Vermont and the Bridge of Flowers

I had a good day riding through some of Vermont today. Saw a lot of trees ! Also, saw lots of roads with nice bends in them – yeah! 213 miles of mainly twisty roads – heaven!

I woke early (I still cannot shake off 0530 mornings from so many years of waking at that time for work) and opened the curtains to the motel to see this view, so I had to grab my camera....





















A good start to the day, methinks.

Just a short way from the motel, I started to see many things with an Native Indian theme. I then realised I was riding along part of the Mohawk Trail. Much was very commercial, so I rode passed much I what I saw, but not too far into my morning I found a statue called “Hail to the Sunrise”, which is in memory of the Mohawk Indian. It is a life size sculpture dated 1932, of a Mohawk welcoming the sun as it rises, so I thought it appropriate that I include the sun in the photo I took of it. I was quite pleased with the end result....




























Just a little further on, I found what must be the smallest school I have ever seen. This is appropriately called “The Little Red School” and this is dated 1828. I tried to picture what the school kids must have looked like as they attended the school nearly 200 years ago....





















I then found something quite remarkable and I loved it. Wait for it.... it is a place with flowers..... ! Yes I know flowers are not normally the subject of biking blogs, but this is well worth a mention. I had heard about a place where an old and largely un-used bridge was taken over by the local women who put flowers on it, and it became known as the Bridge of Flowers. Not normally being one to be interested in things horticultural, I thought I would take a quick look and be on my way. Well, I was blown away be this bridge, as what the local women have done to it is stunning. It is at a place called Shelburne Falls in Massachusetts and the bridge was originally opened in 1908 as a trolley bridge between the towns on either side of the Deerfield River. The 400 foot long bridge was abandoned with the passing of the trolley line in 1928.

In 1929 the local Woman’s Club had the idea of transforming the structure into a flower bridge and have kept it going ever since. Just take a look at these pictures....








































































































































































As you can see, the transformation from a bridge into a Bridge of Flowers is quite something. Ok, no more talk about flowers. I promise.

This is a picture of Shelburne Falls....



























There is nothing very remarkable about the falls themselves, but right next to them are some strange circular holes in the rock that are called Glacial Potholes and were formed during the last ice-age. I can’t imagine how they were formed, but they are pretty cool....



























The next two pictures are especially for my friend Ian Solley, who nearly always rides his 7 Ages custom bikes wearing Converse footwear. I rode passed and then stopped at something called the 3rd Street Sculpture Park, which basically is somewhere for kids to try their hand at street art. The quality of the first picture below isn’t very good, but I have included it to show the size of the sculpture, which is a pair of bright red Converse shoes. So Ian, just for you....



















































Being an engineer, I like things like bridges and large structures, so after a huge portion of pork, mash potatoes and gravy (yum, but there goes the diet again!), I went to see Townshend Dam. As you can see, the water level is very low compared to the top of the dam an I had heard of water shortages in the northeast and this goes to show that they must be short of a lot of water!





















I was now well into Vermont and you cannot help but be struck by its beauty....



































































Oops, how did another bridge picture get in here?

Skiing obviously plays a big part of life in Vermont. I was talking to a local who said there are really only two seasons in these parts – Winter and July! It is easy to see what he meant, with the beauty of the countryside in full bloom at this time of year and all of the hints about what the rest of the year must be like – there are snowploughs, snowmobiles, ski shops, ski resorts, ice warning signs and other snow related stuff everywhere. This is the Stratton Ski resort, which looks as if it has been lifted from Switzerland....



























I liked the way these school buses were all lined up....





















I had seen on my mapping software that there was one road that appeared to go from the base to the peaks of one ski resort at Mt. Okemo. I couldn’t resist the 3200 foot climb and the view from the top was stunning, which this picture doesn’t do justice to due to the haze there was today....





















On the way back down I stopped to look down some of the ski-runs. It is strange to think that the place on the road where I stopped is part of the ski-run and that skiers slide over the snow covering the roadway probably without even realising what is under their skis. The view down looks very steep without snow....





















Finally, this lake is near where I am staying tonight. It was good of the people to smile and wave as this guy on a Harley stopped and took a picture of them....