A little trip

Hamilton Falls (Photo by John Burt)

Yesterday, we took a little trip to a very scenic spot called Hamilton Falls. It is about a 45 minute drive up into Jamaica, Vt. We visited the upper falls. It is a very famous spot for swimming, you might even say infamous. That’s because there have been a lot of people injured there, and many have even died (over the decades). There are signs warning of the danger, but that does not prevent people from using it. And in fact, there were quite a few young people using it when we visited yesterday. The trail down to the area where you jump into a swimming hole was pretty steep, so I stayed up above that area. But many years ago, I would guess 35 to 40 years, I actually jumped into that swimming hole. I remembered the distance from the rock where you jump off down into the water as being further than it actually was. I would say today it was about 12 to 15 feet. There is a metal ladder chained to the rock, which allows you to climb up out of the swimming hole back onto the rock. Before the ladder was there, decades ago, people had to climb up the rocks to get back, and that’s how a lot of people got hurt. The ones who died actually fell over the lip of the swimming hole and down the falls, which is over a hundred feet. 

To get to Upper Hamilton Falls, you have to travel some pretty back roads, certainly ones Ellen had never been on and I have not been on for many, many years. The road goes by Burbee Pond, which looks as though it has been seriously eutrophied,  and now supports a very large crop of water lilies. 

On our way back, we went to Grandma Miller’s bakery for more morning-glory muffins, and then in West Townshend, we stopped at a farmers market, where they were selling wood-fired pizza for a very reasonable price, and that’s where we had supper. Everyone was wearing a mask and observing social distance. I think that’s why Vermont has such low numbers in the COVID-19 statistics.We got home just in time for the Dummerston church zoom session. And then after that it was the Friday evening news on PBS. A nice day.

Looking down on the swimming hole

Burbee Pond

Warning sign at the falls

 

Yesterday, we also had a little drama at our house.  An immature woodpecker hit one of our windows and was stunned. At first we thought it was dead, but then it just sat there for a long time, maybe an hour or more, very still. We wondered if it would ever really recover. Finally, it flew away - but not before I got a photo: