Saturday, May 12, 2007
Since I was driving a good distance to get to the race today, I wanted to do something else while I was in Vermont... within the time constraints of the race being in the early afternoon and my being a bit tired from the race. So I pulled out my hiking and waterfall books to see what might be close to my route home.
Initially I had planned to stop at a park in Woodstock and walk an uphill path to a scenic overlook... as it turns out, an overlook we ran to in the race. In the end I ditched that plan, not wanting to do a 2 mile uphill hike (followed by 2 miles downhill) just to end up somewhere I'd been earlier in the day.
One of the easiest choices was Clarendon Gorge, just south of Rutland off Rt 7. A short hike down the Long Path/Appalachian Trail (they follow the same route through this part of VT) took me down to a somewhat scary suspension bridge over the gorge (well, scary if you aren't particularly fond of heights, like me.) The gorge itself was pretty cool - some small waterfalls, lots of big rocks... it was well worth the side trip, and hopefully my pictures will do it justice.
After that, I was faced with the day getting later and all my other options involving somewhat longer hikes (4 miles or so) so I called it a day and got back on the road to home. It would have been nice to see a few more sights and spend a little more time in nature (as opposed to driving past nature!) but all in all I'd say this was a day fairly well spent.
JMH
