11 years ago today, Day 35

I didn't wake up to snow.  I woke up to a nice January day (for Tacoma, anyway) of low heavy clouds and spitting rain.  It wasn't till I drove the few miles east then north to the Ben and Jerrys factory that I hit the snow.  I could have taken the factory tour and gotten my sample ice cream cone, but between weather that was not conducive to eating ice cream -- and the two-hour wait -- I decided to pass. 

So I headed south on Route 100, and straight into some of the most beautiful foliage I'd seen so far:

Iced flames.  Just beautiful.

The road was fine.  Just wet.  But the fields and the trees and the rooftops and everything else was frosted.  I drove for miles and miles, through small postcard towns and foliage and more foliage, and gradually the snow changed back to rain. 

I stopped in Rutland for lunch and stops at the post office and the library.  I mailed a boxful of stuff I'd gleaned from my car cleaning the day before.

After Rutland, the landscape got a bit more rugged, with waterfalls thrown in gratis:

And narrow slot canyons, and more beautiful trees, but no moose, in spite of the signs I kept seeing to warn me of their presence:

I found a nice hostel/ski lodge in the hamlet of East Jamaica, about three-quarters of the way down to Massachusetts, which was mostly full of a crowd of sixtyish hikers, who were most compatible. 

The thermometer read 38dF outside, and a fire roared in the common room, and I was very glad to be where I was.  And it was supposed to clear up overnight!