My buddy Jay and I stumbled upon the Bradley Covered Bridge driving home from Burke Mountain in Vermont. Since there was a pull off near the bridge, we deiced to get out to take some pictures
Side view of the Bradley Bridge in VT
This bridge is also known as the Miller/Run Covered Bridge. This is because the Mill Run River runs beneath it. There is a large iron sign/arch that extends over the road before the bridge. The road is active and has a good amount of traffic moving through it.
Queenspost Truss on the Bradley Bridge
There is also a covered walkway connected to the bridge for pedestrian traffic.
Pedestrian walkway along side the Bradley Bridge
The bridge was constructed in 1878 by E.H. Stone. This bridge is a single span Queenspost Truss design spanning 56’ across.
Iron Sign in front of the Bradley Bridge. Also known as the Mill Run Bridge
It always amazing to me that a bridge this old can till handle regualer traffic. Things this bridge has seen…
It is getting late in the season, and I wanted to try another mountain I had not been to and Burke Mountain seemed to fit the bill.
Lots of fun costumes on the slopes of Burke
My buddy Jay and took the two-hour ride up to see what it was all about. Temps were in the 30’s and I did not need to wear a burka under my helmet.
The iconic view of Willoughby Gap in VT
There are two different lots you can park at. The base lot and the Midway lot. We choose to park at the bottom.
The Sherburne Express was the only lift that took us to the top.
We went in to get our tickets and boot up. The lodge was pretty simple. It was maple week in Vermont so there was a maple vendor there selling all kinds of maple products.
Riding up the Sherburne Express
We headed over to the Sherburne Express lift up. The only other lift running was the T-Bar but that was for racers to ride up for the races that were happening.
Burke Selfie
The snow was decent. Little to know ice and very carve able. It was actually great conditions for this late in the season.
Some cook VW Bug artwork on the wall in the tavern
More great art work
I will say there is not a big difference between Vermont blue box trails and Vermont black Dimond trail. Those blues are legit!
Big skies up at Burke
There was a cool shelter building with a fireplace off one of the trails that was cool to stop at.
Little shelter with fireplace along side one of the trails
View of the shelter from the inside looking out tot he ski trail
We stopped at both lodges. The fist one at the Midway, for an Irish Coffee and the second time down at the base for lunch. The food was really good there the hospitality was great too.
End of the day and the race course is empty
After lunch we did a few more runs till about 3:30pm. I really would like to come back to Burke when all the trails are open. This was a great first experience.
Jay and I decided to go back and visit some friends at Magic Mountain in Vermont. Temps were in the 20’s and 30’s when we arrived.
View of Stratton Mountain
We had pretty good parking in the upper lot. The mountain did not seem to be too busy which was great.
View of Bromley Mountain
We spent the day skiing around many of the blue and black trails that were open.
Green Ice flows as well
Since it was right before St. Patty’s day there was a leprechaun running around and painting shamrocks under the lifts and painting some of the ice flows green. It was fun to find all these mischievous markings.
Looking down the Magician Trail. No joke
It was a great day and there was very little ice on the open trails. I was looking over at the closed Magian trail and Vermont’s double diamonds are no joke! This thing looked steep and had giant bounders in the middle of the trail.
Good vibes with friends.
Once the lifts closed we hung out with some friends in the retail shop before packing it up and heading home. I really like Magic Mountain and can’t wait to visit again next season.
My buddy Pauly and I met up at Cannon Mountain. We did not realize that our Indy Pass was blacked out this day but it was a NH Resident discount day so we had to pay but not full price.
Hanging out at Cannon
There was also an inversion happening. That means that it is warmer at the top of the mountain than the bottom. I decided that I didn’t want to wear my full winter coat and opted for my winter shell.
Cloudy summit on Cannon
The conditions were ok. We were a little disappointed at the amount of snow that melted with the warm weather, rain and fog from a few days ago.
Mountain Views of Mount Lafayette
Days before the whole mountain was bright white. Now there were many bare spots all around and even the trails had some large muddy sections that needed to be skied around.
Top of Cannon.heading down toward Mittersill
What was left of snow was ok and it seemed to get better as the day went on. Lots of skiable areas. In some areas it was a little mash potato snow and was hard to turn.
Beer
We took a hike up to the summit of Cannon Mountain and went up the tower. After that we had lunch and a beer from the highest taps in the North East.
Highest Taps in the North East
A few more runs after lunch and we called it a day. Even though it was not the conditions we were hoping for, it was much better than the icy slopes Cannon is famous for.
Views over CannonFranconia Ridge across the NotchLooking down at Echo LakePauly’s FollySummit Selfie
Seems everywhere I’ve skied this year, conditions have been great. Killington was no exception.
Screenshot
I arrived early on a Wednesday, so I had good parking at Sky Ship gondola.
I met my buddy Pauly at the mountain. It was cold. Temps in the 20 with a light breeze but perfect for skiing.
One fun thing about parking at Sky Ship is you can usually do one long run from top to bottom at the end of the day.
Fireplace at the K1 Lodge
At one point though we were getting ready to board the Sky Ship gondola and it broke down. We waited about 10 minutes before going inside. After a short break the gondola was till not running. So we grabbed our skis and since I was parked there, got in the car and wen’t to Bear Mountain.
Limited Views
We skied around the rest of the day over by Rams Head. Lunch at the K1 Lodge. Few more runs and then back over to Bear Mountain.
Weather and time worked out for one more hike with Jack Straw from Wichita before he moves to Florida.
It was chilly at the start of the hike
We decided Mt. Willard would be a good choice for the hike. It was somewhat short and offers the best views for the least amount of energy.
Centennial Pool covered in snow
When we got there many of the lots were full or not plowed. The new snow limited parking but we were able to find a spot on the street near the Depot.
Cool Marshmallow formations on the trees
We knew the trail would be packed but after last week we decided to wear our snowshoes on the hike just in case. The temps were in the twenty’s, but it was supposed to get up to the 40’s later in the day.
Selfie at the summit
The trail up was a well packed monorail with some high trenches along the side. It was well traveled and snowshoes were not necessary, but we kept them on and contused to waddle up the hill.
View of Chocorua in the distance
As on most hikes we laughed a lot and told stories. The few water crossings at the bottom were frozen solid and easy to cross. When we made it up to Centennial Pool it was frozen and covered with snow.
Jack checking out some views
On the way up there were lots of cool snow formations. The mountain landscape was beautiful with all the marshmallow covered trees.
The notch
When we reached the top, the clouds had lifted and we were greeted to a beautiful view of the Crawford Notch.
Trail along the cliffs at the summit.
There were a few people up there already, but it was not too crowed… yet. We took some pics but did not go down to the snow-covered rocks that others did. Looked a little too sketchy to me.
Someo f the ledges on Mt. Webster
We walked up the trail along the cliff over to view the Willard Brook trestle. Then we followed an old snow track to the high point of Mt. Willard. I had never been there and thought there would be a logbook of some sort. But there was nothing.
Snowshoeing through the trenches
When we got back to the cliffs, there was noticeably more people there. So we just kept continuing down the trail.
The Depot
On the way down there were lots of people going up. We kept saying that we timed this right.
Beautiful view of the Mt. Washington Hotel
It wasn’t long after that we were close the bottom and could hear the cars driving through the notch.
Last stop. Reklis Brewing
To finish out the day, we drove over to Rek•lis Brewery in Bethlehem, NH. Neither of us had ever been there before, and it was great. Good food, good beer and good all-around atmosphere. This must be really cool in the summer evenings with all the outsides lit up.
