An Illinois Girl's Take on Vermont

Guest Blogger: Renee McWilliams
Renee is a recent college graduate student from Illinois. She and her family spent a month in Vermont touring the parks. Renee is interested in photography and took some great shots of her travels. She had some fun adventures and met some great people. Here she details a few days on the trail.

8/15/13
Wilgus- Meeting people And A Trip to Quechee Gorge

We are at Wilgus State Park. Tonight is our last night at Wilgus. I got great photos here talking to different families and would love to take a quick note of the people I met. George and his family believe in spending time together away from TV and video games, and values the time away from those kinds of distractions. I met a couple playing Uno, who played various games to pass the time on the rainy day. They said they were  re-living their childhood. I met a family that posed by the fire with their dog for a moment before they would adventure off in their three handmade canoes, the man who made them also paddling. One canoe was 22 years old, the other its second time in the water. They took their puppy with them, and I could see the kids having a blast, jumping in and out of the canoe to swim the Connecticut River.

Yesterday we went to Quechee State Park. We all hiked to the gorge together and then my brother and I went off on our own. We hit the campground and met a father and daughter enjoying their trip with their dog by fireside. We then took the forested hiking trail back to the Gorge. We kept going and made our way to the overlook, and to Dewey’s pond, which is surrounded in a meadow of wildflowers. The purples and yellows of the flowers against the greens and blues of the mountains and lake were amazing. Today we are resting. Me, I am photo editing. I know I’ve taken at least one thousand photos. So, I must edit, and pick my best to send in. I’m out here at the picnic table enjoying myself with my work and coffee surrounded by nature.

8/16/13
Wilgus- day of rest

Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest. It didn’t happen that way. I edited some photos and then my family found Pinnacle Trail, a path that leads to a lake. My brother and I helped them hike over there with their fishing gear. On the way back we decided to hike to the summit. So we hiked to the top, sometimes walking at a 45-degree angle. The top was 425 feet in elevation. It was a beautiful view. We then hiked back to camp, took showers, and hiked back out to meet up with the rest of the family to help with the gear and helped them back to camp. Today we made it to Townshend State Park. I took a lot of campsite photos and a picture of a family playing cards. Tomorrow morning my brother and I will hike up the Bald Mountain.


8/17/13
Townshend-Bald Mountain

Today my brother and I started our morning with a hike to the top of Bald Mountain, which is an elevation of 1, 680 feet. It was through forest, over streams, and had a constant incline. It was so worth it. The view was amazing, and I enjoyed the plants and trees in the forest. How they seemed to envelope each other with life. It seemed an over-abundance. Rocks were covered in moss, trees growing on top of rocks, their roots exposed reaching towards the earth, swallowing the rock, pinning it to the forest floor, forever entangled. Everything in the forest is that way. After our hike we then started on our way to Barton, VT in the Northeast Kingdom. We are here now, and I have been relaxing and editing photos. Tomorrow we will be taking a day trip to Crystal Lake State Park.