Blog Recap 2017

After retiring in December 2016, this blog became my home for writing about travel adventures. Below is a summary of my 2017 posts here.

We started the year with brunch with family and friends followed by a snowshoe hike:

• New Years Day 2017

In January and February we drove to Florida for a 3 week road trip. I wrote 21 posts about that trip, which you can find in:

• January posts
• February posts

After returning home, I blogged about three small adventures in late winter and early spring:

• Stratton Brook Hut
• Schoodic Peninsula
• Smugglers Notch

In May we had an adventure right at home!

• The Big Dig

Also in May we took a trip to Connecticut and New York City, with a stop in Massachusetts on the way home:

• Silver Sands State Park
• Shelburne Falls
• Maggie's Farm Urban Hike

In May and June we took a 2 week road trip Nova Scotia by way of Maine and New Brunswick. We had a great time, but I didn't do well at blogging that trip. Only three posts:

• Loggers Expo (in Bangor, Maine)
• Saint John, New Brunswick
• Digby, Nova Scotia

Other places in Nova Scotia we visited: the Annapolis Valley, Wolfville (The Blomidon Inn), Grand-Pré National Historic Site, Halifax, the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Ingonish (Keltic Lodge), Sydney, the Fortress of Louisbourg, Parrsboro (The Maple Inn), Cape D'Or. We saw a tidal bore in Truro – a first for me. We also spent a night in Moncton, New Brunswick, on the way home. It was a delightful trip.

When Nancy and I retired, she had about 50 miles left to complete the Long Trail. We hiked those miles together, in four day hikes in July, August and September. I had fun both hiking and blogging about it, including interesting things we learned along the way:

• Long Trail to App Gap – a rugged hike, incl. a ladder
• Long Trail to US-4 – we hiked through Maine Junction
• The Inn at Long Trail – it's still there!
• The Breadloaf Wilderness – our longest hike, 17 miles
• The Proctor Family – benefactors of the Long Trail
• The Long Trail Lodge – alas, not there any more
• Who was Emily Proctor? – mystery solved!
• Nancy Finishes the Long Trail – photo above

I finished the year with posts about three small adventures:

• Billings Farm and Museum
• Walden Pond and Fresh Pond
• Milton Pond

There were several travel adventures in 2017 that didn't get blogged: seeing the Tall Ships in Boston in June; an "escape room" on a different trip to Boston; Minute Man National Historic Park; hikes up Mount Mansfield, Snake Mountain and Laraway Mountain; numerous other small hikes; the Tunbridge World's Fair; two outings to Huntington River Vineyard for their Sunday Supper Dinner Series; a visit to Ayers Brook Goat Farm; a "Happily Ever After Party" in October on the coast of Maine (Kelly and Scott); and other trips to Maine to visit family. A pretty good year!

I write on two blogs. This blog, The Switchel Traveler, is for travel adventures in the physical world. My other blog, The Switchel Philosopher, is for adventures in the world of ideas. See my About page for more information about switchel, me, my two blogs, and my blogging history.

Milton Pond

Milton Pond lies within the Milton Town Forest. The photo above shows the outlet of this 33 acre pond, which used to be part of the municipal water supply for the town of Milton, Vermont.

We had celebrated Thanksgiving by hiking around ponds in Massachusetts, and today we continued that practice in Vermont for the Christmas holiday by hiking around Milton Pond. This time we had 6" of snow on the ground, as compared to bare ground at Thanksgiving. We were joined by friends including Kona the dog:

There are several trails in the Milton Town Forest. Our hike around the pond today was 3.75 miles. We did not use snowshoes. The following map is from the link in the first sentence above:

We met Brian Pease who lives next to the Milton Town Forest and works on the trails. Northern Vermont experienced a powerful windstorm two months ago, on the night of October 29-30, and Brian talked about cutting up and clearing more than 100 trees that had fallen across the trails during that storm. We appreciated his hard work!