Cabin-ing is a word I made it. It’s when you’ve gone camping once this year and because you’re old you realize that you can’t sleep on the ground anymore and tell your spouse “I love the out of doors but I gotta have four walls and an electrical outlet. And an AeroBed.” Luckily, lots of state parks in Vermont (and other states) have these really cute one room cabins. Make sure you read that right – ONE ROOM, not one bedroom. They’re tiny. You still have to use the shared restrooms but they have lots of windows, an electrical outlet and a little porch for having your morning cuppa on. Plus there’s a fire pit and a picnic table – the whole reason one goes to commune with nature.
We’re trying out different parks to see which we like. This park was great – Gifford Woods near Killington, VT because it was near Killington and Most Adorable New England Town – Woodstock (with the gorgeous Woodstock Inn - I am saving my dollars to one day stay there). Plus, the Appalachian Trail runs right through the park and you can take the trail up to an incredible point – Deer Leap Lookout (I kept calling it Deep Leap). Downside? And it’s a very downside – the whole area is surrounded by main thoroughfares resulting in lots of traffic noise. Lots. Like we’re up on the top of Deep Leap and we can hear trucks downshifting and motorcycles revving. It was a little depressing to be in such beautiful woods and hear so much traffic. Eh.
We couldn’t hear too much in the cabin which was great. It was nice to plug in a light and read all night long. I actually read a book cover to cover in two days sans kid (“This is Where I Leave You” by Jonathan Tropper – read it!) Plus I got wicked fancy and made a bunch of soups the week before and froze them. Each day we headed out, I would throw a soup in my slow cooker and we had delicious soup every night. You can also buy these slow cooker liners and you don’t even need to worry about cleaning out the pot.
We had very little cellphone service and of course, no internet which was nice, except for the time when we were hiking and I was trying to convince Craig that Lou Reed had recently died. It would’ve been nice to look it up and find that it wasn’t true. Sorry, Lou Reed! I love “Dirty Boulevard”! We couldn’t ask anyone on the trail because apparently, New England in the fall is a hot destination for Europeans. The group of German travelers at the top of Deep Leap asked me to take their picture but I’m pretty sure that was the extent of their English, let alone “Is Lou Reed dead?” I was jealous of their trail provisions – a giant, and I meant GIANT – bag of Halloween candy. Really, what’s not to love about our country?
Another great excursion was to the Long Trail Brewery near Woodstock. They have a little self-guided tour and they also have a pub serving really good food – just sandwiches and fries but it hit the spot after a day of hiking. They’re next to a pretty little stream and we ate outside and enjoyed our beer sampler in the crisp, New England autumn weather. In case you were wondering, there actually is a Long Trail – it runs the length of Vermont and is the oldest long-distance trail in the U.S.
And so, we forage on to find our favorite state park!
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