Lunch on the deck of the Bear Mountain Base Lodge

Lunch on the deck of the Bear Mountain Base Lodge

Although the weather people had predicted a cum-se cum-sa kind of day, by lunch time it was quite nice at the inn so we decided to take a break on the mountain. After picking up a sandwich at the Phat Italian Deli (and a piece of Red Velvet Cake as well...after all we have to keep the square english figure in check!), we took a ride across the mountain to camp out at the Bear Mountain Base Lodge. We go over there with a picnic lunch on occasion, as it is usually pretty quiet, and the deck is always bathed in beautiful sunshine. We were not disappointed.

On the way to Bear Mountain, we gave the construction machinery on East Mountain Road repairing the damage from Irene a wide berth. The road crews have been making tremendous progress. We were able to comfortably traverse the road from the Killington Basin Area all the way to the Bear Mountain Road with minimal inconvenience.

Fall foliage colors along the way are starting to pop. Even through the haze caused by humidity coming our of the ground, the colors all along our trip were becoming vibrant. At Bear Mountain there is good color on display in the base lodge area looking at Outer Limits and Wildfire. The deck was just a beautiful spot for a quick early fall picnic.

Foliage pictures around Killington taken September 23, 2011. Click image to stop rotation. Click again to resume rotation.

After finishing lunch at Bear Mountain and making sure we collected all of our trash (always leave the mountain in better shape than what you found when you arrived), we headed over the the Killington Base Lodge area to check out the color on the basin side of the mountain. The base of Killington is starting to show a lot of orange and burnt red colors. While still mixed in with a good amount of green, foliage colors are starting to show nicely. It is always hard to guess when "Peak Color" will be in any area, but usually at Killington it happens the first week of October just before Columbus Day. This year seems on track.

At KBL there is nice color showing on the upper trails. Highline, Conclusion, and Bunny Buster all featured maple trees that were on fire with color. Superstar, where the forest normally is a little slower, has some catching up to do. But even between Superstar and Ovation there were definite signs of good color.

We are very lucky to live in a part of the world where the scenery is constantly changing. No matter how many times you see it, it never gets old. We need to take a lot more picnic lunches over the next few weeks.

Fall Foliage season is underway at Killington, and winter is just around the corner. We at the Birch Ridge Inn look forward to greeting you when you visit.