Another Summer Evening Drive

Funny how I've located all the different ways to get to the grocery store in the various surrounding communities...

Headed up to St. Albans for groceries and clothes for ever-growing Daughter.  The quick way is to head over to Rte 104 and then to Georgia & up the interstate.  You can also travel up (up meaning North or Northwest, or Northeast - you head "over" to Burlington, "down" to Woodstock or Montpelier, and everything else seems to be "up") to Bakersfield on Rte 108 (see previous post), then cut West on Rte 36 to St. Albans.

Anyhoo,  coming or going, my favorite way to get there from here (and you can), when I have the time, is to take the back way through Fletcher and Fairfield.  From the hard top in Cambridge just b4 the "wrong-way" bridge, veer right onto Pumpkin Harbor Road.  The name changes to Cambridge Road as soon as you cross the Fletcher town line.  While there are quite a few new houses along this road, there are also older farmhouses (usually sans barn) that people have fixed up, or at least kept from falling completely to the ground.  You'll pass Metcalf Pond Road on the right (a beautiful pond to canoe/kayak/fish on) and soon come to the 4-way stop in Fletcher.  Straight at the 4-way up the long hill.  You'll be on South Road heading toward Fairfield.  At the top of this hill is a large farm and Half-Moon Pond where Canada geese flock by the hundreds in the fall on their way to warmer climes.

This is hill-farming country.  Several farms exist on this winding road - you will angle to the right around a sharp corner, pitch down a fair-sized hill, then at an abandoned, but still in good shape, 1-room schoolhouse, angle back to the left. A hidden valley will open up in front of you, completely surrounded by forests and hills.  I've been through this valley when the mist is rising from the hay fields, and it truly is skin-prickling.  I know there are places like this all over the country, but this one is near me...

You'll see another (brick) 1-room schoolhouse that has been added to for a home, where Buck Hollow Road from Fairfax meets South Road on the left.  There are also a few lovely brick homes from full 2-story to 1-1/2 story capes.  A very nice example sits on the left before you come into the village of Fairfield.  It has the half-windows on the 2d story that sit close to the upper floor.  This whole area was settled in the late 1700s, but most of the oldest houses date from the 1820s or later.

At the blinking light in Fairfield (another one of those VT hill towns that seems stopped in time), turn left onto Rte 36 coming in from Bakersfield, as mentioned above.  This well-traveled east/west road will bring you past more farm country with long rolling hills - almost flat by Vermont standards.  There is also a wildlife management area (a.k.a. huge swamp) at the base of the last hill heading into St. Albans.  From there, if you look at the top of the hill in front of you slightly to the left, you should be able to glimpse what looks like a white golf ball in the trees.  This is an old air defense radar station, still in use.  The site began operation in 1951 during the Cold War and a Radar Squadron manned the search radar until 1979 when the FAA assumed control of the site. The FAA continues to operate a search radar there today in the former radar tower.  Highly mysterious!  I don't think you can get into the site, and I know of no "tours" or anything, so it must still be fairly secretive.

A breathtaking view awaits you as you crest this last hill.  You realize just how high up you are as the Champlain Valley opens up with Lake Champlain dominating the scene.  Canada, New York, and the Lake Champlain Islands - best viewed at sunset, which is absolutely spectacular.  As a side trip, head out on Lake street to St. Albans Bay.  Lovely park lakeside for a picnic.

The reverse trip affords fabulous views in several locations of the Mt. Mansfield range.  My favorite is after Half-Moon Pond.  You've come over the crest of the hill, and are starting to pitch down the other side when the valley just opens up to you - villages of Fletcher and Binghamville, huge red barn slightly to the right down the hill, and Mt. Mansfield in front of you.

But, the BEST, in my opinion, is at the very bottom of that hill, right across from the license-plate-sided garage.  If you slow down to a crawl, and look to your left after North Road, there is a small waterfall and tiny old mill pond.  I've seen it surrounded by tall grasses and wildflowers, with ice barely covering it, and with autumn leaves floating in it - never loses it's magic for me.  So simple, yet so striking to me.  Of course the mill is no longer there, but it's the nature that remains, and always will when the human creations around it crumble.

Happy Independence Day & safe travels!