Living the Dream

It feels like we waited forever, but now I can barely remember the time before the mountain opened. We stared at the weather report for weeks, trying to figure out when the wet bulb would match the requirements for the guns to turn on. It felt like Mother Nature had abandoned us, the Killington faithful,…

As the rain began, we chose to keep paddling. We were on the far side of the reservoir, so it would be at least another hour until we could make it back to the Leffert’s side of the reservoir anyway. The rain continued, leaving little pockmarks on the water and reminding us that maybe next time, we…

One slide of the big yellow shovel at a time. The metal-tipped edge slides smoothly across the artificial wood.  Slowly, deliberately, I work my way across the deck. It’s a deck that has hosted some pretty awesome musicians, but all I need for now is for it not to host this heavy snow. One shovelful at a time,…

Baseball has its Hall of Fame decorated with the green serpentine marble from the Rochester Quarry in Vermont. Football has a Hall of Fame. And the Basketball one is right down the way in Springfield, Massachusetts. But here in Vermont, our versions are a little different. We have the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum, which…

Waking up this morning, I wasn’t sure if we had lost power or not. The house was cold, almost frightfully so. There was no noise coming from our hot water heater, and I couldn’t hear the water rushing through the pipes. As I stepped onto the oak floor, my feet were still ice cold—the radiant pipes were…

A few weeks ago, I gave an interview for my boarding school magazine, after which I was sent only one follow up question: What is your favorite trail? Now the first thought out of my head was something snarky Lambonics phrase like, the one with the most snow on it. Or the one with the least…

A girlfriend and I made a new tradition a few months ago. We decided that no matter what, how busy our schedules were or how far away we now live from each other, that at one point this autumn we would call a Hump Day.   It would have to be the perfect day, where…

Besides Vermont in general, where do you like to watch your foliage from? We always talk about where the color is the best via location — the state of Vermont even puts out an interactive map where tourists and locals alike can figure out where to spend the day across our great little state. But…

I don’t Spartan, but I have always felt that the race itself constitutes the beginning of the fall season. Although this year, with the hot summer temperatures, I’m not really sure how that fits in to any season except “Vermont.” But at the same time, it’s my signal to kick in the dryland training, that…

The first day, I chose to take the east side route. It was a plan I had never been before in a state that I had not visited in over 20 years and certainly not one that I knew anything about. The easterly route up the horseshoe ridge seemed to have the most people and…

Ah, the first day of school. The anticipation, the anxiety, the new book bags and trapper keepers and pencil boxes. I remember staying up late to make sure the laces on my Bass shoes were perfectly coiled — I wouldn’t want to be embarrassed by not staying in the latest trend. It was the one…

When the news came out on Thursday, I went numb, which took me completely by surprise. I mean, rumors had been flying for months, we all knew that the president of Powdr has been struggling with his health and I had been privy to some interesting conversations. We all knew this was coming, but what we…

Every year, just before school starts, the Sherburne Memorial Library hosts its annual stuffed animal sleepover. But this isn’t just any sleepover. In fact, it doesn’t even have any human people actually sleeping over! Instead, the local kids (and even a few grownups) drop their stuffed animals off at the library for a unique toys-come-to-life experience…

Heat breaks… winter is coming!  I’ve been taking a different route every time, walking through shoulder high grass and slipping on smooth rock. I’ve been exploring long abandoned bike trails and sneaking a peek at some exciting snowmaking improvements. I’ve been left with a soaked sports bra and sweating right through my wool hiking shirts.…

I went home last week. For the first time in almost a decade. Well, not exactly home because my mom sold my childhood house in New York almost a decade ago, but back to my family. My dad’s family. The kind of family where the first cousins were all so close growing up that all the…