The Fuller-Mayne Family suited up for a whitewater rafting expedition in April. One piece of advice to start: bring a few extra pairs of socks…(Zoar Outdoor photo)

Across much of the northeast, April means school vacation, and, if your family is like ours, you don’t want your kids sitting around watching TV and playing video games all week, complaining about being bored. Moms know that coaxing a smile (or even better, a conversation) out of teen and preteens girls or boys usually takes more than just a shopping trip. So why not go whitewater rafting? And ziplining!

Whitewater rafting and ziplining in April?! Absolutely! Surprisingly, you don’t have to be as “hard core” as you might expect. The trick is to think of rafting and ziplining as options in the first place. After that, it’s easy. 

At first when the idea of a zip-raft-and-stay April getaway came up, I was a little hesitant. April in New England can mean anything from 75-degrees and sunny to 35 and raining. As it turned out, it was . . . 75 degrees and sunny on the day we zipped; 35 and raining the next day when we rafted. But that didn’t stop our family, including husband Lincoln, Calli (14), and Kim Han (12), from thoroughly enjoying the fun. And, even better news, adventuring in April means no black flies!

The company we went with,  Zoar Outdoor in Charlemont, Massachusetts, offers all the right gear, and plenty of safety instruction to make both white water rafting and ziplining enjoyable while instilling confidence that you CAN do it. 

The Red Building at Zoar Outdoor houses the rafting operation. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

You’ll instantly spot Zoar Outdoor as you drive through the small town of Charlemont on Route 2, also known as the Mohawk Trail. Three base buildings house a year-round outfitter’s shop, Deerfield Valley Zipline Canopy Tours HQ and the Hawk Mountain Lodge, all of which overlook a stellar view of Berkshire East Ski Area.

We drove up and received a hearty welcome from Nina, the manager of the Zipline Canopy Tours.  Zoar Outdoor may be the largest and most diverse rafting, zipline, rock climbing, kayak and canoe outfitter in the area, but it’s still small and  personalized enough to know who each guests is and what they’re there to do. Expect a warm welcome when you arrive, and don’t miss the climbing wall in the parking lot to get you started!

While there are other zipline and rafting providers in Western Massachusetts,  Zoar is really your one-stop-shopping option, offering up a menu of thrills and spillways. In one spot you can try the zipline canopy tours, guided white water rafting tours, white water kayaking instruction, guided kayak rentals, canoeing lessons, rock climbing instruction, and various other guided tours. There are also Wilderness First Responder and swift water rescue courses. Lodging ranges from tent sites to cabin tents to the Hawk Mountain Lodge, offering casual and homey guest rooms year round.  Whew, this is one complete adventure outfitter!

An inside look at Cabin Tent F, also called “the treehouse” for its tree-surrounded location.

While adventure travel is our interest, I must admit that camping is not a common activity for our family. But, being the intrepid adventurers we are,  we decided to try one of Zoar’s “Cabin Tents.” If you’re new to camping you’ll find that the cabin tents were the ideal “starter camping” accommodations, half way between “real” camping and cabins.

Though the tent cabin option requires packing less gear (no need for your own tent or sleeping pads, lights, etc.), we often refer to our family as “the Beverly Hillbillies” for our tendency to bring the bare maximum and then successfully spread it from one end of the room to the other, instantly. This trip was no exception. Within a few minutes of our arrival, you could still find a path down the middle of the tent floor, but it was narrow!

Each cabin tent comes complete with four beds, a gas lantern, a small balcony with two chairs and a small gas grill (gas provided). The girls quickly claimed their beds and went about spreading out. Later we munched on granola bars and cheese and crackers out on the balcony. Relaxed and comfortable, it’s a nice lodging option; maybe we should consider making the next step and trying car camping sometime!

During the daytime, you’ll hear the whirr of nearby ziplines and from time to time the “whoop, whoop!” of a zipliner enjoying the last of 11 zips located right behind the campground.  It’s a reminder of the thrills to come.

Ziplining at Zoar (a.k.a. Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours)

If you have a fear of heights (like I do!), try any of the adventures you read about on EasternSlopes.com. Going rock climbing and ziplining with my family has forced me to face my fear of heights. Each time I step off a zip platform or rappel down a rock face, I come a little closer to overcoming that fear. I recommend the “EasternSlopes.com thrills approach” to all acrophobes. You’ll find the courage your need and you’ll be proud enough to brag after you’ve completed your adventure.

Calli, Lincoln, and Kim Han get ready for ziplining with Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

Ziplining is just the right kind of quest to help you face your trepidation about heights head-on, and Zoar provides plenty of introduction and instruction to ease the nerves. We started  in the gear room where our guides, Austin and Meghan, helped us understand which strap and buckle goes where. Our group consisted of eight people, our family of four and the Lloyd family from Vermont. On a busy day in the summer, Zoar Outdoor runs as many as 20 groups of eight zippers, starting at 9 a.m; even on this April day, we saw one group return, and another group going out shortly before us.

We started on the instructional zip (referred to as “Ground School”), where each person was taught the proper right-over-left hand position and also the all-important stop technique. Our guides were always inserting an element of humor and fun into the serious instruction; the need for safety was implicit and came through loud and clear. The double-cable construction of this zipline, plus the highest of safety standards, helped ease the Mom fears (a term applied to all Moms who are genetically predisposed to worry about the safety of the kids and wonder who’d do all the driving if they get themselves hurt!). Don’t worry Moms – this adventure is totally safe, totally doable.

The “Power Ranger”takes us to the top of the zipline course. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

After the instruction, we all piled into the all-wheel-drive Ranger vehicles for the 550-foot climb up a dirt road to the top of the course. The trip was laced with plenty of humorous commentary by our guides, and we learned the various Zoar Rangers vehicles are named “Power Ranger”, “Forest Ranger”, “Ranger Rick”, and “Walker Texas Ranger”. When we got to the first zip platform we were warned to watch out for “Land Sharks!” and thus the hilarity of the ziplining began.

Enter pounding heart as I stood on the platform watching my beloved family members take off. Jill, the other Mom, and I lagged behind, hugging the tree, not in eco-observance but for fear of taking the first step off the platform. At last it was my turn and as I stood up on the steps and was told to step off, I really wondered how I could do it with my heart about to pound out of my chest. But I took the leap of faith and found the whirr of the zipline actually comforting. Meghan signaled to slow down, and I employed the stop technique, but not quite strong enough…mine was a hard landing.

Kim Han comes in for a landing. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

Stopping is interesting.  You must take your hand off the zip car and apply pressure to the lower cable to slow yourself down. While we were all given heavy protective gloves, as you might imagine the stopping technique creates friction and you can feel the heat. This scared me a little, so I didn’t apply enough pressure which made for fast and hard early landings.

Eventually, Meghan told me if I couldn’t master the stop on the next zip, I’d have to walk down (an option they tell you from the beginning is a possibility). That was enough to get me to press harder on the last few zips. Lo and behold, my hand didn’t get too hot and I nailed the landings, scoring a 9.0 from the younger, self-appointed judges.

With each zip, my fears diminished, but never entirely went away. Another heart-stopper came each time we were required to rappel down from an upper to a lower platform. Even though I was strapped in and “on belay” (a climbing term which means the guide lowered you down by ropes), leaning over the edge of the platform into oblivion never, ever came easily for me or for Jill.

Of course, all this speed and the thrill of stepping off the platform came naturally to my thrill-seeker husband and kids. The faster the better for them. And, yes, the smiles actually got bigger as we progressed through longer and longer zips.

While most zips go platform to platform, you will also take a few short hikes and experience two different skyway rope bridges. Always trying to get Mom’s goat, the girls and Lincoln tried running across the bridge behind me to make both the bridge and Mom shake, rattle and roll. I survived the pranks.

A snack of Clif Bars and water was served after the fourth zip and provided a nice break. Throughout the trip, Austin offered bonus dendrology lessons, identifying the species and interesting facts about the trees in the forest. We quickly learned that Meghan was a master of dry humor, telling us silly jokes along the way.

Smiles all around at the end of our zip trip. (Zoar Outdoor photo)

The biggest thrill came with the longest zip, called “Quick Step”. This 660-foot zip offers the chance to really feel the soar. It ends in a platform 70-feet off the ground, offering a great view of the Deerfield River and mountains beyond. For those who can’t get enough time on the zipline, you’ll find this last one the best.

When we finished the zip trip, there were high-fives all around. By this point, both families were comfortable and the kids were friends. We all agreed our great guides and the fun people on the trip made it extra enjoyable. The thrill was the best part for the girls and just being able to step off the platform and soar at Zoar was an accomplishment I was proud of.

Rafting on the Zoar Gap

Rafting in April can go either way. Had we rafted on the day we ziplined, we would have enjoyed 70-degree weather. However, we all know that if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait an hour—if it takes that long. We awoke after our teaser-to-summer day to rain, wind and a 30-degree drop in temperature. We knew we were in for a chilly day on the water, but took solace knowing that Zoar Outdoor provides wet suits, splash jackets and booties. Note to rafters – gloves help, but you must bring your own. My smart husband Lincoln brought a pair of sailing gloves, which helped keep his hands warm.

Trip Leader Parker offers instruction prior to the Zoar Gap rafting trip. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

While we were told to arrive by 10:45am for instruction, we were glad we arrived a half-hour early, and I’d recommend that to all rafters. This gave us time to fill out registration forms, waivers and suit up. The gear room is filled with wet suits, splash jackets and booties of all sizes.  There is plenty of room to change in the campground bathhouse, located adjacent to the gear room.

Suited up and ready to go, we joined a group of 25 others, including a boy scout troop from New York state and two buddies in the Reserves, along with other couples and groups of friends. We listened intently as the raft leader, Parker, explained safety rules with the requisite humor thrown in. The instruction was followed by a trip across the street to Zoar Outdoors brand new gear barn where PFD’s , helmets and paddles were handed out along with a few more safety tips for using them (don’t clonk your fellow rafters with your paddle!).

Zoar’s new gear barn was constructed after Tropical Storm Irene wiped out the old one, along with much of the gear stored there and flooded the road and half way up the hill to the Zoar buildings. Throughout the trip, you can’t help but notice the remnants of Irene as erosion, slides and plenty of downed trees are visible along the banks of the Deerfield River. Our guide pointed out a three-story boulder, explaining that prior to Hurricane Irene the boulder wasn’t there, and that the river was actually re-routed by the rushing storm water. I thought about the power of the river and quietly paid my respects.

The whole group of 25 or so rafters jumped into a waiting school bus and were transported to the beginning of the trip. Because the water was high, this trip started below the traditional put-in.

Off we go with Kim, the wonder guide! (Zoar Outdoors photo)

We were split into groups and Randy and Dan from Cape Cod got the privilege of sharing the raft with our family. Rafting, like ziplining, is one of those experiences where everyone becomes friends quickly…at least you’d better. Our guide, Kim, was perky and “cool” as the kids referred to her (like all the guides at Zoar) and had five years of experience guiding trips. She carried the medical kit, which gave us the responsibility of being the last boat. Being last turned out to be an advantage when the water fights broke out; we didn’t receive the deluge of cold water in the face!

Kim explained that the water was unusually high today. On a normal summer day, the water runs about 800 to 1000 cubic feet per second (cfs) but today the water was running at about 3,000 cfs. This, she explained, would be like sending 3,000 basketballs per second through a square foot. The current was strong, which made paddling downriver quite easy and even leisurely. For the most part, the current (and Kim) steered the raft.

Children must play; the “men” in the boats ahead of us enjoy a water fight in a slack water section. (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

It didn’t take long to hit the first set of rapids. We sailed over them with all smiles as Zoar’s photographer shot photos from shore. Wet and exhilarated, we looked for more rapids; with the unusually high water, some were minimized. Every day is different on the Zoar Outdoor rafting trips. While the Zoar Gap trip we were on is the most popular with Class II and III rapids, the Dryway trip with Class IV rapids provides more white knuckle splash adventure for the hard core rafter. Zoar offers a wide variety of trips for rafters from age 7 and up, with everything from the gentle family float trip to more thrilling.

We pushed Kim to steer us through every bit of white water we could find, paddling hard when necessary to hit the rapids. After the first hour or so on the water we pulled over to the shore for lunch. The guides made short order of turning an upside-down raft into a table and setting out cold cuts, rolls, salads, and thermoses of hot chili and hot water.

By this point everyone was hungry and there was plenty of food even for the vegans in the crowd. If you have special dietary needs, Zoar is happy to accommodate them, as long as they know ahead of time.

Lunch…plenty of good food, served on SUCH a classy table! (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

While we ate lunch, the clouds parted for a short time and the sun’s rays began warming our cold hands and feet. We all marveled at how quickly lunch was consumed, then cleaned up. Off we went for more water fights and floating down the river.

Our trip ended with a small set of rapids that were so much fun we turned around and paddled against the current in an attempt to get up and over to ride them again. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make it, but we did have the chance to experience “surfing” the rapids, which brought smiles to cold faces. We all marveled at the hardy Boy Scouts who jumped off the rafts to swim in the water before ending the trip! “Not me!” shivered Kim Han.

The rafts were tied to trees along the side of the river and we scampered up the embankment. “I can’t feel my feet,” said Calli. “Well, at least there were no black flies to contend with!” On the bus ride back, we dreamed of that hot shower to come.

Once back at Zoar Outdoor, we peeled off wet suits, showered, and changed into our dry clothes, then watched a slide show of photos taken by Zoar’s photographer at that first set of rapids where we first soaked the boat.

“My favorite part?” said Calli.  “The great guides! They really make the trip!”

Meghan and Austin were zipline guides extrordinaire, and really made the trip for us! (Marti Mayne/EasternSlopes.com)

“I can’t wait to tell my friends about this,” agreed Kim Han. Now that’s the kind of reaction guaranteed to make a parent smile!

When You Go

Zoar Outdoor, 17 Main Street, Charlemont, MA 01339, 800-532-7483, www.zoarooutdoor.com.  Directions: http://www.zoaroutdoor.com/directions.htm.

Ziplining: Available from April 1 – November 25.  $94 per person (+ a 2% processing fee).

Rafting: Available April 15 – Columbus Day.  Prices vary per trip and by age.  Spring rafting on the Zoar Gap: $68 per adult, $57 per child. Summer rates: $87 per adult, $67 for children.

Spring Two day Zip and Raft Trips available, including overnight in a tent cabin: $161-$204 depending upon the choice of rafting trips.

Since 1989 Zoar Outdoor has offered white water rafting trips, kayaking clinics, canoeing instruction, rock climbing classes and kayak rents for adventure seekers of all abilities.  The zip line was the first to be constructed in Southern New England and Massachusetts.

Check out the videos:

Ziplining

Lodging

Related posts:

1. Easy Adventure: Learning to Swim – and Paddle – at Zoar Outdoor
2. Welcoming Spring with White Water Rafting on the Concord River
3. Easy Adventure: Fantastically Fun, Fearless Flying At Mount Sunapee’s New Adventure Park

Down has always been the best of insulation and the worst of insulation. Even after the best part of a half century of constant research into better and better synthetics, down’s insulation/weight/compressibility ratio is still unparalleled. Beyond that, there’s a feeling to down that is hard to quantify; it’s often described as “coziness,” or “airiness.” In our opinion, it comes from body moisture moving through the material more quickly than with synthetics, creating a less humid environment next to your skin and allowing your “wicking layer” to do its job. The best synthetics approach that now, but there’s still “a certain something” to down.

The Sierra Designs Cal 13 and Kelty Ignite 0 both outperformed their temperature ratings for both men AND women. Great design, DriDown, or both? (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

But, the other side of that coin is that if down gets wet, it clumps and loses its insulating value. That makes it unsuitable for many uses, and also means that many potential users avoid it because they’re simply afraid that when they need it, it won’t work. Call it the “Toyota effect;” we know many people who don’t like their cars that well, but bought them because they felt they’d be more reliable than what they really wanted.

The dream has always been an insulation that insulates like down, but maintains at least some insulating value when wet. Primaloft, Climashield, Polarguard, and a host of other companies have tried, and…well…they’ve gotten close, but they still haven’t quite matched that down feel.  Recent advances in chemistry and high-tech particles have created a different paradigm; why not try to get down to work like synthetic? Now, there’s a concept…and that’s DriDown™. By putting a hydrophobic (water repelling) finish on the individual fibers of the down clusters, the insulation simply doesn’t get as wet. Great idea, if it works!

We were totally intrigued by the concept; we’ve been fighting back and forth amongst ourselves for decades about the best insulation for different conditions, and wondered whether this might be the “one size fits all” that we’ve always dreamed about. American Rec, the parent company for, among others, Sierra Designs & Kelty, was good enough to agree to let us try several items with DriDown™. After much thought, we decided on a “puffy” jacket as an apparel piece; because of its use as both a mid layer and an outer layer, we’d get more “feel” for what the down is doing than with any other jacket. We chose the Gnar Light, as we’d had direct experience with the Gnar Hoody earlier, so it was a great comparison (unfortunately, no DriDown hooded version was available at the time of testing). Sleeping bags…we went back and forth on this one. We agreed that winter bags are the worst case scenario; low temperatures and tight tents = ridiculously high humidity levels, and cold weather during the day = no ability to dry the bags. We also wanted to try different fill powers, to make sure we weren’t getting fooled by a particularly spectacular bit of down. So, we narrowed it down to the Kelty Ignite 0, which is a 600 fill power bag; the Sierra Designs Zissou 6, at 700 FP; and while the Sierra Designs Cal 6, which would have been the exact comparison, wasn’t available at the time, they sent the Cal 13, an utterly gorgeous bag with 800 FP down and InsoTect Flow baffles.

Using the DriDown Gnar Light on an iceberg probably isn’t an approved use…but it worked, anyway! (Justin Jones/EasternSlopes.com)

And out they went into the field…over and over and over. At the start, the piece that got the most use and abuse was the Gnar Light; we could pass it around and use it daily. Everybody loved it, as they had the original one, but it took one editor to notice something odd; he would come in from the cold and go shopping, etc., and almost never felt hot in the jacket…at worst, he’d have to unzip, but virtually never took it off. That’s unusual for this particular character, who’s often seen in a t-shirt and khakis in February. Hmmm…a data point.

Then, the sleeping bags started going out…and in came the feedback. The first thing we heard was that ALL of them easily outperformed their ratings; one testing pair had the Zissou and Ignite in a tent on a windy -9F night, and, quote, “we didn’t even fully zip up until well after midnight.” That’s quite a compliment to the designers; almost never do ALL testers find the bags outperforming spec. Even women were comfy at ridiculously low temperatures, particularly in the Kelty, which has a spectacularly well designed hood that makes it easy to keep heat in and cold out. The fill power didn’t make a difference in how the bags performed vis-a-vis temperature rating, but testers were pretty evenly divided on their favorite; some loved the coziness created by higher density 600FP down, while some were blown away by the lightness and airiness of the 800.

But the piece of feedback that was most fascinating was from the testers in the small tent; when they got up in the morning, their bags were SOAKED. All along the seams on the outside of the bags, they were wet or icy. Hmmm…another data point, and a confusing one.

And then the light bulb went on. On a night when we’d gone out with the Zissou and another non-DriDown bag, we had the same thing happen; the Zissou was wet, the other bag wasn’t, and yet the sleeper in the Zissou had slept wonderfully. When we got the bags home, we weighed them…and then dried them, and weighed them again. Both of them lost weight, but the Zissou lost about 4 ounces; the other bag, 6. In other words, the other bag, while appearing to be dry, had retained MORE water weight. The DriDown bag, on the other hand, had either had less moisture from the sleeper in it to begin with…or, based on being able to flick some ice off the outside, we think that it simply transported MORE moisture from the warm side to the cold.

That brought us back to the jacket, and its exceptional temperature range. If the DriDown was moving moisture from the source (the body) to the surface of the jacket more efficiently than regular down, that would mean a less humid environment inside the jacket. The more humid the air, the more efficiently it transports heat, in BOTH directions. So, more moisture in the down would mean that the jacket would feel colder when outdoors, and hotter indoors. Beyond that, more moisture in non-hydrophobic down would subtly decrease loft, further compromising the insulating value, increasing how obvious the effect feels; with a really dry jacket, you’re comfortable outside when it’s cold, and comfortable inside when it’s hot. Make it damp, and you’re shivering outside and clammy inside.

One tester decided to do a “fast & light” trip on a subzero radiational cooling night; no snow in the forecast. He took the Sierra Designs Zissou 6 DriDown bag, used a Sierra Designs Vapor Light 1 tent, and was not only warm but reported that everything was virtually dry in the morning! (David Crosskill/EasternSlopes.com)

With that insight, we looked at our reactions to the sleeping bags…and had another “aha!” moment. All of the bags we had been using, DriDown or regular down had been EN tested. Now, we have issues with the EN13537 spec; fit and drape can be as important or even MORE important than sheer insulating value. But, we’ve had good bags that fit us well, sometimes even better than the DriDown bags, and still all had the same reaction; these bags are WARM and COMFORTABLE. There’s no way that the EN testing can take into account the effect of perspiration, so all bags would react the same. But in the real world, if a bag, like the jacket, creates a more humid atmosphere (clammy), it’s going to be colder; that’s just basic physics. And, if we’re correct, it means that a DriDown bag will be warmer in real-world use than a regular down bag, even when there’s no obvious moisture issues.

And, of course, it’ll also be more comfortable when the temperature is higher; think about a 70 degree summer night when the humidity is low, and how comfortable sleep is versus on one of those muggy, sticky nights, and you’ll get the picture. We’d actually love to see a DriDown 40 degree bag; that’s another worst case scenario, as we’ve often had nights where it jumped into the 60s, and we were clammy in our bags, but it wasn’t quite warm enough to sleep on top. Would a DriDown bag allow us to stay inside comfortably?

At this point, this is still theory and based on our own experience; there’s been no independent scientific testing to confirm or deny it that we’re aware of. And, other factors can come into play; shell fabrics and how they treat moisture, for instance. We can’t speak to the longevity of the treatment, or whether it will cause the down clusters to break apart faster than plain down; in 20 years, we may know the answer to that. But at this point, we’re confident enough to say that we’re comfortable embracing DriDown™, taking it into the backcountry where lousy insulation can create situations that range from miserable to dangerous, with no reservations. Our money, literally and figuratively, is on hydrophobic down; at the very least, we’re confident that it’s a significant improvement over the natural thing, and it may outperform synthetics at their own game. More testing to come, but for now the answer to our title is…yes, it IS a game changer!

Related posts:

1. “Shoulder Season” Synthetics: REI +25 Lumen & L.L. Bean +20 Katahdin Sleeping Bags
2. Gear Snapshot: Esbit CS585HA Solid Fuel Cookset
3. Gear Review: Outdoor Research Latitude Mitts & PL100 Liners

Autumn has arrived! That’s me cycling on the Route Verte through the Eastern Townships of Québec. (Charlie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Look no further than northern Vermont and the Canadian province of Québec, which offers savory cuisine, great accommodations, and plenty of bicycle-friendly routes.

After reading stories by EasternSlope’s editors David Shedd and Tim Jones about bicycling trips to the Eastern Townships (or Cantons-de-l’Est. as the region is known in Québec), I caught the Québecois bug and started scheming up a bicycle tour there that would cover part of the Eastern Townships and take us to the city splendors of Montréal. Time for this small town girl (and her new husband) to get a taste of the big city!

Thanks to the incredible online planning tools and resources for the Route Verte, a 4,700-kilometer network of bike trails and marked bike routes across the entire province of Québec, I organized the entire trip around established bicycle routes. I relied heavily on the Route Verte website for scoping out the routes and bicycle-friendly accommodations certified through their Bienvenue Cyclistes program. Unfortunately you can’t download any of their online maps, so I had to rely on my paper maps from Local Motion, a bicycling and people-powered advocacy nonprofit based in Burlington, VT, for actual navigation while riding.

Also helpful is Vélo Quebec‘s guidebook Cycling in Québec. It is available on the Route Verte website, in English, and is indispensable should you want to do some in-depth research and bicycle traveling in the province.

Here’s another note about planning a trip to Québec. Don’t worry if you don’t speak French. Many Québecois are bilingual and will start speaking perfect English to you before you can finish your halting “parlez-vous Anglais?” Of course it’s always helpful to have a few French phrases in your traveler’s back pocket; a friendly Bonjour and Merci! go a long way.

I planned our bicycle tour through the area in the middle of October to catch the tail-end of the autumnal color  and enjoy cooler temps for cycling. But this would be a beautiful ride in the spring or summer as well. My husband Charlie and I decided on a loop ride that started and finished in Alburgh, VT. Over the course of five days, we would head up to the Eastern Townships, then pedal west through the Montérégie region into Montréal, spend a couple of nights there to enjoy the city, and head back to Alburgh. While we have both been to Montréal a number of times, we have never explored any of the area outside of the city. Sometimes you have no idea what you’re in for, and we certainly didn’t know what to expect. Well, it turns out we were in for a treat.

Day 1: Alburgh to Sutton (51 miles)

Bienvenue á Canada! (Charlie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

The looming question before we began the trip was, “Where should we park our car in Alburgh?” After a quick phone call to the Alburgh town clerk, we were given permission to leave our car in their lot. Thanks Roxanne! We headed out for Swanton on a fairly busy road through the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge with the goal of joining the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail, a ribbon of packed gravel that roughly follows the Missisquoi River.

The Missisquoi trail is a very peaceful route-less-traveled through typical Vermont vistas and farm scenes. We saw only one or two people on the trail the entire time! Note that the gravel trail surface, which is ideally negotiated on hybrid bikes with fatter tires, considerably slowed my speed on my road bike. I was glad for the gentle grade of the rail trail.

Eventually we caught sight of Jay Peak, looming off in the distance with a dusting of snow on its prominent summit, and knew we were close to Canada. After an uneventful border crossing—other than the border guard raising an eyebrow when questioning why we would ride our bikes for five days for fun—we entered Québec. Just don’t forget to bring your passport or passport card for the border crossing! You won’t get into Canada without it.

Oh Canada! Such a sweet relief to be on your newly paved road, with prominent signs reminding cars to respect the bicycle traffic, a huge shoulder lane, and gentle rolling hills into Sutton. We were now on the Route Verte, and I couldn’t stop smiling. Plus I couldn’t wait to check out our digs at our hotel Le Montagnard in Sutton, a fun, friendly town best known for its ski area and summer activities.

Even on a dreary day, Sutton is charming and welcoming. (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

We had no idea that we were in for a steep climb UP to the hotel near the base of Mont Sutton ski area. Ugh. There were some grumblings along the way, but we were rewarded with a lovely studio room at Le Montagnard (complete with a kitchen and fireplace!). We thought this would be the perfect place to stay if we returned in the winter to ski. We had planned on having dinner in town but realized that we were not UP for riding UP that hill again—so Melina at the front desk kindly called a taxi for us.

I could write an entire separate story on our meal at Le Pleasant Hotel & Café. Wow! What a place! And what a surprise to walk into an elegant old Victorian house and find a sleek, modern interior including a bustling little bistro. DO go! DO get the tasting menu! DO splurge on a wonderful bottle of wine! And DO plan on spending two or three hours to savor the outstanding food and service at Le Pleasant.

Day 2: Sutton to Granby (39 miles)

What goes up must come down—and after breakfast at the hotel, DOWN we went into Sutton the next morning. Unfortunately, some rain was also coming DOWN. We (Okay, I ) missed a turn, and we pedaled out of town on the wrong road. Thankfully, Charlie-the-human-compass straightened us out and a little on-the-fly route development put us on a side road back to our planned path. While wet, our detour showcased the rolling hills ablaze in shades of rusty red, yellow, and saffron. Sometimes taking a wrong turn can turn up expected pockets of beauty—so embrace the exploration even if it means adding a little extra time or mileage to the day.

Another unexpected pleasure was discovering the Star Café in Knowlton for lunch. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing better than finding a cozy little café for lunch after being on a bicycle in cold rain for hours. One cup of hot chocolate and a hearty bowl of soup later, my smile had returned and I was ready to hit the road.

Getting the bikes ready at the St-Christophe Hotel &  Spa. Not too shabby, eh? (Charlie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

We strayed off the Route Verte to ride around Lac Brome after lunch, and we both loved cycling along and checking out the mansions along the lake. We rejoined the Route Verte outside of Waterloo and enjoyed the fast, flat, and well-marked path around Lac Waterloo (which would have been a great place to swim if we weren’t already drenched)  and made our way into Granby for the night.

Day 3: Granby to Montréal (56+ miles)

Our hotel in Granby, The St-Christophe Hotel & Spa, offered a beautiful room with easy access to private bicycle storage along with an ideal location for cyclists—right on the Route Verte overlooking Lac Boivin. Sadly, we skipped the spa treatments, the Lac Boivin Nature Center and Granby’s famous zoo because we had a long day ahead of us and needed an early start.

Attempting a more direct path out of Granby than the Route Verte, we started out on the Route des Champs. Alas, this decision turned up a challenging surprise when we discovered a section of the path blocked and closed in Marieville. Having neither a detailed map nor any detour signs to follow, we nosed our way through the random streets and after some quibbles and a dash of despair on my part, Charlie engineered two successes: he led us back to the route and found a Tim Hortons along the way. I really, really love that man.

Crossing a lock on the Chambly Canal. (Charlie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

However convoluted it may have been, the Route des Champs got us into Chambly for lunch. From there, we hopped back on the Route Verte and “cruised” into Montréal. Alas, if only it were that easy to get into Montréal by bike! Riding in the rain in the Eastern Townships was more fun than Montreal’s suburbs, Here are some hints for this part of the journey: 1) Have a good map. 2) Keep a sharp lookout for Route Verte signs. 3) Be metally prepared for a long stretch of riding through essentially featureless suburbs. And 4) Give yourself plenty of time to get lost and found before it gets dark.

But, trust me, Montréal is worth the effort!

Once we were in the city proper,  we had a blast. Montréal is a cyclist’s dream city. It has 160 km of bikeways in the downtown area and many dedicated bicycle lanes. Charlie got a kick out of riding on the actual Grand Prix track on the Île Notre-Dame (This part of the path is closed when the Formula One car races are held in the summer!). Amazingly, not a car in sight when we were there; it was totally quiet.

From Île Notre-Dame, we made our way over the mighty Saint Lawrence River into the Old Port of Montréal, and eventually cycled up to our hotel via the Rue Berri bike lane. Auberge Le Pomerol, our home for the next two nights, is a sweet little hotel in an ideal location downtown. As a Bienvenue Cyclistes! property, they had a bike shed to store our steeds for the night, pump for use, and seemed very used to accommodating cyclists.

For dinner, we scouted out the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood and ended up at Le Continental Bistro, a very lovely French restaurant with superb service, French wines, and food choices that appealed to both a vegetarian (me!) and my carnivorous husband. We cyclists love to eat, and good food is a must for any bicycle tour. Montréal does not disappoint in this area; truly it will excite even the fussiest foodie with all its tasty options.

Day 4: Layover in Montréal (10+ miles of city bicycling)

Vélo Québec’s cafe and boutique next to the Parc de la Fontaine in Montréal. (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo).

Normally, I tend to lace up my walking shoes and explore new cities by foot. But in this case, buckling up my Sidis on a beautiful day and hitting the streets on my bicycle proved to be way more fun. Hiring a professional bicycle guide is really the way to go—they know the ins and outs and can take you to unexpected places. I’d also recommend renting a bike from a guide service if you didn’t bring your own. While Montréal has a wildly successful bike sharing program called BIXI, it’s designed for shorter commuter trips and the fees really add up if you take them for a few hours. Plus, when you rent a bike with a guide service you get a helmet. And helmets, my friends, are always recommended.

Our guide for the morning, Jean-François Perrier, is a native Montréaler, and we spent the morning exploring his neighborhood surroundings on the Plateau. We stopped and chatted with Jean-François frequently about politics, history, and personal stories, which made the whole area come alive. We also stopped by Vélo Québec’s cafe, in their office building (aptly named Maison des Cyclistes) right next to the lovely Parc de la Fontaine. It’s a sweet spot to check out, and they have many maps and resources in the café as well. Plus their Americano rocked.

The “Magic of the Lanterns” exhibit at the Montréal Botanical Gardens is definitely worth a visit. The Olympic Stadium is just barely visible in the background. (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

After lunch, I had to say goodbye to Charlie, who had to leave a day early to return to Vermont and start a new job. Left to my own devices, I decided to bike over to the Botanical Gardens to see their famous Magic of Lanterns exhibit at the Chinese Garden.  I got there at dusk to see the nearly 1,000 lanterns decorating the garden in a brilliant display of color. Even though the place was packed, I could still get up close to admire the detail and artistry of the handmade silk lanterns. I rode back along the Rue Rachel bike lane (of course I had my blinkie lights for riding safely at night). Tuckered from my city day, I had Thai take-out for dinner and crashed by 9 pm!

Day 5: Montréal to Alburgh (56+ miles)

Heading out of the city in the morning, I had a better grasp of the route, and  felt a lot more confident. I chose to bike over the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River with a separate dedicated bike lane. Most of the bicycle traffic was flowing into the city for the daily grind, so I could take it easy and enjoy the spectacular views of the city in the bright morning light.

Overlooking the Saint Lawrence River from the Jacques Cartier. Downtown Montréal is to the right (with Mont Royal rising behind) and the Biodome and Grand Prix speedway on Île Notre-Dame to the left. (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Eventually I ended up back on the Route Verte and retraced my way into Chambly. Fort Chambly is a great stop for a break or picnic—or an easy day ride if you are staying in Montréal (it’s about 25 km each way). The fort, built in 1711 and positioned as the main anchor of defense on the Richelieu River, is now a pleasing, leafy national historic site overlooking the River. Just watch out for pesky squirrels—it would seem that people have been feeding them and they were rather brazen in their begging.

Quiet as can be. The Route Verte path along the Richelieu River offered  gentle for cycling and the chance to savor the sunshine of a late autumn afternoon. (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.comphoto)

From Chambly, it was basically a straight shot south on the Route Verte alongside the Chambly Canal or Richelieu River. Many sections were packed gravel, and it was very easy to navigate. Cycling alone, I found the flat-as-a-pancake ride to be a bit tedious after awhile, but at least the sun was shining and there was hardly any wind. Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is a good spot to stop for lunch, and I made fast time along the flat paved roads heading towards the border.

Finally, I started to see dairy farms again instead of the never-ending cornfields of the Montérégie. As I approached Alburgh, the smell of “dairy-air” reminded me I was home. It also reminded me how bicycle touring is not only slow travel but also full-immersion travel. On a bike, you really engage a place with all your senses.

Which is why this pocket of the world is so ideal for bicycle touring. There is so much packed into such a concentrated area, with plenty of good food to stimulate the taste buds and fuel up for bicycling. You can plan relaxed days on dedicated bike paths while riding a hybrid bicycle with small panniers, yet still cover a lot of ground and see a lot of the region.

Au revoir Québec, we’ll be back! (Cassie Willner/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Just remember to go without a lot of expectations save for one: expect to be pleasantly surprised.

General Resources

Start any trip to Quebec with a visit to the Government of Quebec Tourism

The Eastern Townships is a cyclists dream

And for specific information on Montréal, visit Montréal Tourism

For bike specific information visit :

Route Verte

Velo Québec

Montréal bike lanes

Here’s another Montréal bike lane links: http://www.ridethecity.com/Montréal  (iphone apps available too $1.99) or you can always search for directions in Google maps and hit the bicycle icon to pull up bike routes in any given location

Related posts:

1. Montreal, The Eastern Townships…And Rented Skis
2. Quebec In Foliage Season: The Eastern Townships
3. A Gastronomic Mountain Bike Tour Through Vermont & Quebec’s Eastern Townships

Want to really relax on your next getaway? Try paddling a kayak to an island campsite on the coast of Maine.

How does this sound for an outdoor getaway? You meet your guide (or guides, if you are a large group) at some beautiful spot on the coast of Maine. Unless you choose to bring your own gear, your guide has a quality sea kayak (possibly a tandem if two of you want to paddle together), paddle and PFD for you, plus all the dry bags, food and kitchen gear you’ll need for a night, or two, or more of comfortable camping. You bring your own familiar  tent, sleeping bag, pad, clothing and personal gear.

You load everything into the kayaks, make sure the seat and foot braces are properly adjusted, and paddle away from the landing. Once on the water, you are surrounded by all the beauty that is the Maine coast. You past moored motor yachts, sailboats and working lobster boats, along shorelines dotted with lovely homes and islands with nothing at all. Sea birds float overhead, seals lounge on the shoreline keeping one eye on you, harbor porpoises play tag around your boat.

All the time you are paddling, your guide is there for you, sharing facts about the seascape, landscape, and wildlife you are seeing, helping you sharpen your paddling skills, keeping a watchful eye on the wind, waves and weather, warning you when bigger boats are approaching, generally watching out for your safety and comfort like a mother duck watches out for her ducklings.

It’s all about low-stress and relaxation, which can include reading at your island campsite while your guide cooks dinner. (Cathy Piffath/H2Outfitters photo)

After a couple of hours of paddling you reach an island, set up camp, relax, enjoy dinner, relax, watch the sun set, relax with the stars above and the sounds of the sea around you. You sleep well and awake to sit on a rock with your morning coffee or tea, relax, and watch a misty sunrise. Then you pack up your camp, launch your kayaks and paddle away, either bound for another island, or for home, completely refreshed, completely relaxed, and completely rejuvenated. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Trust me, it is.

My sweetheart Marilyn and I did an overnight camping/instructional sea kayaking trip on Harpswell Sound on the eastern edge of Casco Bay last summer with H2Outfitters. Our guide, Cathy Piffath, co-owner and head guide of H2O is an organized and personable trip leader with decades of experience at shepherding kayaking groups.

Teaching Moment: In the quiet water right off the boat launch. Cathy Piffath of H2Outfitters demonstrates a paddle stroke for student Marilyn Donnelly. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

She’s also a superlative paddling instructor. In fact, it was Cathy who first put me in a kayak and handed me a kayak paddle (I’d done a lot of canoeing prior to that). That was on a three-night, four day exploration of Penobscot Bay back in 2004. I’ve been hooked on kayaks since.

Marilyn absolutely loves kayaking (she started, very hesitantly, in 2008), and has basically learned by doing. She’s also taken a couple of one-hour lessons from professional instructors, which really helped her. But her paddling technique had plateaued. I was hoping a couple of days on the water with Cathy would take her to the next level. It worked . . .

In the protected waters just off the launch, Cathy gave Marilyn a quick lesson in powering and controlling her kayak in the wind and waves without using the rudder. Marilyn “got” Cathy’s combination of explanation and demonstration instantly, and from there on paddled better than I’ve ever seen her paddle before. That’s what expert instruction can do, especially when the student is eager and ready.

We launched at the H2Outfitters shop, right at the bridge between Orrs and Bailey Islands, about an hour from Portland. A brisk breeze was blowing up whitecaps on Harpswell Sound as we loaded camping gear, food and safety equipment into our sea kayaks. Marilyn and I were paddling our own trusty 16-foot Prijon Seayaks, with Seals sprayskirts. We also had our own Kokatat PFDs (hers a MsFit Tour designed especially for women, mine a really non-restrictive Orbit Tour),  and paddles (two Werner Camano, and a Wind Swift—we trade paddles back and forth, carry one as a spare). But if you don’t have your own boats and gear, H2O has good boats, paddles, PFDs, and sprays skirts for you to use.

The wind wasn’€™t too bad when we started, but it got progressively stronger as we paddled. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Our initial plan was to launch from Orrs Island, paddle about five miles around Potts Point, across the mouth of Potts Harbor, around Basin Point to Whaleboat Island, which has several public campsites on it. These are maintained by the Maine Coastal Heritage Trust which has owned the 122-acre island since 2002.

Mother Nature, however, had other plans. The southwest breeze was quite strong as we launched, and picked up as we crossed the sound. For the first mile and a half or so,  we were paddling almost directly into it, so the wind and the resulting three- and four-foot waves didn’t really affect us. Sea kayaks are amazing: there’s little for the wind to grab and most waves just slide underneath them almost unnoticed. Still, it took concentration to hold course and some effort to make headway.

By the time we reached Potts Point, it was clear that the wind was winning. Four other kayaks we could see out ahead of us were clearly struggling. They weren’t making much headway in the wind, waves, and tidal currents.

From there, to reach our planned campsite at Whaleboat Island, we’d have had to cross a couple of miles of open water with the wind and waves hitting us sidewise. There simply wasn’t any shelter anywhere. The wind seemed to be getting stronger by the minute. I’d guess it was blowing a steady 25 knots (roughly 30 mph–hard enough to walk against, let alone paddle) with frequent higher gusts.

Our initial plan was to paddle five miles to a campsite on Whaleboat Island, but the wind kept getting stronger and waves more turbulent. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

We rafted the boats together to conference. After some discussion, Cathy decided not to chance the crossing—a decision I heartily seconded. Marilyn was really enjoying her new-found paddling skills and the whole experience of the wind and waves. She was disappointed but deferred to Cathy’s judgment.

So we deployed our rudders, turned, and ran with the wind and following seas about six miles straight downwind to Strawberry Creek Island, a Maine Island Trail Association campsite.

That run downwind was exhilarating: fast and fun. The wind was even stronger by then and the waves choppy and turbulent. We all loved it! In good boats, it was exciting and a little challenging (you had to pay close attention to keep your boat aligned with the wind) without feeling at all threatening.

We got to the campsite with plenty of time to unload the boats, set up camp and relax before a delicious dinner (Cathy is a gourmet camp cook). Then we watched the sunset and, not long thereafter, turned in for a great night’s sleep. Camping on an island is always a delightful experience—the sense of distance between you and the rest of the world is palpable and pleasing, it just feels different than camping on the mainland.

Watching the sunset is one of the joys of camping on an island. (Cathy Piffath/H2Outfitters photo)

The next morning, we were up early, sipping hot tea, enjoying watching the sun rise through broken clouds. Packing up camp and loading the boats was easy, and we got an early start to ride the falling tide back to our launch. The wind was still a force to be reckoned with, and even with the currents to help us, it still took us three hours to paddle back. Yes, the wind was still that strong.

But, the effort was well worth it; we got to watch the world wake up, the lobster boats working their traps, saw many sea birds and got up close and personal with a seal colony on the way. In all, the return paddle was pure pleasure, a bit of a challenge, a great core workout and a fine end to a wonderful short trip. Highly recommended experience.

H2Outfitters’ Maine Paddling Options

If you flew in a straight line from Kittery Maine downeast to Calais on the Canadian border, you’d travel about 225 miles, give or take. But if you paddled following the tidal coastline from head-of-tide on the Piscataqua to head-of-tide on the Saint Croix, you’d cover over 3,000 miles. That’s a lot of paddling territory, almost all of it beautiful.

A quiet moment at low tide on the Maine Island Trail. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

H2O knows more about paddling that coastline than almost anyone. They’ve been paddling there for decades. Cathy takes many groups of kayakers of all experience levels on a variety of camping or B&B trips every year, including ones w-a-a-y-y-y Downeast around Jonesport, others on Penobscot Bay around Stonington, Muscungus Bay out of Round Pond (you will likely see Atlantic puffins on that trip!) and the eastern edge of Casco Bay, which is what we paddled on this trip. Trips range from simple overnights like ours to four-night, five-day outings, and you can often custom-design a trip to suit your preferences.

Cathy also leads freshwater trips to Moosehead and Flagstaff Lakes in Maine where you stay at the amazingly comfortable “huts” run by Maine Huts and Trails.

In New York, she leads camping or inn-to-inn trips on Lake George and Saranac Lake. And she does  saltwater trips to South Carolina, Saguenay Fjord in Quebec (one of the most beautiful places to paddle in eastern North America), Prince Edward Island (a fun place for day-paddling, too), and the Bay of Fundy in Canada.

On both the trips I’ve been on with Cathy, she clearly put her clients’ abilities and safety first. I’d certainly trust her to introduce anyone to sea kayaking, or to explore new horizons with more experienced paddlers.

Related posts:

1. Active Seniors: Paddling Prince Edward Island’s Rustico Bay In A Kayak Built For Two
2. Perfect Summer Weekend: Paddling Maine’s Mid-Coast
3. Salty Kayaking

The headquarters for Outside Expeditions. (Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Last summer, my wife Edie and I visited Prince Edward Island (PEI) for the second year in a row. The island abounds with great adventures, including easy hiking and marvelous bird watching for active seniors.

We love to go kayaking, especially on the unspoiled reservoirs near our Vermont home. But though the sea really calls to us, we had never tried sea kayaking before. Rather than attempt our first sojourn on the sea by ourselves, we decided to sign up for a guided sea kayak tour. This turned out to be an excellent decision, one we would recommend to anyone looking to “push their own envelope.”

On a foggy June morning we set out from the vacation cottage we rent in North Lake on the eastern tip of the island, bound for Rustico Bay, a scenic, two-hour drive to the west. There, we would embark on our first-ever sea kayak adventure. As already noted, we’re accustomed to freshwater kayaking, but this promised to be different, and exciting!

Fortunately the fog cleared as we drove and we enjoyed the great views that make PEI such a treat. We particularly enjoyed seeing a red fox trit-trotting along the side of the road with a half-grown hare in its mouth (probably for a den of hungry kits).

The infamous and terrifying plank, which we fortunately weren’t forced to walk!
(Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

We arrived at Rustico Bay a bit after 10am and soon located Outside Expeditions, where we were cordially greeted by owner and expert kayaker Tim Nicholls, who proved to be friendly, helpful, extremely knowledgeable and very, very patient dealing with older, first-time sea kayakers. After giving us a brief tour of his establishment he took us out on a deck overlooking the bay and harbor.

Here we were confronted by a plank, as in “he was made to walk the plank.” Gadzooks, evidently piracy is still practiced in these waters! Tim proved to be a merciful pirate, however, and we were not made to walk, but were treated instead to the magnificent view. This is very much a working fishing harbor, and Tim pointed out the two lines of buoys that guide the fishing boats safely in and out of the harbor through a channel that avoids the shoals, which are too shallow even for kayaks. While we were talking, it was fun to watch the occasional fishing boat returning to unload its catch at one of the various fish houses lining much of the distant shore. The view across the harbor, with the blue water sparkling in the sunshine, made us eager to get paddling.

Tim next fitted us to life jackets—or, excuse me—”Personal Floatation Devices” (don’t want to sound like amateurs . . . ) Then he took us to our two-person (—or, excuse me—”Tandem”) kayak. This was certainly a new experience for us: the l-o-n-g, slender profile gave it a far sleeker look than the much stubbier one-person craft we are accustomed to.

Here, Tim teaches us how to manage the two-person sea kayak – especially the steering.
(Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Tim proceeded to carefully instruct us in the proper  use of this unfamiliar craft. The key difference between our one-person kayaks and this longer craft is that ours are steered with the paddles, while this sea kayak has a rudder controlled by the feet of the stern paddler.

During our many years of canoeing, Edie was always the bow paddler, while I was the stern paddler, so it naturally fell to me to take the stern cockpit. There is a pedal on each side, forward of the stern cockpit. To turn right, push on the right pedal; to turn left, push the left pedal; to go straight, keep the pedals even. That sounded simple enough, even for me, but in practice it turned out to be considerably  trickier. But also necessary: we soon discovered that it’s very difficult (almost impossible) to steer a kayak this long in wind and tidal currents without the rudder!

The area across the harbor where fishing boats unload their catch. (Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Tim guided us toward the far side of Rustico Bay, keeping to the shore side of the buoys marking the channel. This made perfect sense because, for reasons of both safety for us and courtesy to the fishing boats, we didn’t want to obstruct the channel in any way.

The tide was going out, and we were paddling against the strong current. That slowed our progress quite a bit, and part of the time Tim hooked onto our bow with a rope and added his considerable paddling strength to help pull us along. We really appreciated the help. It was great fun to pass near the various buoys and see the tidal current flowing outward past them, while we fought the current as we moved at what at times seemed a glacial pace in the opposite direction.

The osprey nest, with the head of the chick just visible at the top. (Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

While paddling across the harbor, we were treated to the sight of an osprey flying over the bay. We also saw a mature bald eagle, very high up in the sky and quite far away. Despite the distance, we could tell that it was an eagle because every now and then either its snow white head or white tail would flash in the sun. This was just the icing on the cake of a spectacularly beautiful scene!

When we reached the fishing boat docks, we cruised alongside, enjoying our view of the fish houses where the fishermen sold their daily catch. Tim also pointed out an osprey nest with one chick clearly visible. The parents were undoubtedly out fishing (probably the osprey we had seen a few minutes earlier was one of the parents). The nest, incidentally, was on a platform that had thoughtfully been erected for the use of ospreys. The scenery and wildlife were right up our alley, and we were thoroughly enjoying our time in the kayak.

Passing fishing boats made a lovely sight.
(Warner Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

The trip back was easier, too, because we were going with the tide; if you’re going to give this a try, you may want to pay attention to the tide charts so that when you’re tired on the way back, you aren’t fighting a tide that’s going the wrong way. We enjoyed watching the passage of fishing boats every now and then. Whenever we  were close to the line of buoys, the boats passed very close to us.

Soon we were back ashore, saying goodbye to Tim Nicolls, with thanks for all his advice and help. We departed with the satisfaction of undertaking a new adventure and learning a bit of a new skill in the process.

Outside Expeditions has kayak tours of various lengths and degrees of difficulty. We wisely chose the Beginner’s Bay Kayak Tour, which takes approximately 1-1/2  hours; if you don’t have a lot of experience as a kayaker, we’d highly recommend you start here. However, there is also the Harbor Passage Tour, which takes three hours and goes into the open ocean to view some of the cliffs and coves of Prince Edward Island National Park, with a break and “healthy snack” halfway through. In addition, there is a two-hour abbreviated evening version of this tour, which also gets out to the cliffs, sans the snack (bring your own!).

To contact Outside Expeditions for prices, additional information, or to make reservations, call 1-800-207-3899, e-mail adventure@getoutside.com, or go to www.getoutside.com.

Related posts:

1. Active Seniors: Becoming Eagle Scouts On Prince Edward Island
2. Active Seniors: “Heart of the Islands” Bike Tour, Champlain Islands, Vermont
3. Active Seniors: Yakking About Kayaks

The Lowa Mountain Expert on top of Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York and 7.5 miles of hiking with snowshoes and micro-crampons from the nearest road.. (Julia Goren/Adirondack Mountain Club/EasternSlopes.com photo)

As anyone who’s been playing around in the outdoors for a while knows, there’s no such thing as a perfect boot. To work well, a boot has to 1) fit the user, and 2) fit the intended use. If it falls short in either of those areas, it isn’t a great boot for you, even if it might be the perfect boot for someone else in a different situation.

After a full winter of testing, I’m prepared to say the Mountain Expert from Lowa is close to perfect for my feet and my winter mountaineering needs in the Northeast. That makes them a great boot for me. Perhaps for you, too.

In early December of 2012, I conceived a yen to stand on the highest points of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts in the winter. Greylock in Massachusetts is pretty easy, as is Mansfield in Vermont, but Marcy in New York, Katahdin in Maine, and, particularly, Mount Washington in New Hampshire have a nasty habit of killing people who don’t take them seriously, especially in winter. I could make do with mid-weight hiking boots, or rent winter mountaineering boots. But those were far from ideal solutions. I wanted good winter boots that fit me, that I knew I could rely on.

The stiff, hard-edged Vibram® soles on the Lowa Mountain Expert provide good traction on snow, even without crampons. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Before selecting any boots I always take a mental inventory of what I’ve tried in the past for the same or similar intended uses. I recommend that you do the same.

Many years ago BG (Before Gore-Tex™), I purchased a pair of stiff-soled leather “mountaineering” single boots, maker unknown, that were heavy (but not as heavy as the double leather mountaineering boots of the time), as comfortable as a stiff-soled boot could be, offered good support, and could  handle the crampons available then. They weren’t very warm, got wet in snow, froze overnight, but worked pretty well overall. I took good care of them, had them resoled twice. Eventually, they simply wore out.

In 1980, when I had dreams of summiting as many mountains as I possibly could in my lifetime, I bought a pair of Koflach Ultra double mountaineering boots with an inner leather bootie covered by a plastic shell. While they were extremely warm, waterproof to the point that you couldn’t get moisture in or out, plenty stiff enough for crampons, and the right “size” for me, they didn’t fit my low-volume foot and ankle very well. No matter what sock combination I tried, or how hard I pulled on the laces, there simply wasn’t enough moleskin in the world to prevent blisters. I sold them.

So when and started looking for a pair of boots to do the highest peaks of the northeast, I already had a good idea of what I wanted, a new and improved version of my old leather single boots. My wish list looked like this:

This photo shows a number of features that make the Mountain Expert work: rockered sole and built-in ankle flex zone for more natural walking, plastic stabilizer to support the ankle when sidehilling, lacing system that pulls the heel back into the heel cup to help prevent blisters, aggressive lug sole that bites into snow and crust, waterproof rand to keep feet dry. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

1) Comfortable and lightweight enough for long-distances (Marcy’s summit, for example, is a 15-mile round trip from the nearest road). For me, that meant a low volume single boot with a good heel pocket. Remember, it’s usually easier to slightly expand a boot if it’s tight in spots than to fill up the empty space if you are sliding around inside it.

2) Soles and ankle support stiff enough for crampons and snowshoe on steep terrain, especially sidehills.

3) Warm enough to handle sub-zero temperatures for a full day outing.

4) Waterproof under any normal conditions.

5) Quality construction and long-term durability. Good boots are expensive and a chore to break in; you want them to last.

I also knew exactly what I wanted to do with them: non-technical winter mountaineering and camping, traveling on steep terrain with snowshoes, crampons and other trail traction aids, sometimes with a very heavy pack. I don’t think I’ll be climbing out West anytime soon, but I’ll have them if I want to.

The lacing system on the Lowa Mountain Expert allows you to custom adjust the tightness for your foot/ankle. The patented tongue stud helps control pressure distribution and keeps laces from coming untied. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Online catalogs and gear reviews helped me focus in on specific boots. More helpful were visits to several local outdoor shops. But the Lowa brand really snapped into focus with two chance encounters: First, the FREE gear demo program run by the AMC at their Joe Dodge Lodge in Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire’s White Mountains features Lowa boots. I tried them on there and generally liked the fit and feel. Second, EasternSlopes.com’s Senior Editor David Shedd has an older pair of Lowa Baikals (alas, no longer made) which are superb for snowshoeing, and fit my feet like they were made for me.

I called Lowa customer service (1-888-335-5692). VERY helpful people! When I described my foot issues, and how I intended to use the boot, the Mountain Expert came into the discussion right away. I was assured that the Mountain Expert is made on a low-volume last (they have other boots lasted for folks with wider feet). I was also told they’d handle some ice climbing–which is pretty high on my bucket list. Bonus!

The nearest store (REI) stocking this boot is two hours away, so I took a chance and ordered them by mail. (Hint, before you try this, get your foot measured on a Brannock device at a shoe store to make sure you are ordering the correct size.) They arrived just before Christmas (Thanks, Brown Santa!).

Construction and fit were flawless on first inspection (and remain so after a number of outings). These boots are built like tanks. On the scale, my Mountain Experts in size 44 Euro weighed in at 4.6 pounds for the pair–quite light for a boot this sturdy and warm. 

Usually, boots worn only inside and kept clean can be returned if the size or fit are wrong, so my first try-on was in my living room. Thanks to a new and patented tongue stud and well-thought-out design, the lacing system is superb, allowing you to tighten the lower boot and the ankle/cuff area differently as you need to fit your specific foot. You can see a video of exactly how it works here.

What Lowa calls their “Flexfit Synchro” delivered on its promise to pull the heel back into the heel pocket and allow the ankle to flex forward naturally. The sole was indeed stiff enough to allow easy crampon use and they are compatible with most crampon styles, including the new “step-in” crampons. But pronounced sole rocker made it easy to walk more naturally than you might expect with a sole this stiff.

Usually, when I get a new pair of boots I immediately take out the factory insoles and replace them with high-quality aftermarket insoles such as Zapz, Spenco or Superfeet. No need to do that with these Lowas–the supplied insole provides plenty of cushioning and support.

In all, they fit and felt exactly as described, like a stiffer, beefier version of the Baikals. I wore them around the house for a couple of hours the first day, then longer each day for several days thereafter. I experienced no problems; it was time to take the Mountain Experts to a mountain.

Icy Monadnock

The Lowa Mountain Expert in its natural habitat on an icy, steep trail on the side of Mount Monadnock. On this trail on this day, you absolutely needed traction aids like the Hillsound Trail Crampon shown. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

I’ve never seen any hard data to prove it, but Mount Monadnock (3,165 feet) in southwestern New Hampshire is often referred to as the “second most climbed” mountain in the world after Fuji in Japan. I know for a fact it’s the mountain I’ve climbed most. It is a perfect place to break in new boots . . .

My favorite route up is the Dublin Trail, part of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway on the north slope of the mountain. On the day after Christmas, I arrived at the trailhead later than I would have liked. Tracks showed that eight or 10 people had climbed the trail since an inch of snow had fallen on Christmas morning. At least five had also come down the same trail.

The lower slopes were easy walking through open hardwoods with just a dusting of light fluffy snow over rocks and leaves. Any good, sturdy hiking boots would have been fine for this part of the trek. The mountaineering boots were definitely overkill. But, once the slopes started getting steeper and spruces started shading the trail, things got more interesting and the mountaineering boots were definitely welcome.

At one point the trail surface abruptly turned to pure ice, looking more like a series of frozen waterfalls than a hiking trail. From there on up, it was almost all ice. Some of the tracks snaked off into the woods where hikers had bushwhacked to avoid the worst ice. But you could also see where they’d slipped and slid.

The snow had been dusted off a trailside log where previous hikers had sat to pull on traction aids. I followed their lead and donned my own. Since I’m testing traction devices for EasternSlopes.com, I put a Kahtoola microSpike®, the original which defined the category, on my right boot. On my left boot, I alternated between a Hillsound Trail Crampon and a Yaktrax XTR Extreme. All these “micro-crampons” are similar; spiked chains underfoot, with a sturdy rubber harness that pulls over your boots quickly and easily. And though there are differences in features and performance characteristics among the three, they all made it infinitely easier to ascend and descend a trail that was treacherous without. I also had a set of  Hillsound Trail Crampon Pros with me. These are a much more aggressive crampon with longer spikes, very useful in some circumstances, but not necessary for this hike.

The tracks told the story. Hikers with crampons or micro-crampons simply walked up the trail, struggling only on three or four ice-covered rock scrambles about six-feet high that are a bit of challenge even when the trail is bare and dry. Hikers without traction aids tried to pick safer routes but still slipped and slid with every few steps. I met one young hiker coming down with work boots and no traction devices at all. He’d given up well before reaching the summit. Good decision on his part!

My primary goal for this day was to begin to break in my new boots without breaking my feet. When I started to feel a hot spot on my left heel that wouldn’t go away despite readjusting my sock and retightening the boot, I quit at the junction of the Dublin and Marlborough Trails about a quarter-mile short of the summit. Minor discomfort is to be expected when breaking in new boots. I could have slapped on moleskin from the first-aid kit in my pack and made the summit, but I had already seen the best view away north to the snowcapped summits of the White Mountains and west to the ski areas of southern Vermont, so didn’t see the point of risking a blister.

The trip down took almost as long as the climb up—even with great boots and crampons I had to be careful with each step on the steeper sections. The only bad slip I had all day was 100 yards from my car, crossing a wooden bridge after I’d taken off the micro-crampons and stored them in my pack.

Overall, the Mountain Expert boots performed admirably. I don’t think I’ve ever broken any boots in without developing a hotspot or blister sometime during the process. The stiffer the boots, the more likely a blister, and the fact that I got nothing more than a little hotspot from this initial trek made the boots go up several notches in my estimation.

Going For Greylock

The next mountain on the agenda was Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. At 3,491 feet it’s only a little higher than Monadnock and the trails are similar. But it was nine below zero as I drove through North Adams, MA, and four below when I parked my car at Greylock Glen just west of Adams and met my new friends from Pittsfield, “Sweep” Voll, and Steve McDermott. Perfect weather for climbing, don’t you think? Good test for the warmth of new boots.

Sweep Voll, Matt Albert and me standing on top of Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts after a below-zero climb. This was the first summit for my new Lowa Mountain Expert boots. (Steve McDermott/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Like many New England mountains, Greylock is kind to you—for a while, at least. The lower slopes are an easy stroll through woods past the remnants of a ski area that never opened, a nice, gentle prelude to the real climb. Our route took us up a variant of the Bellows Pipe Trail to join the Thunderbolt Ski Trail, the most direct route to the top. By the time we actually reached the Thunderbolt, we weren’t noticing the cold at all. In fact, I was stripped to just a lightweight zip-neck shirt with a quilted vest over it.

Once we hit the Thunderbolt, the real climb started . . . you cross a narrow bridge over a stream and immediately head UP. Sections of the trail have names like “Big Schuss,” and “The Steps,” which gives you some indication of how steep they are. The footing was good with either micro-crampons or snowshoes, and, without rushing, we reached the summit a little less than two hours after leaving our cars.

Just shy of the summit, we ducked into the (very cold) stone warming hut to get out of the rising wind, and put on extra layers for the (very cold) stroll to the summit. You haven’t climbed Greylock until you’ve touched the spectacular 92-foot tall Veterans Memorial Tower on top, which was covered in rime ice. At the tower, we bumped into another outdoor friend of Sweep’s, Matt Albert, who had snowshoed up another route. We all shared a cup of hot tea in the warming hut and headed down together.

Again, mountaineering boots could have seemed like overkill for a comparatively small hill like Greylock. But it was really cold, and winter is a time of rapidly changing trail conditions. We all carried both snowshoes and micro-crampons. It hadn’t snowed significantly for several days, and the trail was well packed by earlier traffic. Both the snowshoes and the micro-crampons had their drawbacks at different spots on the mountain. In places where the wind had blown in deeper powder, boots with crampons punched through the packed trail surface. But in other spots, where the wind had blown the snow off leaving ice below, mini-crampons gave us better traction than the snowshoes. Overall, micro-crampons were the better choice.

It was cold enough when we started out that my fingers got really cold even with shell mittens over lightweight gloves. But my toes inside the Mountain Experts stayed toasty. I’d also added a 1/4-inch heel lift under the insoles of the Mountain Experts to fit my heel more tightly into the heel pocket, and had applied pre-cut heel blister prevention patches from Engo to both boots, and never had the slightest hint of a hotspot or blister.

Marcy Madness 

Thea Moruzzi of the Adirondack Mountain Club and me on the summit of Mount Marcy. After nearly 5 miles of hiking in them, one snowshoe fell off literally as I took the last step onto the summit. (Julia Goren/Adirondack Mountain Club/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Over the next couple of months, bad weather cancelled a couple of planned attempts on Mount Washington. I did get to use the Mountain Experts several times with snowshoes on hard crust, and was impressed at their stability, particularly on sidehills. If you want to twist an ankle, you are really going to have to work to accomplish it in these boots–even on steep sidehills on snowshoes with a heavy pack.

Several more short trips solidified my overall satisfaction with the boots. While skiing at Wildcat and staying at Joe Dodge Lodge, I took a solo afternoon stroll up to the base of an empty Tuckerman Ravine with a light pack and Hillsound Trail Crampons, a little less than 5 miles round trip and 2,000 or so vertical feet of climbing. I also did an overnight to Black Mountain Cabin on an icy trail, 1.4 miles each way with a 55-pound pack (we don’t ultralight in the winter . . .). On both treks the boots performed perfectly.

Then in late March, I made arrangements to stay two nights at the Adirondack Loj run by the Adirondack Mountain Club, and summit Marcy on snowshoes with two of their very experienced guides, Thea Moruzzi and Julia Goren. Technically, it wasn’t winter: Spring had “officially” begun 10 days before. But the temp was 20 when we started, the wind was blowing straight out of Canada, every step we took was on snow or ice, and there was still over five feet of snow on Marcy’s summit. Argue technicalities all you want, I call that winter.

Climbing Marcy isn’t really difficult, just very l-o-n-g, and therefore a real test of boots. Without any side trips, it’s 7.4 miles from the Adirondack Loj at Heart Lake to the summit. Over that distance you gain 3,164 vertical feet, with only two fairly short, fairly steep sections. Then, of course, you have turn around and come back down 7.4 miles and 3,164 feet . . .

We left the Loj at 7:30 in the morning, and walked the 2.1 miles to Marcy Dam with micro-crampons. I was using the Yaktrax XTRs, which, at 13 oz., are the lightest of the micro-crampons and the least likely to suffer from snow balling up in the cleats on a warm day. Thea and Julia were using proven Kahtoola microSpikes® which worked perfectly as well. Regulations dictate skis or snowshoes when the snow is more than eight inches deep, so at Marcy Dam, we donned small MSR EVO Ascent snowshoes for the climb up and back down. We were back at the Loj by 5:30, about 10 hours after we left.

The Lowa Mountain Expert on top of Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York and 7.5 miles from the nearest road. This boot is made for tackling the steeps with snowshoes and crampons. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

That’s nearly 15 miles of walking in nine hours with 11 miles on snowshoes and four more miles with micro-crampons. The temperature ranged from 20 degrees at the start to nearly 60 in mid-afternoon. We encountered ice, hard crust, corn snow, and slush. My feet were never too warm, never too cold, and never got wet at all. In fact, though the split leather absorbed some water from the wet snow, the boots never got wet inside. The Mountain Experts ventilated moisture so perfectly that the one pair of FITS wool hiking socks I wore all day were almost completely dry at the finish. Moisture management in these boots is impressive, to say the least.

I had one mild hotspot on the outside of my right big toe. It started on the steepest pitches of the down climb but once I re-tightened the boots and the trail leveled off, it never got any worse. The Mountain Expert’s lacing system’s ability to control pressure distribution is truly impressive.

So yes, there’s more testing to do, and the summits of Mount Washington and Katahdin are a different and more dangerous world in the winter than the climbs I’ve done. But based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d have no qualms about attempting either or any of the east’s “big mountains” in any reasonable weather using the Lowa Mountain Experts. So far, they’ve comfortably done everything I’ve asked of them and seem entirely capable of doing even more. That’s my definition of a great boot.

Related posts:

1. How To: Pick The Right Ski Boots For YOU
2. Active Seniors’ Gear Review: L.L. Bean Tuckerman Multisport Boots
3. Gear Review: Wenger “Canyoneer” Hiking Boots

After the stress of preparing for a wedding, can a few days of “active relaxation” bring you back to normal? We found that the rolling hills of Quebec’s Eastern Townships provided enough activity, enough beauty, and enough relaxation for a fast destressing. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

No, not those kinks…EasternSlopes.com isn’t looking to change to a “.xxx” domain name when they become available!

We’re talking muscle knots, cricks in the neck, various aches and pains; all things that happen when you’re under stress and aren’t getting enough exercise. In other words, what happens in the couple of weeks leading up to your wedding. The running around, making sure that everything is where it’s supposed to be when it’s supposed to be there, worrying that there’ll be enough food/wine/plates/forks, checking the weather forecast every two hours for the last three days before the event…if you’ve been through it, you know the drill, and if you’re going to go through it, maybe we can help!

The last time we’d been under that kind of stress was when Susan was finishing her master’s degree program. And, eating and drinking and mountain biking our way through the Eastern Townships proved to be a perfect solution. The people were wonderful, the food fantastic, and the opportunities to get fun exercise plentiful. In fact, they were SO plentiful that we weren’t able to try everything that we wanted to do (like the aerial adventures, which are much more exciting than most typical zipline tours in the USA).

Given that, and given that we didn’t have a lot of time for our honeymoon immediately following the wedding, we decided to have a “minimoon” up north. With only a few hours to drive to get there, we weren’t wasting two days traveling to/from the area, and we could carry all of our stuff with us.  Airplane trips mean paring down to the essentials, particularly these days with excess baggage fees everywhere you look, and we like having our toys. Bicycles, cooksets and backpacks for impromptu picnics on mountains, trekking poles…all things we can’t take on a plane.

Unlike the last trip, though, we wanted to pamper ourselves a bit. Yes, we were tired then, but this was definitely a higher level of stress. And with a crazy summer behind us, coupled with a sprained ankle for Susan, we hadn’t been able to mountain bike at all, so planning long days in the saddle would pretty much guarantee crashes. Losing a honeymoon day to an emergency room wasn’t on our agenda (and, we hope, not on yours, either!). Could we take the trip down a notch, get plenty of rest and relaxation, and still get the exercise we needed to fully loosen up and rejuvenate? And, with our work schedules and the fact that we could only get away for a few days, would it be enough?

Loosening up often means massages and the like, so step one was to look into day spas. One name kept appearing, no matter what we searched on…Spa Eastman, in, yes, Eastman (they clearly want to make life easy for stressed-out people with limited memory spans!). They not only have every service we could think of, they had a number we’d never heard of.  Better still, they aren’t just a day spa; they’re actually a full resort hotel with a restaurant that focuses on “healthful gourmet food.” Hmmm…decadence that isn’t bad for us? Sign us up!

Spa Eastman gently entices you to live in the moment; this little bridge is easy to cross, but the offset boards mean you have to actually THINK about it…and forget life’s distractions. Subtle, and it works! (Susan Marean Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Day one, on the road with our coffee, finding a diner with NON-healthy food, we could already feel the relaxation starting to set in; vacation, honeymoon! Knowing that we were headed to a beautiful, welcoming area enhanced that, and the fact that breathing exercises, a quiet environment, massages, potentially great food, and more awaited us…well, it’s hard to beat that to set a mood. Canadian customs and immigration looked at our passports, decided we weren’t terrorists, and we were almost there. Driving up to Spa Eastman, it’s obvious that this is a “nice” place. Everything is meticulously tended, yet there’s nothing overdone about it; nature is left to be nature. We arrived before lunch, and had a picnic with us, so slipped off on the trails surrounding the spa to find a place to sit and relax. It wasn’t long before we found that the lovely pond on the grounds had open fields beyond, and we collapsed just beyond the far shore, and enjoyed absolute peace & quiet.

Lunch over, time to check in. The spa has a “please be quiet” policy, and the lobby is unlike that of any hotel we’ve ever been to; no shouting people, no bright lights, no assaults to the senses whatsoever. It’s that way throughout every part of the resort; even when we walked the trails out on the grounds, people were speaking in low voices. It wasn’t somber…there were still smiles and laughter, but it was, well, respectful of the fact that we were all there to help restore some inner peace and equilibrium. Our room was the same…everything immaculate, everything harmonious, nothing to disturb us; our deck looked out over the pool & hot tub, and, even with a number of people enjoying themselves, sound didn’t make it up our way.

Check-in complete, it was time to partake of the spa’s specialties. Even though we typically want to be “doing” things, we wanted to make our time at Eastman as different as it could be. So, we chose three activities (beyond naps and eating, of course!) that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. The first was a course in breathing…no, that’s NOT a joke! “Mieux respirer, mieux vivre!” (We live the way we breathe)  examines your breathing rhythms, and how to consciously reduce stress in all circumstances with a few techniques…and it works. We found that the very act of paying that much attention to the process took us out of the stress of the world, even while we were learning it. (Postscript: We’ve found ourselves continuing to use these techniques since in a variety of situations; it worked while we were there, and it still does!).

Relaxed from our breathing practice, we then settled in for a couples massage. A typical massage has you in a quiet room with a therapist, but in this format, we were both in the same room with two therapists. And, again, it was a fascinating experience for a honeymooning couple; massage is something that you typically think of as being totally individual, totally for yourself, and not a shared experience. But for this once, we were each aware that the other was there, and were able to enjoy being totally selfish together. Quirky but fun…and we were oh, so relaxed!

Traditional relaxation is available at Spa Eastman, as well; it’s hard to NOT relax in a hot tub with that view! (Susan Marean Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Two unusual activities down, one for the following day, and time for yes, a nap. There may be nothing that’s more restoring when we’ve been too busy, and to take one when we were already limp as noodles from the massage; well, it’s lovely that Spa Eastman is quiet, but we’re pretty sure it simply wouldn’t have mattered. A matter of hours there, and we were feeling weeks of stress melting away.

Dinner, of course, kept us from simply sleeping straight through the night. We were a little hesitant about what we would find, as “healthful gourmet cuisine” might not reach the levels of decadence that…well, it WAS our honeymoon, so we wanted to utterly indulge. Seated in the stunning dining room, we quickly learned we didn’t have to worry; their idea of healthful includes local rabbit & duck, venison, lovely preparations of local vegetables, seafood salads, etc.  AND, of course, a wonderful salad bar loaded not only with local veggies, but also lots of interesting and crunchy toppings (ch-ch-ch-chia seeds…honest!). Top it off with a well-chosen wine list, and we could easily have been in Montreal; no matter how healthy they’re being, they can’t avoid the “foodie” character that we so love about Quebec. As dinner ended, Mother Nature decided to put on a sunset show for us from our deck, the perfect ending to a perfect day.

If this is “healthy eating,” sign us up to live to 100! (Susan Marean Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Morning brought a lovely day, a breakfast befitting the culinary talents we’d enjoyed the night before, and then…an anti-stress walk. Yes, we regularly walk and hike to reduce our stress, but the idea of a walk for ONLY that reason seemed intriguing.  And it was; aside from focusing us on what was around us, they had us walk as pairs, one as a guide, the other with eyes closed. Among other things, walking with your eyes closed, trusting entirely to your partner to guide you safely along, teaches you that all that really matters is right here, right now…and that you CAN give up some of that control that you’ve worked so hard for. For us, as honeymooners, it was also wonderfully symbolic; a few days before, we’d made that trust committment before friends and family, and now were demonstrating it to each other. Beyond that, it was utterly fascinating how LOUD the world is when you take away sight. The scrape of someone’s foot on a pebble sounded like it was inches away, yet they might be ten feet or more from you.

With that walk over, we decided to stroll around the grounds; Spa Eastman has lovely trails through the woods, with raised wooden walkways to get you through wet areas without damage to you or nature. Several times, we met up with other groups, but the truce against noise in the hotel seemed to last throughout the grounds; conversations were always muted, everyone smiled and nodded when they met up but nobody seemed to want to intrude into anyone else’s privacy. In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with noise, flashing images, and stimulation of all kinds, the complete dedication to quiet relaxation that Spa Eastman embodies is rare, if not unheard of.

It’s not just for winter; Parc National du Mont Orford’s waterfront & trail network mean year-round hiking, mountain biking, kayking/canoeing…and yes, lovely picnic spots! (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Unfortunately, our budgets have limits…and while the spa isn’t an outrageous extravagance, we’d just paid for a wedding. Thus, we’d limited ourselves to one night there, and decided to balance it with the excellent bargain that is the Auberge du Mont Orford, just down the road from Eastman and in the shadow of, you guessed it, Mont Orford. With suites that include a living room, bedroom, and a full kitchen, it’s luxury on a less grand scale than the Spa. Beyond the accomodations themselves, the Auberge has  a surprising array of services; there’s a fitness room, hot tub, large living room with fireplace, BYOB restaurant…even massage therapy on premises! It was a perfect way to come down from being utterly pampered; call it half-pampered.  And a great way to remind ourselves that while one goal was relaxing, another was to…well, reduce the effects of a week’s worth of wedding food.

Since we’d left Spa Eastman well in advance of check-in at the Auberge, step one was, to head up to Parc National du Mont Orford for a picnic lunch and some hiking.  They’ve got some beautiful waterfront to sit and enjoy local cheese, meat, and bread, and an extensive trail network for burning those calories afterward. It’s easy to think of Mont Orford only for downhill skiing, but that’s far from accurate; in the winter, there’s an impressive range of XC trails (50KM of them; that’s a reason to go back in the winter right there!), and in the summer there’s hiking, trail biking, and canoeing/kayaking. Great way to spend an afternoon, and to get our legs loosened up for the next day’s cycling plans!

Lunch and hiking over, it was definitely time for a nap; clearly, we still weren’t back to normal energy levels yet. Trying to recharge your batteries in just a few days means really paying attention to what your body is telling you to do; you have to balance “active” with “recovery.” We had bigger exercise plans for the next day on the cyclocross bikes (many back roads in the Townships are dirt, so ‘cross bikes are an ideal way for you to travel), so didn’t feel bad about kicking back and just doing nothing until dinnertime. We’d seen a restaurant on the way back from the park named Bistro 4 Saisons; it’s run by an expatriate Belgian. Since cyclocross is a uniquely Belgian sport, we simply had to try it. NOT a mistake; the food was excellent, the atmosphere both elegant and homey at the same time. And the calories…well, we’d simply increase our miles tomorrow.

And, in the morning, for the first time in months, we actually woke looking forward to a long ride! The two previous days of great food and relaxing atmosphere was enough to start the healing process, and make us want to use that energy. After breakfast, we hopped on the bikes with our map, some snacks (of course!), and some extra water, and headed out. Since we’d had such fun going to winetastings on our last trip to the Eastern Townships, we set a goal to find Vignoble Clos du Roc Noir down near Lac Memphremagog, roughly 20 miles away, or close to 50 round trip with “wanderings.”  Ambitious, given our general condition, but with the whole day ahead of us and lunch in the middle, it meant we could set a relatively easy pace and enjoy the lovely scenery.

Fascinating to taste as well as beautiful to look at, these wine grapes in the Eastern Townships are ready for harvest. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Of course, a mile in that area isn’t the same as a mile most places; as we’ve noted before there is NO flat land in this part of the world. By the time we reached the winery, we were ready for a break, a taste of the wines, and even more fun, a taste of the grapes that were almost ready for harvest! If you’ve never tasted wine grapes, it’s almost shocking how sweet they are; they have to be to provide enough sugar to convert to alcohol. It’s worth a trip to wine country in the harvest season just for that experience alone.

On the bikes again, we saw a sign for “poisson fumé“. Smoked fish is about as high on our list as it gets for appetizers, and true to Eastern Townships form it was being produced locally for sale in local stores. We knew that the following night, dinner would be in the woods and a perfect time to add local smoked trout and salmon pate to the picnic! It’s one of the many joys of traveling in Quebec; cottage industries abound, and many of them are FOOD related. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Part igloo, part rescue shelter, all weird…the Treegloo is actually a roomy, comfortable, fun place to spend a night! (Au Diable Vert photo)

After the relaxed “civilization” of the Spa and the Auberge, and knowing that our final night on the minimoon was going to be luxury and culinary excess, we headed for Au Diable Vert, a place that had intrigued us for a while. We’ve stayed at plenty of oddball places over the years, from tents and bivvy shelters to yurts and backwoods cabins…but never in a “Treegloo.” Part treehouse, part igloo-shaped fiberglass shell, this is about as odd as it gets. And, tucked into the backwoods in a gorgeous, isolated corner of the Eastern Townships just north of Jay Peak, it’s as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get without driving hours from civilization. The panoramic views are stunning at any time of year, but during fall foliage, they’re particularly beautiful. The proprietors take you and your belongings (they provide cooking gear and mattresses, you provide everything else) to your chosen lodging, drop you off, and let you wander from there; when you’re ready to go, they come back and pick everything up.  The convenience of car camping with nearly the isolation of backcountry; it’s perfect for situations like ours, where trying to put ALL of our camping gear into the car along with everything else would be…well, it was a tight fit as it was!

“A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.” The sentiment hasn’t changed since Omar Khayyam wrote it around 1000 years ago, but we’re betting that the food & wine have…for the better! (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

And there it was…the “Treegloo.” It started life as a modular disaster relief shelter…two rounded ends, add as many middle sections as you want, sort of like a 3D dining room table. In this incarnation, it’s just a dome, like a hard-shelled yurt.  With beds and a woodstove, it’s roomy and comfy, and the deck looks out at the back side of Mont Sutton. We were lucky enough to be there on one of those perfect autumn evenings; started out warm, we picnicked on the deck and played cards as the sun set, enjoying an all-Quebec meal. Smoked fish that we’d picked up on our bike ride, local cheeses and bread, and a bottle of wine from L’Orpailleur…seriously, what more could a honeymooning couple want??? As the evening cooled, we moved inside and lit a fire in the woodstove. Fall and spring are wonderful that way; days that are warm enough to hike or bike without heavy clothes, but evenings that are cool enough for crackling fires and snuggling up. Add to that the utter backcountry silence around Au Diable Vert, and you’ve got a recipe for a long, restful night’s sleep.

No alarm clock…ah, what bliss. A light overnight rain was ending, simply forcing a lazy start to the day. But, at some point, the caffeine kicked in, and there were trails to be explored, views to be seen. Even standing on the deck of the Treegloo was sheer joy; the view across the valley to Mont Sutton was glowing with color. No matter where we looked, we were surrounded by beauty; it really was hard to believe that we were less than an hour from Magog.

As far from Spa Eastman’s healthy cuisine as you can get, poutine (right) is a specialty of Quebec; eating it in a trailer diner is simply the way it should be done. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

A few hours of hiking around, and we felt prepared for two things; lunch, and the dinner we knew was coming. Magog, in fact, was on our way to our final night’s lodging, and we’d asked around when we were in Orford for some restaurant recommendations…and gotten a very peculiar one. “Have you tried poutine?” No, we hadn’t…but crisp french fries topped with fresh cheese curds, then smothered with gravy…could it be bad? We were told to try Cantine du Lac, a not-very prepossessing trailer across the street from the La Vegetarien supermarket. A honeymoon’s supposed to be an adventure, right? Why not? We hedged our bets by ordering the meatloaf, as well; it’s a diner, so that’s a safe choice.  What a mistake…the meatloaf was okay, but the poutine was divine; we should have both ordered it. Absolutely, unequivocally worth the heart attack. If you go to Magog, you owe it to yourself to give this a try!

Given the size of the lunch, we were glad we had about 7 hours until dinner. On our last trip to Quebec, we’d stayed at Le Bocage, and had one of our best meals ever. Plus, host Francois Dubois is as entertaining as his food is spectacular. We simply had to go again…and weren’t disappointed. Le Bocage is a “bring your own” restaurant, so we’d brought a couple of special bottles of wine from our cellar, and let Francois know in advance what they were. He tweaked the meal around them, and it was as wonderful as we’d remembered.  Our room was the attic suite, which features an antique wedding dress as one of the decorations; how appropriate!

Sooner or later, you have to go home to the world of work…but some of the peace stays with you. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

Alas, our time was up, and work was calling. After another of Francois’ amazing breakfasts, we aimed our car south and headed home. As ever, the Eastern Townships had provided gorgeous views, great activities, wonderful food…and in this particular case, a remarkable dose of sanity. We had left home happy but physically and emotionally exhausted, out of shape, bloated with too much food, too much worry; in a short few days, we’d shed cares, anxieties, and a few pounds (even while gorging ourselves on the fabulous food!). You may not have a wedding in your future, but if you’re stretched too thin by work or any of life’s other twists and can’t escape for a long vacation, we can highly recommend this approach. That first day of pure, luxurious relaxation, followed by several days of mixed exercise, views, naps, great food, and “together” time, provides more rejuvenation than we’d dreamed possible. Who knows…maybe you’ll see us up there when you go!

Related posts:

1. Quebec In Foliage Season: The Eastern Townships
2. The Eastern Townships: A “European Vacation” Close to Home
3. A Gastronomic Mountain Bike Tour Through Vermont & Quebec’s Eastern Townships

The Esbit CH585HA is barely larger than a coffee mug, and much smaller than a Jetboil Sol; but, can it perform well enough to be worth carrying? (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

If you started backpacking in the last 20 years, you may never have heard of Esbit; but if you started 40 years ago, it’s likely that at some point you owned one of their funky little folding stoves, if only because they were so small, light, and odd. You also probably got irritated with it barely getting your water warm, being a pain in the neck to block the wind around, and the first time you saw a Svea 123 (finicky as it is), you said to yourself “this is a better mousetrap!”

Times have changed, the Esbit stove has changed, but is it cosmetic or a real improvement? One look at the CS585HA ($30 retail) says that they’ve learned from other advances; it’s a compact system that has the firebox storing inside the drinking cup. That’s right, no more carrying your own cup and hoping it fits on the stove! Fit and finish are excellent, as good as anything else we’ve used. The whole thing comes in its own little fabric bag so you don’t even have to worry about it coming apart inside your pack and having parts wander into terra incognita.

The Esbit pot with 16 ounces of VERY cold water, about to be set on the pot stand. We added the aluminum foil, as the stand windscreen isn’t highly effective on its own. (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

So…how does it work? Well, it still uses Esbit fuel tablets, and that’s both a blessing and a curse. Curse, because they can only get just so hot, they only last just so long, and there’s no temperature control whatsoever. You light them (have a couple of matches ready; they’re sometimes a pain to get lit, particularly if there’s a breeze), and…that’s it. Blessing, because they work whether it’s 40 above or 40 below, are totally no-nonsense, there’s nothing that can possibly break at all, let alone at the worst possible time. They are what they are, and they’re still probably the single best fuel source in a real emergency as there’s simply nothing you can do to make them NOT work (in fact, an Esbit fuel tablet makes a heck of an emergency firestarter, as they last a LOT longer than the usual suspects in that lineup). They’re also a lot lighter than carrying around butane canisters, and less bulky.

That said…if you’re looking to boil water, forget it, at least in cold weather. On a 25 degree morning with very little breeze, starting with water with ice around the edges, we found that a single tablet would get 16 ounces of  water to about 150 degrees F in about 10 minutes. That’s hot enough to make some hot chocolate, or a nice cup of Java Juice, or even soak your Ramen noodles to their usual quasi-edible state. Trying to make your Starbucks VIA work? Nope, that really requires water that’s almost boiling to taste right. But looking for a nice, warm, cozy cup of chocolate? Now we’re talking…and at a weight and size that makes it hard to justify NOT carrying it. Now, in summer, it’ll likely be a different matter entirely, and we’ll certainly give it a try then and let you know how it works for us!

It’s not boiling, but it’s the lightest way we’ve found to get some hot chocolate out of icewater! (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

We did find that wind pretty much made the system useless; no matter what direction we turned it, too much of the heat went out through the vents in the base. If you’re in a windy spot, look for a depression, dig a hole in the snow, or at the very least have some aluminum foil with you and make a windscreen; we found that worked very well unless the wind was pretty strong.

Overall, the CS585HA isn’t perfect…but what is? If you’re looking for a soldily built, pretty much bulletproof and foolproof way to get some warmth in the worst case scenario, it’s a dramatically-improved option over the original Esbit stove. For the money, it’s…well, we can’t think of anything that competes with it. If you’ve got a gear junkie or a Boy Scout in your household, it’s a great gift; cute, inexpensive, and actually useful. It’s not equal to a micro canister stove, let alone a Jetboil in heat output (although Esbit’s CS985H-EX alcohol stove with heat exchanger looks like it might make for a fun comparison!). But it’s light, works as long as you have fuel for it, and we wouldn’t mind having it in our pack when an emergency actually DOES happen. And some hot summer day when we’re ultralighting and eating Ramen noodles, well…it just may turn out to be the perfect tool!

Related posts:

1. So, How Long Does A Fuel Canister REALLY Last???
2. Gear Review: Primus Express & Coleman F1 Canister Microstoves
3. How To: Winter Cabin Checklist

Walk to the condo, or…slide down the hill? They may LEGALLY be adults at 21, but they’re still kids at heart; could we play on that to help make the 21st birthday a safe one? (Susan Marean Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

As parents, we all face a constant level of stress as our kids grow up; getting them through their driver’s ed, sitting in the passenger seat as they learn to drive well enough to barely pass the license exam, making sure they actually pass in all the last work needed to graduate from high school, working through the FAFSA and college applications…it never seems to end.

But there’s one event that is potentially more deadly than any other; the coming-of-age 21st birthday. The statistics are staggering; not only do roughly 80% of celebrants drink, but the amounts are extraordinary. The mean number of drinks consumed is almost thirteen; even more frightening is that 34% of men and 24% of women drank twenty-one or MORE drinks. 

Obviously, peer pressure is a significant part of this behavior; for instance, being a member of a college fraternity significantly increases the chance of dangerous behaviors (no surprise there . . ). The idea of celebrating the event with an equal number of drinks is so pervasive that a well-intentioned adult posted “Happy Birthday Matt!! Drink 21 beers for me. ” on our son’s Facebook page, without thinking that even the joke makes the behavior more “normal.”

As my step-son Matt approached this milestone, my wife Susan and I were painfully aware of the risks; the question was, how best to minimize them? It’s hard to keep kids from heading to the bars with their friends…the date is a major rite of passage, and of course they want to have fun, and to enjoy something that has been out of reach (at least legally) until now. We’ve known parents who held parties at home, but then had the party move to the bars, so weren’t sure that was the best way to handle it.

Can steep trails and a slopeside condo help make a 21st birthday party safer? Tired legs=less energy to go out drinking… (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com

And then inspiration struck; take the family to a ski condo! Controlled environment, fun things to do during the day, get them so tired they don’t even WANT to stay out late and drink.

But which mountain would be the best? Some resorts have layouts that encourage jumping in the car and travelling from bar to bar (Killington, with all the famous bars on the access road, being perhaps the most obvious example); that certainly wouldn’t be helpful. After a lot of thought, we settled on Saddleback.

On the mountain itself, the number of bar choices totals…umm…1. Yup, the Swig’N Smelt at the base lodge is the ONLY option. There isn’t even a convenience/grocery store that sells beer; the strongest stimulant is Mountain Dew in the food court. That means no “have a few expensive drinks at the bar and then buy a 30 pack of cheap swill.” It also means that, while The Parental Units won’t exactly be watching over his shoulder, they won’t be far away; not that there’s any guarantee that a birthday boy will care about that, but it’s just one more factor that MIGHT lead to responsible choices. It also helps that the Smelt isn’t exactly a wild party bar…all ages are welcome, and the apres-ski scene has a distinctly family-oriented atmosphere. And, it isn’t open late; typically, they’ll shut down by 9 o’clock. Even if the kids want to hang out and drink, there’s a limit to how much they can pound down between closing time of the slopes and closing time of the bar.

The Saddleback location also means that there simply isn’t anyplace TO drive to; there aren’t any bars on the access road. In fact, the nearest bar is down in Rangeley, 8 miles and almost half an hour away. Each direction. On twisty, often snowy roads. And, once there, it’s not exactly like barhopping in Times Square…”sedate” is probably the right word for Rangeley, even on Saturday nights. Not a very appealing prospect, even to an eager  21-year-old.

Finally, there’s the mountain itself. Saddleback’s trails aren’t Grandma’s rocking chair; they’re steep, often tight, twisty, and fun. Take a snowboarding 21 year old, let him take “easy” trails like Blue Devil wide open a few times, and he’ll suddenly start to slow down a bit. Run him down Tight Line and Supervisor, suggest that it would be fun to do them again, and you can be pretty certain that he won’t be interested in finding ANY bar that’s open until 2 a.m.

“Hmm…free skiing, free beer, free food…guys, can you help me decide if I want to do this???” (Susan Marean Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

At least, that was our hope…and Machiavellian parents that we are, we didn’t speak our mind past “Hey, how would you like it if we took you and your best friend up to Saddleback for your birthday weekend?” The idea took hold immediately; the images of great boarding, free food, the magic words “ski condo”, and us offering to pay for the whole shebang, including the beer, clearly danced in his head like the proverbial sugarplums. Alex, his best friend, was on board (pun intended), so we made reservations and headed up.

Magic from the start…the condo was ski in/ski out. (For anyone thinking about using this idea, we’d HIGHLY encourage making sure the condo is slopeside.) The car keys went away into a drawer, out of sight and out of mind.

Midwinter ski conditions didn’t hurt our plan in the least; impeccably groomed, rippingly fast trails meant more leg burn, more exhausted 21 year olds. Kids may be fast, but us old-timers have the stamina, and we were able to wear them out (microseconds) before we turned to jelly ourselves. By 3, we were back at the condo, Matt with first legal beer in hand, looking proud, cocky, and, though he probably didn’t realize it, safe. Better still, he also looked HUNGRY. All of the boarding made him and Alex ready to pile into as much food as we could find.

Machiavellian move #2: “Well, how about we head down to the Smelt, get some appetizers, beer, have dinner, then come back here for cake and a movie?” Put food, beer, and cake into the same sentence, and they’d agree to donate their left arms to science (they’re both right handed, so need to keep those to work a fork and tilt a beer). By 4, off we headed…

There’s another advantage to having only one bar; as the lifts shut down, it’s going to be BUSY. It took us a while to get a table, by which time the boys were even more ravenous. We ordered appetizers and drinks at the same time; the drinks came first, but they were more interested in the food. Lesson learned…get them really hungry, so food is more important than alcohol! The food arrived (and was excellent; the Smelt has suprisingly interesting food choices, including without a doubt the BEST sweet potato fries ever). We all piled in, and with the crazy crowd, the second round of drinks didn’t arrive until we were mostly done with the food. That meant plenty of time for Matt to sit back, listen to the music, and savor his beer, rather than sucking it down and ordering another. Saddleback’s commitment to locally produced goods (all natural local beef, for instance) carries through to the booze, too; local beers on tap included Tuckerman Headwall Alt,  which is so rich, it’s virtually impossible to guzzle. (And the 4.75% alcohol content is actually below many typical American beers—Budweiser is 5%).

Beer & birthday cake…ah, the wonders of a 21 year old’s digestive system! (David Shedd/EasternSlopes.com)

After a couple of hours, appetizers, dinner, and a couple of rounds, the boys were so full that drinking another beer didn’t sound appealing; slow is definitely good! So, we suggested heading back to the condo for the movie. High-end entertainment, definitely; Matt chose “Airplane.” Apparently, dumb jokes are cross-generational, as it’s one of our favorites, too. He still had one beer in the refrigerator, and opened it…but the large dinner still was controlling his intake, and he very slowly sipped it through the first half of the movie. By cake time, milk was sounding good to him (particularly since he was out of beer), and by the end of the movie, he and Alex were ready to hit the hay and be ready to hit the mountain in the morning.

And in the morning, as bright eyed and bushy tailed as any 21-year-old males are before noon, they were up, eating breakfast, and ready for the slopes. We had another great morning of skiing, lunch at the Swig ‘N Smelt (WITHOUT beer!), and they decided their legs were more ready for the drive home than more time on the mountain. Off we headed, with everybody pleased; parent that Son was both “legal” and safe, boys happy that they’d been able to have great skiing fun AND get food and drinks paid for.

Obviously, there’s no way to know what the future will bring; none of us can watch our adult kids all the time (nor should we). But, we learned that with a little forethought, parents CAN shape that first public drinking experience in a way that’s healthy and safe. Peer pressure is incredibly powerful; virtually all of us have bent or broken under it at one time or another. But now the pressure for Matt is off; not only is it unlikely that anyone would suggest “21 for 21″ to him except on his birthday, but also it’s dramatically less likely that he’d agree to it on a different day. Making sure that a good friend was with him was important, too…he didn’t feel isolated or “it’s just my parents”, which would make it more likely that he’d then go off to party with his peers as soon as he re-entered the real world. We’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes as parents, and will continue to, but we’re pretty sure we nailed this one just right.

Depending on the timing of your birthday boy or girl’s 21st, skiing may not be an option. But, there’s always something available. Many ski areas are hopping in the summer. Or  white water rafting, sky diving, mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, whatever. Based on our experience, we’d look for the following elements:

1. Remote location with very limited drinking options;

2. Something that’s physically challenging, so that they’re tired enough that a long drive to a bar doesn’t sound appealing;

3. Including peers to a limited extent; make it fun and not just a family thing, but not a frat party, either;

4. Provide acceptable evening entertainment that doesn’t require or particularly encourage significant drinking (watching a movie is better than playing pool in a bar, for instance).

There’s no guarantee that this approach will work; there’s no guarantee that your celebrant won’t go off and do something stupid; but for that matter, there simply aren’t any guarantees of safety in life. But, we’re confident that this approach will give your young adult a chance to get past that dangerous date safely, having fun, and even LIKING the parents; you’ll be seen as trying to do something fun for them, rather than trying to keep them from enjoying themselves. We were certainly lucky; the stars aligned to make it a great experience for all of us. Here’s hoping it does the same for you!

Related posts:

1. More Proof That Winter IS Coming: Sugarloaf Begins Snowmaking!
2. Resort Comparison: Saddleback and Sugarloaf
3. Resort Snapshot: Saddleback Maine, 02-24 and 25, 2013, Two All-Time Top-10 Great Ski Days

Mount Washington with Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines from Wildcat. What a view on a blue-sky Spring day! (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Now let me say right here that the ultimate King of Kings of Spring Skiing here in the northeast was, is, and forever will be Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington, where the skiing can easily last until the end of June–all on natural snow. Of course you have to hike to get your turns at Tucks, it’s STEEP in places (though the bowl is lovely for intermediates) and any trek there usually comes with a risk of avalanches, falling ice, and crevasses—any of which can kill you if you aren’t careful. Never head up to Tuckerman without reading and heeding the latest advisory from the Mount Washington Avalanche Center

But mere mortals who prefer to ride lifts have lots of resorts in New England to choose from for a Spring Skiing getaway. A lot of great ski resorts can proudly hold their heads high in the King of Spring/Northeast Division competition. Some, like Bromley Mountain and Stowe’s Spruce Peak in Vermont, and Black Mountain and Cranmore Mountain in New Hampshire earn their place in the pantheon of Spring favorites with trails that face south. They deliver Spring skiing earlier than anyone else: a sunny, warm day in late February can produce perfect corn snow conditions on any of their trails. Of course these south-facing areas tend to close earlier than others. What’s perfect spring corn snow one day can be pure slush the next day and bare ground the day after. But, usually, even the sunniest trails still have skiable snow on them when the lifts stop turning for lack of skiers.

This Telemarker was enjoying a perfect Spring Sunday on March 24, 2013 at Sunday River. Soft snow all day long! (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

When most skiers and riders start thinking about the Kings of Spring, though, they are usually thinking about the areas with the most snow, that stay open longest. Sugarloaf and Sunday River in Maine are perennial favorites for spring skiers. So are Wildcat, Loon and Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. Vermont has Killington and Jay Peak

For late March, 2013, Marilyn and I checked the snow reports and the long range weather forecasts, and put together a tour of three of our favorite candidates for the King Of Spring title. We allowed two days for each resort, hoping that would produce at least one perfect Spring day at each stop. Turns out that strategy worked pretty darned well.

We began on Sunday, March 24 at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, which is always the first or second major area in the northeast to offer snow in the early season thanks to an amazing snowmaking system. It’s also always among the last to close for the same reason. When we skied there on March 24 and 25, they had piles of snow 30 feet high in places that they haven’t even groomed out yet. I’m betting they’ll still be skiing off the Locke Mountain triple for Memorial Day, 2013!

On a Spring Sunday, it’s not surprising that Sunday River was hopping. They had at least four different race courses going that I saw, including one GS race for teams of five firefighters in full uniform all carrying a hose as they skied together through the gates. Those folks all piled into bowls of wonderful chili at the annual “Eat The Heat Chili Cookoff” at noon. Classic Spring skiing party.

A perfect Spring Sunday at Sunday River in Newry, Maine. Soft snow all day long! (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Plus, we saw several busy terrain parks, lots of lessons and at least one Telemark clinic with maybe a dozen people learning to genuflect properly (it was, after all, Palm Sunday . . .). But mostly it was just folks like us, enjoying moderate temperatures and peeks of spring sunshine. What a day to enjoy!

We had arrived Saturday evening, and while some folks were still skiing under the lights at the South Ridge base, we could see the lights of the groomers working the slopes before and after the traditional Saturday night fireworks display (it’s a good one.) It never fell below freezing, and in the morning, the groomed slopes were soft and smooth. As skier traffic scrubbed off some of that top layer, the day warmed up just enough to soften everything up, but not enough to turn it to slush. We had terrific skiing on soft-but firm snow right into the late afternoon.

On the last Monday in March, Sunday River in Newry, Maine had lots of soft snow and very few skiers. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

The next morning, Monday, March 25, was just enough cooler that it felt like we had taken a step back into winter. We hit the (empty) slopes early on perfectly groomed corduroy and made one non-stop run after another as we worked our way across the resort from the Grand Summit Hotel where we were staying, to the Jordan Bowl and back, finding deep snow everywhere we looked. From everything we saw, it looks like Sunday River is clearly a contender for the King of Spring title this year.

On Tuesday morning, we got up early and headed for Wildcat in Pinkham Notch, arriving in time for the first chair. The weather was nearly perfect: cool temps, high, clear blue skies, light winds, abundant sunshine. If there’s any place more beautiful that Wildcat on a blue-sky Spring day, I’m not sure where it is. It wasn’t quite warm enough to really soften up the ungroomed terrain, but the groomed trails were in outstanding condition and we made enough runs to really feel it. The runs at Wildcat are long, the “blue squares” are really “navy blue,” and we couldn’t have enjoyed the day more. Wildcat had good snowcover on its snowmaking trails and still had lots of snow in the woods, but the natural snow trails were beginning to show definite (and unwanted) signs of spring where the sun was hitting. Still, word is that Wildcat will have skiing into mid April 2013, at least on weekends, perhaps even later.

There is nothing in New England skiing that compares to the view at Wildcat on a blue-sky spring day. The skiing was as good as the view! Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

We stayed that night at the AMC’s Joe Dodge Lodge, five minutes from Wildcat, where a lavish family-style dinner and buffet breakfast are included with the price (and their ski-and-stay packages with Wildcat are outstanding!). It’s very friendly and very comfortable (if you don’t mind bathrooms down the hall). It’s also right at the start of the trail to Tuckerman Ravine, so it’s also the perfect place to base for a Tucks Ski.

Joe Dodge Lodge is one of our two favorite places to stay when we are skiing Wildcat. Our other top choice is just 15 minutes from Wildcat in Gorham, NH. The Royalty Inn has HUGE, clean, quiet rooms, a full health club including sauna, swimming pool and hot tub, a good restaurant (Boott Spur Grille) about 20 steps away. Their ski-and-stay packages with Wildcat are also outstanding.

Four days before they closed for the 2012-13 season, Cranmore had lots of sunshine and lots of snow on most of their trails. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

When we awoke on Wednesday, the temperature in Pinkham Notch had dropped well below freezing, clouds were bubbling up over Mount Washington, the trees around Joe Dodge were dancing in the wind and the flags out front were standing straight out. Full on winter at Wildcat. So we decided to change our plans and visit another area.

Attitash, which can be skied on the same ticket as Wildcat would have been a natural choice. They are open through April 7 for the 2013 season. But we decided to check out south-facing Cranmore down in North Conway, where, we hoped, the sun would peek through and give us a taste of Spring corn snow.

The sun was shining in a blue sky at Cranmore, but the front-side trails were still in shadow and the groomed corduroy had set up firm overnight. So we headed straight for the East Bowl which directly faces the rising sun and is probably the first slope in NH to produce consistent corn snow. It’s a great insider’s secret if you love spring skiing.

Cranmore made a huge change this season, removing the old East Bowl chair and adding the new “Schneider” triple chair that ends at the same spot on the summit but starts lower and farther south on the mountain, making some of their best terrain easier to access. According to a January, 2013 resort snapshot on Cranmore, the new lift is a huge improvement overall . . . but it wasn’t on this particular day.

As hoped, the East Bowl developed perfect corn snow early that morning. But the new lift wasn’t running (it looked like they’d slightly miscalculated the amount of snow needed to keep the trails to the base of this new lift covered through the end of their season on Easter Sunday). A year ago in March, 2012, we had happily yo-yoed the old East Bowl chair all morning, savoring the sunshine and corn snow, grinning every moment. But this time, skiing that great early-morning corn snow in the East Bowl meant making an annoyingly long (and, frankly, boring) commute mostly on flat, shadowed trails and harder snow all the way back around to the summit quad. To get the best skiing of the day, we had to wait for the front-side trails to soften up, which, with building cloud cover through the day didn’t happen until the early afternoon.

Cranmore closed for the season on March 31, but it and Black Mountain are two to keep  in mind for next year if you want an early taste of spring skiing.

It had snowed every day before we arrived at Jay Peak in Vermont, and was snowing when we left. (Tim Jones/EasternSlopes.com photo)

On Thursday, we drove through a snowstorm most of the way to Jay Peak, where it had been snowing all week. Snow on the trails, snow in the woods, snow everywhere! The first few runs of the day were on smooth groomed trails with a half-inch or so of fresh snow on top. Talk about the perfect warmup runs! By late morning, however, the sun had done it’s magic and lovely corn snow had appeared everywhere. Some of Jay’s steeper trails, like Can-Am, Hayes and Jet were so soft and forgiving that even intermediates could ski them easily, and the amazing glades were in wonderful shape. Lots of smiles on the mountain that day!

The skiing at Jay has always been phenomenal, but the resort used to have a kind of down-at-the-heels feel about it. This grand old lady needed a facelift, and boy did she get one!  Instead of giving everything a fresh coat of paint, they basically tore it all down and started fresh. The new slopeside Hotel Jay is gorgeous and super-comfortable, the on-mountain dining at Alice’s Table and the Foundry Pub and Grille are several orders of magnitude better than anything Jay had in “the olden days.”

“The Pumphouse” is Jay Peak’s amazing indoor waterpark. The perfect place to either relax or keep the adrenaline flowing after a day of amazing skiing. (Marilyn Donnelly/EasternSlopes.com photo)

Then there’s “The Pumphouse” the amazing indoor waterpark (with a retractable roof for summer,) that’s so much fun you almost wouldn’t mind if the weather didn’t cooperate for skiing. After burning my legs out on all that fabulous corn snow, I went to the Pumphouse and channeled my inner 10-year-old for about two hours. Adrenaline-charged chutes, lots of pools and hot tubs, a lazy river for relaxing, even a surfing pool. Man, I wish they’d had this when my kids were younger! Perfect way to transition from winter to summer in one day!

Oh, and it was snowing when we left Jay . . . and it’s snowing there again as I write this. I’d have to guess that the season at Jay is going to last well into April, maybe May–and even longer if you are willing to skin up for your turns.

While some areas will close for lack of skiers, the ones that stay open will offer what will likely be some of the best skiing of the season. Won’t you come out and find your own personal King of Spring?

Related posts:

1. Kings Of Spring Resort Snapshot: Black Mountain, 03-23-13
2. Resort Snapshot: Sunday River 10-19-09
3. Resort Snapshot: Sunday River 12-02-12, 12-03-12