Proctorsville to Ludlow

Jo Anne, these bee pics are for you. Our innkeeper is also a beekeeper. 

I sat in front of the fire again this morning with my tea. 

This quilt was made by a guest who stayed at the inn and loved the bees.

View from the breakfast room. Excuse the reflection of the inside lights. 

Here’s a better one Sonia took from her room. 

Non-dairy yogurt with fruit and raw honey from their hives and a gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin muffin. It’s so good I got the recipe. Turns out the recipe is from King Arthur, which has a store and bakery about 45 minutes away. We are going to make a stop there after our walk tomorrow. 

Pure Vermont maple syrup

Gluten free French toast, egg from the hen house and local sausage. 

Kim had egg with Vermont cheddar 

Planters on the bridge

Views from both sides of the bridge. You can see the railway bridge in the background. 

And here’s the railway bridge still in slight fog. 

Love the bus stop sign, and the buses are painted like cows too. 

The Methodist church 

Don’t know if you can see all the detail on this house but it’s beautiful!

Turn left here

It was really foggy this morning but is starting to lift now. 

How did just the bark remain on this tree?

A slight detour to avoid a really dangerous curve on the main road. 

He served in the revolutionary war and lived for 91 years. 

The burgundy barn that was the landmark for the next turn. 

Small vineyard across the road from the turn. 

And here’s the turn 

Look at all the red on this squirrel. 

The power at this substation has traveled over 150 miles from hydroelectric dams in Canada with most of the cable length being buried beneath Lake Champlain and is used to power all the communities around here. 

These blue tubes are used to gather the sap from the maples. 

Another turn on the walk. 

This is a sharp left turn. The instructions say if you get to the yellow sign with a rider on a horse (up on the right in the photo), you’ve missed the turn. It’s a pretty obvious turn so kind of hard to miss. 

The tannin prints are just fascinating to me. Here a leaf has fallen on the ground. 

This one has been flattened onto the ground by the rain and has become transparent. 

This is the print left from a leaf. 

If you’ve ever tried to make eco-prints, you know how time consuming and tedious the process is. 

When you see this sign you take the next left to go up to the pinnacle. 

The pinnacle 

Okema ski mountain, the summit stands at 3,344’ and it has the largest vertical drop in southern Vermont, 2200’

Killington ski mountain is out there somewhere but I couldn’t tell you which one it is. 

Lots of the farms have stands selling their maple syrup and honey. 

After many miles (3 more than necessary) I arrive at the Governor’s Inn. 

An amazing slate fireplace. 

Pictures painted on slate, all original to the house. 

Beautiful stained glass

Our afternoon snack.

One thing I can say about this walking tour is they feed you well. Breakfast, snacks for your walk, a snack plate when you arrive and a 3-course dinner. 

Front of the Inn. 

This is our room. 

Dinner table 

Menu

Appetizer of cold avocado soup

Pork chop and butternut squash over quinoa pilaf 

And dessert was maple panna cotta with oranges 

So, a little explanation about why the walk was 3 miles longer than necessary. 

The instructions said, at the 4-way, clearly marked with street signs, take a right onto Commonwealth Ave. I got to the stop sign, but it wasn’t a 4-way stop sign, and there was no Commonwealth Ave street sign so I kept walking. After walking another mile and a half downhill, and never finding a 4-way stop sign, I knew I had to be going too far so I flagged down the next driver and asked him where Commonwealth Ave was. He said it’s back at the intersection. So, I walked back up the hill to the only stop sign for miles and turned, finally making my way to the pinnacle. When we were sitting outside talking with the group after the walk, Diane said it doesn’t say 4-way stop sign. It says 4-way intersection. I clearly misread the instructions adding 3 miles to my walk today. 

This is what the route should look like.

This is what mine looked like. See the extra little leg I added in the middle???

Total elevation gain today should have been 1140’. I gained 1430’. 

Walk should have been 10.7 miles. I walked 14.5 and 33,048 steps. Lesson learned. READ the instructions carefully!!!