyle. There is a fine arts school in Montpelier and it shows. There is a very creatively open vibe about the place.  It was really relaxing. We made a stop to pickup maple syrup before we left and headed back to camp for our dinner of pancakes and eggs.

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