[RunawayJim]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Is skiing better in NH?

Depends on the winter and the snow (duh). There are many mountains in NH that will either get hammered or get nothing when VT gets buried because of their location and natural features (Cannon, my personal favorite mountain, is known for ice and wind and the cloud that hangs over the mountain... it often misses storms because it's location in Franconia Notch keeps the storms out).

But, realistically, you cannot judge the entire state of NH and the entire state of VT when it comes to skiing. All mountains have their pros and cons and features that make them unique. I won't ski Sunapee unless I have to because the trails are crazy wide and not particularly difficult. They have "natural" trails that they don't groom and "natural" areas of trails that are ungroomed sections to the side. But they're all boring. Cannon is my favorite because it feels more "New England" with winding trails that can be a bit narrower and with less grooming. Okemo is more similar to Sunapee in its trails, though it's a more interesting mountain overall than Sunapee. Smugglers' Notch is more like Cannon (actually, I love the fact that Smuggs lacks high speed lifts).

VT does have more ski areas more accessible across the entire state (because the mountains run the entire length of the state) and NH has them concentrated in the White Mountains (because there are no mountains in southern NH). But it's not really something I'd say that one state has better skiing than the other. Skiing in New England is about where the snow is. It's rare that all of northern New England gets the same snow. It ultimately comes down to the mountain.

I actually like skiing Sunday River in Maine. It's got a bit of everything and it's so spread out that it's easy to avoid people (I hate crowded trails, which is why I love Cannon and Smuggs).

[68vette]

Originally Posted by Targo

Are you serious? Really?


Geographically VT, NH, MA and CT are very different. The mountains in NH are of a much larger scale, MA is flatter and CT even more so. The differences are clear when traveling north to south or east to west. Eastern NY is more like central [north to south] VT.

I find that the people do change state to state but less so the more rural the area. State cultures are just different and it's more apparent the further you get into each state.




Go live in the west and then say living in Chitt doesn't make the state accessible. When I lived in Utah for a while we'd drive 3 hours on the weekend just to visit a friend. Seems like everything out west took 2-4 hours of driving. I won't even bother with my time in TX other than to say, no matter where you're going, when you get to TX you're only half way there. Three hours in VT takes you from Canada to MA!

There is tons of amazing things to do within 40 minutes of burlington. If you don't make the time, that's your issue not a lack of access. 40 minutes takes anyone from the countless opportunities of the Champlain Valley north to the Canadian border down to almost addison or to the top of the Green Mountains and all the possibilities they hold.

I guess it's about you priorities in life. TV and the Internet seem to be the main activity of a lot of people that don't have any time. [not suggesting you 68, just an observation]

Bottom line and a total cliché but when you live anywhere in VT and you aren't working, you're on vacation.

A very incomplete list of what's available within 40 minutes if you're based in west central VT;

Sailing
Waterskiing
Sailboarding
Kiteboarding
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Lake fishing
River fishing
Jet skiing
Museums [several]
Historic sites [several]
Swimming
Shooting [clay target/rifle/pistol sports]
Biking [road/MT and path]
Hiking/walking
Hunting
Skiing [alpine/XC/snowboarding. A year round world class biathlon facility]
Tennis
Rock climbing [indoors and out]
Paint ball
ATV riding
Camping [at one of several state parks or on the Long Trail]
Artisan crafts [glass blowing/etc.]
Farm tours
Canoeing [lake/flat or white water]
Speciality "food" [breweries/coffee/cheese/etc.
Dog shows/events
Snowmobiling
Car shows [antique/British/hotrod]
Food wine tasting events
Hot air ballon shows/rides
Horse shows
Bird watching [the hawk migration from Mt. Philo is amazing]
Just plain going for a walk in the deep woods [without a map or cell phone!]
Endless speciality events in Stowe, the MRV and other towns not to mention all of those in Burlington.

Things are what you make of them I guess.

My point is if you were in the Adirondacks, Berkshires, Green Mountains or most of the White mountains near each states border you would not be able to tell what state you are in. They are all wooded mountains. The only way to tell is if you recognized a landmark mountain. Anyone traveling from another state to the Northeast would not be able to tell one state from another. It's like going to the Rockies and knowing what state you are in if you didn't know landmarks.

What my point was about activities outside of Chittenden County, is most people (even those that are active) don't go out of the area for activities. There are many reasons why this happens. For a good chunck of the year, it's dark when you get up and dark or dusk when you get out of work. Families also don't just jump up and head out to do activities when kids have homework, after school activities, etc. Summer and weekends it's more likely, but almost everything on the list you made can be done within a few minutes of any town in Chittenden County or any state for that matter. You need to be in a city to not have access to most things on the list and even then, some cities have many of those activities. Chicago is the perfect example, you can do about 3/4 of that list within a few minutes of the downtown.
For single people or couples without children, this is probably a different story.

[Targo]

Originally Posted by 68vette

My point is if you were in the Adirondacks, Berkshires, Green Mountains or most of the White mountains near each states border you would not be able to tell what state you are in. They are all wooded mountains. The only way to tell is if you recognized a landmark mountain. Anyone traveling from another state to the Northeast would not be able to tell one state from another. It's like going to the Rockies and knowing what state you are in if you didn't know landmarks.

You wrote

...but I have yet to find a person who is able to distinguish the difference between one of these states from each other. All that is there is a state border. People, landscape, etc don't change because of a state line. Laws and policies are what are different, but that is another story.

Perhaps you meant to say

..near each states border you would not be able to tell what state you are in.

in the original post but you didn't.

State topography is similar [very similar in many cases] buy not entirely homogenous. I find it pretty easy to know I'm not in the the Adirondack or Green Mountains when I'm up in the White Mountains. A few miles into Mass from VT……not so much. It wouldn't take much time to figure out that you were in a cedar swamp in Maine and not VT though.

Originally Posted by 68vette

What my point was about activities outside of Chittenden County, is most people (even those that are active) don't go out of the area for activities. There are many reasons why this happens. For a good chunck of the year, it's dark when you get up and dark or dusk when you get out of work. Families also don't just jump up and head out to do activities when kids have homework, after school activities, etc. Summer and weekends it's more likely, but almost everything on the list you made can be done within a few minutes of any town in Chittenden County or any state for that matter. You need to be in a city to not have access to most things on the list and even then, some cities have many of those activities. Chicago is the perfect example, you can do about 3/4 of that list within a few minutes of the downtown.
For single people or couples without children, this is probably a different story.

You said living in Chitt didn't make the rest of the state accessible. Clearly Chitt makes much of the state very accessible and certainly much more so than living in Bennington or Newport does. Whether an individuals avails themselves of that access is up to them and their situation. I know a lot of families that do. Families aren't just defined as such when you have children between 0 and 18 years old.

[RunawayJim]

Originally Posted by 68vette

For single people or couples without children, this is probably a different story.

That right there is the big difference. If you don't have children, you have more time. It also depends on priorities. If being in the outdoors or enjoying the "city" life of Burlington is important to you, you make time for it, even if it's only 25% of your time. It still keeps the rest of what VT has to offer accessible. And there are benefits to living in Chittenden County that you don't get in another suburban area. As a beer lover (and even if I had kids, I'd still love beer), I couldn't live in the Albany area and find Hill Farmstead on tap or Heady Topper available nearby. As a lover of lakes, I couldn't walk down the street and find myself on the shore of one of the biggest lakes in the northeast. As a skier, how many ski areas are within a 1-1.5 hour drive in Albany vs Burlington? (I honestly don't know the answer to that, though it shouldn't be hard to figure out.) Replace Albany with any other suburban area... Waterbury, CT... Great Barrington, MA... Ithaca, NY... (ok, Ithaca has a lot of what Burlington has to offer, minus the beer and probably less skiing).

Even the food in VT is quite different from similar areas. You have far more "farm-to-table" type restaurants than anywhere else I've seen. The quality of the food is better. More ingredients come from local farmers than elsewhere. There's far more to an area than simply how it looks when you drive into it. Chittenden County is most definitely VT... just without the quaint look of the rest of the state.