Roxbury to Stratton to Sugarbush, the long way. Up the New York line, then Route 100 through the middle of Vermont, with the good stops written in.
monday, july 13 · wednesday, july 15
the route, in google maps: monday · tuesday · wednesday
Two overnights. The Long Trail House at Stratton on Monday, Clay Brook at Sugarbush on Tuesday. Both mountains are quiet in July, which is the whole point.
In between, the best drive in New England, three of the best bookstores anywhere, a village the Rockefellers kept perfect, two waterfalls, and dinner where the locals are.
About nine hours of driving spread across three days. The car time is part of it.
8:30Leave Roxbury. Coffee fifteen minutes up the road in New Milford, then the long green run north along the New York line.
11:15Manchester Center. Two hours in Northshire, the best bookstore in Vermont, with lunch at Bonnet & Main, the café attached to it. Marble sidewalks outside, Mount Equinox over your shoulder.
1:15The one firm departure of the day. Thirty-five minutes over Routes 11 and 30 to the mountain.
2:15The gondola, up and back. Twelve minutes each way, half an hour at the summit.
3:30Back at the Long Trail House, settled with time to spare.
4:00PB’s call, hopefully from the room. Kelly walks the village and reports back.
5:00The village on foot, together. Shops until they close, no agenda.
6:30Dinner at Mulligans, the village institution since the eighties. A drink downstairs at the Green Door first. On a July Monday it is where the whole mountain is, because it is the only kitchen open, and there is something honest about that.
8:27Sunset. A slow loop around the green. The light does the rest.
8:30Wheels up, Route 103 north. Breakfast is thirty-five minutes ahead.
9:05The Hatchery in Ludlow. Scratch kitchen, local everything, right on Main Street.
10:30Rutland, briefly, for Starbucks. Vermont has only a handful of them, and this is one. Then Route 4 east through the Killington corridor.
11:20Woodstock, and no hurry to leave it. PB’s noon call happens at a Mon Vert table; the browsing pauses for an hour and resumes at lunch. Yankee Bookshop and Gillingham’s in the morning, lunch at Worthy Kitchen or Mon Vert, then the galleries and Farmhouse Pottery in the afternoon. Focus at 19 Central Street is a gallery built just for photography, across from the bookshop.
~3:00Route 4 west, then north on Route 100, the road that runs up the spine of the state.
3:30Moss Glen Falls, a pull-off in the Granville Gulf, where the state protects six miles of forested gorge on both sides of the road.
4:30Warren Falls. Carved granite pools, clear water, a five-minute walk from the lot. A look for certain, a swim if the ninety-two degrees wins the argument. Suits ride in the day bag either way.
5:15The Artisans’ Gallery on Bridge Street in Waitsfield, an 1830s storefront by the covered bridge, one hundred fifty Vermont makers inside. Pottery, photographs, glass.
6:15Check in at Clay Brook, Sugarbush. Passes to the SHaRC, the health and recreation center, come with the room.
7:00Dinner on property after all: Tuesdays on the Big Deck at Mt. Ellen, Sugarbush’s second peak, ten minutes from Clay Brook. Barbecue from the Green Mountain Lounge, a band, cornhole, the valley going gold below. It runs 5 to 9 and wants no reservation. If the sky turns, The Hyde Away in Fayston is the rain plan, and Lawson’s Finest the casual one.
9:30North first, briefly: the Icelandic horses on the Fayston hill, fifteen minutes of ponies before the road.
10:00Route 100 south, back through the Granville Gulf in morning light, past Moss Glen one last time.
10:45Rochester. Breakfast at Sugar Mama’s, in the space that was Sandy’s for decades, then The Bookery next door. The third bookstore, completing the title.
12:00Ten minutes on, a dirt road off Route 100 in Stockbridge, and grandad’s old cabin. The one stop that was never on any map. We stay as long as it asks.
12:40Route 107 to the interstate, and south, the ordinary way.
4:00Home.
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