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Originally Posted by Rozenn
Southern Italy is the only place where I've seen burned grass like that. So yeah, from now on, I'll associate burned grass with southern Italy... and London!
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What about California?
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Great pics! How many miles was the trip?
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Three days, about 200 miles. Well, there was a fourth day that I biked 50 miles but it was more of a bike ride than trip day.
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You never have issues finding a place to set up your tent?
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Eh. I plan ahead to find camping spot, can make routing a bit awkward as they're often spread out.
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Looks like a great spot to place a weather station and see how cold it gets on clear, calm winter nights.
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Good point, though. No station there, but the two nearby stations are in valleys with similar topography. Both have average lows around 5°F.
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Love the small town/city shots. There's a bigger, similarly named city in southern France, though it looks pretty different. I think I'd prefer living in the Vermont one, if only for the climate. I've heard the state is more liberal than nearby New Hampshire?
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Yea, I made sure to add more town shots since posters have mentioned they like them.
The Vermont one is tiny, though the town center felt large for its size, drawing on the surrounding rural region + tourism + a boost for being the state capital.
Yes, it's more liberal than New Hampshire. Part of the reason is it's gotten a lot of liberal transplants, though the rural non-transplant areas usually vote Democratic by a decent margin. Many of those areas aren't exactly cosmpolitan; overall most of rural Vermont looked poorer than home, houses looked less fancy and a lot more trailer homes.
State was filled with political signs, but there were almost all on local elections; very few on the presidential election.
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Generally, much colder air aloft means more convection and easier for clouds to build up.
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duh, should have known that. Still, plenty of times cold airloft doesn't have much clouds except for a few puffy clouds. Front that had just passed must have created more instability.
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Neat light and sky. Might be my fave from the bunch. Great light on the following morning ones, too.
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Neat light is the price I have to pay for getting rained on, perhaps?
The foggy morning shots were from descending into the Connecticut River valley. I should try to pull up a satellite map of that morning, would I find a 200 mile line of fog?
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Looks much more northern than the other photos with taiga-looking forest and peatland. Did you make it to Quebec? Guess we'll find out soon.
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Sadly, no. I didn't plan the trip very well, and I was too picky on acceptable biking weather. Anyhow, rest of the trip. Next morning another downhill into valley fog. Though this time I didn't enter the valley fog; or the fog burnt off by the time I got there
Getting near the Green Mountains. Not that tall, but run the length of the state and rise relatively steeply forming a "spine" for the state.
This old car parked where I had breakfast. The locals were fascinated by it. Met a old lady (late 70s?) wearing bike shorts who warned I'd be walking my bike up the steep road I had planned to go on later that day.
More Green Mountain views on the way this morning:
[spoiler]
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Mt. Mansfield
Time up: about 2 hours
Elevation Gain: 2700 feet
Distance: 2.5 mile
Start time: 11:20 AM
then spent some time on a loop along the summit ridge, total time out hiking (and stopping) was six hours
Trail was smoother than most big mountain White trails, though still rocky
got scrambly near the summit
views from the top were rather hazy, the first photo wasn't too bad
supposedly you could make out the Adirondacks and Whites but could make out some shapes of the Adirondacks with no detail while I couldn't see the Whites at all.
took an interesting side trail near the summit.
Mountainside much more developed than most of the Whites. Resort town is near the base and then there were ski resort complexes much of the way on the road to the trailhead. Ski resorts come up with alternate ways down the mountain for summer:
More rocky trail
summit
ridge north of the summit
With almost two miles above treeline plus exposed rock on the side, was more rugged than I'd expect for its height. After coming back down, there was still a bit of climbing after the trailhead to the top of th notch. Not much more elevation, but it was very steep. Could see some rock on the notch walls
road narrows to one lane with sharp switchbacks. The grade maxes out at about 17% and the inside of the switchbacks are even steper. Made it to the first couple switchabacks, but then one of them was too much and I had to walk. Could pushed but if I could make it, the bicycle would tip over. If I could use the whole road it would lower gradient but there was too much traffic. The Green Mountain notches (passes) are steeper than the White Mountains passes for some reason. Haven't seen another busy mountain road narrow so much. Made it to the top:
Woman warning I'd walk was right. Descent was a bit less steep, though still steep and curvy near the top. Views of Mansfield from the west
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In Burlington, Vermont. It's a university town but it felt less dominated by the university than many university towns as it was also the largest city in the state. Though has a left-wing hippie reputation. Obviously small, but felt busy for its size. Lake Champlain waterfront
some town buildings
old train station, unused for trains but used for art exhibits. May get trains in a couple years
new buildings downtown
old buildings
mural on buildingsides
Pagan ritual?
Are they worshipping the Adirondacks? Lake? Or somehting else? The stones tell the time accurately but are unadjusted to daylight savings time.
bike path railing
in the other direction
Much hotter and more humid today. But the lake was swimmable. Lake temperature reported at 75°F but felt colder
care for some wine?
I made it to the "ferry to NY" though didn't take the ferry
The bike path runs for 2-3 miles on the lake with a short break requiring a ferry. more bike path
back in Burlington. Skate park. A lot of the skaters kept falling off.
evening looking at the Adirondacks
bike path on the waterfront
Burlington has a five block stretch of a pedestrain-only street lined with shops and restaurant. Surprised how busy it was, the city did a very job with its center
a
sunset over Lake Champlain
street near the waterfront looked like it had the oldest buildings in the city; I assume the city started along the lake waterfront
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