Smugglers Notch and a day of interesting GPS directions

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 15, 2022

Many times we get up early to go hiking before it gets hot. We didn't have to worry about the heat today, so we didn't leave until 9:00 to make the 35-mile trip to our trail head. As we often do, we set our GPS for directions to the Sterling Pond trail head in Smuggler's Notch in the Green Mountains of Vermont. With highs in the 50s in our campground, we knew it would be even cooler where we were heading in the mountains of Smugglers Notch. We headed up Highway 108, where 18-wheelers are not allowed. In fact, there is a series of signs at the base of the mountain to be sure trucks don't start up this pass. We thought the funniest sign was "Your GPS is wrong." We're hoping that doesn't apply to the GPS in our pickup.

A mile later a new sign insists that long trucks are prohibited up this road known for its hair-pin turns.

More signs are trying to convince truck drivers that they should turn around while they can. "You won't fit!" might tempt a driver to try, but the "Fines up to $4,000" should convince any truck driver not to proceed.

But our pickup had no trouble going up the pass on the curvy roads . . .

and then going down the 14% grade. I guess our GPS directions were all right.

Then we got to the hair-pin turns that are the tightest we have ever seen. It's hard to take a picture that illustrates it, but we now understand how a 45-foot truck would get stuck in these curves with no way to go forward or backward. Then no traffic could go either direction. It sounds like a $4,000 fine would be justifiable. The picture below is not of a parking lot, it is of us meeting cars on a 350-degree-hair-pin curve lined with trees and rock walls.

After all that talk about truck warnings, we found a parking place in the trail head lot. Then we started the hike up the steep trail towards Sterling Pond.

We are wearing our jackets and hoods and gloves because it is 40 degrees and windy on top of this mountain. Welcome to September in the Green Mountains!

We hiked past people working on the trail, who quickly stepped aside and covered their mouths and noses. We haven't seen the need to wear masks this summer, especially not outside.

Our destination was Sterling Pond, about 918 feet in elevation above the pass where we are parked.

We had planned to make this a 2.3-mile hike up to the pond and back. But instead, we decided to hike all the way around Sterling Pond. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

As we walked its entire shoreline, we can tell you that this body of water is big enough to be a lake, rather than just a pond.

Our hike continued to lengthen, as we decided to explore some of the ski slopes above Sterling Pond.

That took us to even higher points on the mountain, so that we were now looking down on Sterling Pond.

We were following the blue trail, but the trees were so dense and the trail was a bit confusing. We were looking for the blue paint trail markers in the trees we passed, but sometimes we lost them. So Mark was busy consulting with his Alltrails app, making sure that we hadn't lost the trail. Denisa had to take a picture of him looking at his phone for trail guidance, and totally missing the blue slash on the tree right beside him.

We have defintely wandered into God's wonders here in the Green Mountains today.

We've seen these beautiful blue flowers in the high meadows out west. It's good to see they can be found in the Green Mountains out east as well.

While we were so close, we might as well hike a little further to the top of Spruce Peak. From here we could see more ski runs on the mountains facing us.

We had a great view of Mount Mansfield--the tallest summit in Vermont. But the clouds continued to shroud the top, even though we spent a lot of time at the summit. We were waiting for the curtain to lift and show us the top of Mount Mansfield. 

We never did get a peek at the peak, so we continued on this loop hike that got longer and longer. It was chilly on the black diamond ski runs on top of Smuggler's Notch.

The lifts aren't running in September, but it won't be long before they are skiing here in Vermont.

It definitely feels like autumn is in the air. This is the first hike this year that we have needed our jackets all the way to the top and back. We usually work hard enough to shed a jacket, but not today.

We are really enjoying Vermont, and we wish we could stay around a little longer. The trees are already shedding a few of their brightly-colored leaves . . .

and we love to find red and orange leaves here in the Green Mountains. It's a colorful place!

When we got all the way back to the parking lot, we found that our planned 2.3-mile hike (with 918 feet in elevation gain) had lengthened to a 4.4-mile hike (with 1,342 feet gain). It's not unusual for us to double the distance on a hike, and we certainly enjoyed this hike. At the bottom of the mountain, we couldn't help but notice that these old trees have lost all the soil that anchored their roots many years ago.

After we finished our hike, we headed down the other side of the Smuggler's Notch pass. We set our GPS to take us to the Von Trapp Lodge. We had read about this section of Vermont that is nicknamed "Little Austria." The Von Trapp family was made famous in the musical "The Sound of Music," and we were looking forward to exploring the compound that bares their name. We were disappointed that it costs to park at The Von Trapp Lodge, and there's another fee to walk around the grounds. So we snapped a picture while we drove by. We did stop to eat an over-priced pastry at the Von Trapp Bakery for a little taste of Austria.

Then we set the GPS to take us to the little tourist town of Stowe, Vermont. It was a beautiful blue-sky-white-steeple day with a little nip of autumn in the air.

The traffic in Stowe was backed up on this day, so we would hate to be here during their busy summer or even busier fall leaf-peeping season. We're here in the slow season right between the two, and it's still crowded in Stowe. We're here to bike their town trail that features ten different bridges as it winds its way back and forth over the river that runs through town.

The trail is 5.3 miles long, so it took us out of town as well, for nice views of this green mountain state.

Corn is ready to be harvested in the middle of September along the trail.

Who can resist taking a picture of the green meadows filled with horses in the foreground, and the Green Mountains in the background?

The trail ends at Brookdale Covered Bridge, where we turned around to make the 5-mile trip back to the pickup.

We are in Vermont ski country, and it was interesting to see a rest stop on the trail with a ski lift chair instead of a park bench.

We were really impressed with the money that Stowe spent to build ten different bridges for a hike/bike trail. We can report that it was well-used, especially in the sections closest to town.

Once we got out of the traffic in Stowe, we set the GPS for the easy drive to get back to our campground. There's not many highway options through this mountainous part of Vermont, so it was a pretty simple route. But traffic suddenly came to a complete stop on the highway. An accident in front of us stopped all vehicles for miles on this narrow highway. After waiting for more than thirty minutes, we decided to consult with our GPS for another route. How about this much longer and much slower option that would take the more scenic route around the accident? That seems better than sitting at a complete standstill. That put us on more gravel roads where we could stop at more covered bridges. Denisa likes this option!

This is proof that even when we aren't looking for covered bridges, they sometimes find us. This is the Scribner Covered Bridge,

and this is Powerhouse Bridge.

This unexpected detour meant that it was a later trip home than we expected. But the GPS found some interesting places for us. The sun was low in the sky by the time we got to Cambridge Junction Bridge.

It was 55 degrees by the time we took this picture at the Grist Mill Covered Bridge.

We had thought about taking a ride on the Lamoille Bike Trail on our way home, but it was almost dark by the time we got to it. We'll just have to come back to Vermont another time for that bike ride. We started this day with GPS directions taking us over Smuggler's Notch, and ended it with GPS directions that took us around an accident on an unexpected detour. Even though our days often take interesting twists and turns, today we were glad that we had some interesting GPS directions to help us find more of God's wonders.