One of the pools at Texas Falls.

We have been hanging out in Vermont this past week, enjoying the changing leaves, and visiting some of our favorite places: Texas Falls, Chittenden Reservoir, and Sugar Hill Reservoir.

Texas Falls is off of Route 125, a scenic road that ascends Middlebury Gap, and is part of the National Forest. We often snow shoe, ski, or hike on the trails there, as it is one of those places that is beautiful in every season.

Another view of Texas Falls

There are primitive campsites available throughout the area, a dirt road for mountain biking or hiking, and scenic waterfalls and interesting rock formations. We visited on a week day, and found only one occupied campsite despite the glorious fall weather.

We paddled Chittenden Reservoir again this week and enjoyed an almost flat surface as there was very little wind. The foliage is getting close to peak, and there were few other boaters on the lake. We watched two young loons as they swam and dove. Overall, it was a great paddle and we hope to return again before the leaves are gone.

Chittenden paddle

One of our favorite places to see moose is at Sugar Hill Reservoir, aka Goshen Dam, so this morning we left Woolly Bear and took the canoe well before daylight. We were on the water before sun rise, watching the foliage emerge from the darkness and enjoying the bird song and clear night sky. We paddled quietly into the back bay, where we have seen multiple moose on other early morning treks. This morning the moose were not around. That may have been due to a noisy beaver, who swam loops around the back bay and repeatedly slapped the water with his tail, warning all of our presence. We did see a Great Blue Heron, several Kingfishers, and assorted other song birds and ducks. And the brilliant reds and oranges of the foliage made our early morning paddle well worth it!

Loon on Chittenden

This is the beaver that warned the Sugar Hill animal community that we were on the lake!

The week was not all play, though. We spent two days stacking firewood for the wood stove. Now we are officially ready for winter!

Woolly Bear enjoying the fall colors from the deck.