Capturing the Moment

The old Sugar Shack   The hiking action here in Stowe is really starting to impress me. The options for fun family hikes seem to abound at every turn. After taking to the Stowe Bike Path for a beautiful 7 mile ride during the kids midday nap, Heidi and I grabbed Catalina and Fisher and headed to the Wiessner Woods.     Filled with great trails, the Weissner Woods had a few surprises in store beyond the beautiful trees. The old sugar shack still stands, although it is locked up now. Catalina had maple syrup for the first time a few days ago so it was fun for her to put together that this was a place where it was made at one time. The Gnomes   The big surprise came in a small form. It seems a bunch of gnomes have made a corner of this forest their own. Catalina really enjoyed walking around the 'gnome home' and finding all the different little statues. It is true what people say about one of the great joys of being a parent is being able to see the world ...

   There are numerous waterfalls around Stowe, VT, and the expansive trail system means some of them are easily accessible. Catalina and I recently checked out the beautiful Bingham Falls trail, and today we set off again to experience Sterling Falls Gorge.   The drive took us high above the town of Stowe, off into the farmlands and forest. We had great views of the surrounding mountains layering off as far as we could see. I will need to come back up here for photography at some point. The way turns into a winding, up and down graded dirt road. There is a nice little parking lot with an informational sign. The trail seemed to go along the river here but we ended up on a network of cross country skiing trails which would be an absolute dream in winter time. We ended up doubling back and finding that we needed to go back to the road, walk across a bridge, and find our trailhead there.   The trail had a line up and a 'closed' sign, but it seemed to have been put ...

 As we get settled into our summer life here in Vermont, Catalina and I headed out into the surrounding wilderness to do a bit of exploring. Our first place to explore was the Mill Trail, which heads out through the woods to a waterfall known as Bingham Falls.    The trailhead was only a five minute drive away from our house. The first part of the trail is through a hardwood forest protected by the Stowe Land Trust. There is an old mill, cabin, and other relics from farms in the 1800's. The stream has multiple entry points that will be good for picnics and swimming as the temperature warms up during the summer.    Then another fifteen minutes over Smugglers Notch State Park land takes you to a series of cascading waterfalls which fall a total of 90ft over 5 cascades. This is Bingham Falls. We found some beautiful swimming holes under some of the cascades. I decided I would come back with Heidi sometime to check these swimming holes out.    Other than a...