Southern VT Camping

It wasn’t a long stay, but Vermont was fun and refreshing to the senses!  Living in CT we sometimes forget how close and how beautiful VT can be.  We love the outdoors, and this year we wanted to experience camping as it has been a while (and Steve and Harold still favor a “camp Marriott”!).  We were fortunate in that the weather was absolutely beautiful right up to the minute we closed the hatch on the van the last day, when a torrential thunder storm started!

We’ve been to southern VT before and Brattleboro is a definite favorite and always good for a quick stop at Mocha Joe’s for a coffee!!  The West River flows into the Connecticut River right in Brattleboro, and so there are some beautiful winding roads that make the ride peaceful.  This trip we brought Harold’s adaptive pull behind bike trailer and took advantage of some really accessible bike trails.  The first was right on our main campsite in Jamaica State Park, which uses an old railroad line as a trail, and leads to a beautiful hiking trail to Hamilton Falls.  Check out the video below of Harold being pulled behind our bike, and the pics of Hamilton Falls.

 

 

We also found a trail along the Connecticut River a few miles south of Brattleboro that was almost “fairy tale”  like in that it looked like an enchanted forest.  Almost like a tropical forest, with a thicker trail with grass that sometimes made it more difficult to pull Harold.

 

The true highlight of the trip, however, was when we surprised Susan with a half day fly fishing lesson/adventure.  Five rainbow trout later, we think her and Izzy got the hang of it.  Not surprisingly, she loved it.  Bob at Young’s Fly Fishing was amazing, a wealth of information, and we highly recommend him if you have the desire to learn how to fly fish!

 

 

With his own tent and an amazing REI mattress, Harold loved the experience and is looking forward to helping his sister plan a bike packing/camping trip!   Due to a reservation mix up, we had to scramble to find our first nights accommodations (pictured below) on Airbnb.  It was a 20 acre working small farm with fresh raspberries (YUM for raspberry pancakes)!  Who knew you could find a campsite on Airbnb??

 

 

 

 

 

The last 3 nights of camping was at Jamaica State Park.  It sits on the West River, and books up fast, so make your reservations early in the year.  Somehow regardless of type of accommodations, Susan figures it out and makes it work (see Har getting out of his tent).  As is normal when traveling with someone with a disability, planning is important.  We reserved a site close to the bathrooms, and did a fair amount of research to ensure there were plenty of accessible bike trails in the area.  We only ate out once, and had some great meals right on the camp fire or our Coleman stove, including warming up a birthday pie!  A super relaxing and refreshing few days!