Road paving operations nearing completion on Route 4 in Killington. 

What a beautiful day Vermont experienced today. Beautiful blue sunshine, light breezes, temperatures nudging 80 degrees... just a perfect late summer day.

Mary and I have some business contacts in Montpelier that we needed to see, so today was declared "Road Trip". Off into the Vermont countryside we went.

We travelled down Route 4 from Killington through Bridgewater, Woodstock, and Queche on our way to Route 89 north. We took a brief diversion into West Lebanon to ship an oversize package before heading out on the highway. If you did not know about "Irene", you would quickly think that Vermont had taken President Obama's economic stimulus package for "Shovel Ready Jobs" to heart. There was road construction in some spots, but in general there was free flowing traffic from Killington all the way to the New Hampshire border. It was a beautiful day for a ride.

Montpelier is a beautiful little city. By population, some claim it is the smallest state capital in the United States. With the little gleaming golden dome of the state house, it is just the perfect little city for a lunchtime stroll.

We took a quick lunch at "Chef's Table", a restaurant run by the New England Culinary Institute (NECI) and staffed by students. When we do road trips, we are always looking for new ideas to bring back to the inn. In this case, they had some nice bistro tables which we though would fit perfect in the Great Room Lounge back at the inn.

The Vermont countryside along Route 89 was as beautiful as ever. The leaves are definitely starting their fall progression from a verdant green to falling down. It will be quite a while before the colors approach peak. But then again, quite a while is measured in weeks and days at this time of year.

Mary and I know we are very lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The only thing missing from today was that I could not convince Mary to drive me to Montpelier in her Mustang convertible, with the top down of course. That fall foliage ride is for another day.

Where ever you may be, keep it in the fairway, and start studying up on the PGA Leaf Rule for fall golf.

Flowers in bloom on our walk through the neighborhood of the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington. 

dare I say "Normal"!

I had a funny email exchange with a friend today on this topic. You see, Killington is not your "normal" town. So saying it is returning to "normal" can be somewhat of an oxymoron, as it is hard to tell what "normal" is.

As the last couple of weeks have demonstrated, Killington is a great little town smack dab in the middle of Vermont. The small businesses that operate in the community, their hard working free spirited employees who call Killington home, the retired population, the self employed who do not work for the Resort or local businesses, and the Resort itself, are all fiercely independent and brimming with ideas. Many times those ideas clash, as the recent spat of political differences around town highlighted. But when everyone gets on the same page, mountains can quite literally be moved as we have seen these last 2 weeks.

Visually, Killington is rapidly returning to "normal". Summer flowers are in full bloom, becoming almost perky in response to the cooler temperatures we have had the last couple of evenings. Fall colors are starting to show, revealing beautiful scene after beautiful scene around ever bend on every road. Speaking of roads, as they are quite empty if cars, they are being repaired at a rapid pace. Wildlife in town might be defined by the Orange Day Glow Safety cone for a while, but it is amazing what some dirt, hardpack, and a little sweat equity can do to make life "normal".

In a few weeks, when visitors rediscover that Killington is a great place to visit to view fall foliage colors in Vermont, and in a few months when the snow flies and the ski season begins, in a little as 8 weeks by the way, then the transition to "normal" will be complete.

In the mean time, Mary and I are enjoying our walks, taking in the flowers and the mountains, and getting back to "normal" after an "interesting" couple of weeks.

Where ever you may be, keep it in the fairway, watch for changing colors in the leaves, and stay on the road side of the Orange Day Glow cones!

Fall colors starting to appear at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington 

Neither wind nor rain nor water flowing off the mountain can stop the progression of the seasons in Vermont.

As the Summer season moves into Fall, it is time to restart our annual fall foliage tradition, the Birch Ridge Fall Foliage Picture of the Day. Each day I take a set of pictures to monitor the progression of fall colors in the trees around the inn. I have used the same process each year since 2006. It involves setting up a camera on a tripod in a fixed spot in the inn's parking lot each day; taking 3 pictures of the inn including Restaurant A Frame, Front Door, and Great Room A Frame; then useing Photoshop, I stitch them all together into one continuous photo before posting the picture on the blog.

As it stands today, there is a slight amount of color in the trees around Killington. There is a good 6 to 7 weeks to go as the before the show is over.

So in the mean time, enjoy the progression of fall colors around the inn, and keep it in the fairway (and away from falling leaves).

Message from the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington Vermont 

What a wild 10 days it has been in Killington since our last message.

Again: thank you to all of our guests and friends for your support and encouragement. The entire Killington community has seen an unbelievable outpouring of goodwill as we have mounted our recovery efforts from Hurricane Irene.

As the situation stands, Killington is no longer an island. Currently it is a peninsular, connected to the outside world via Route 4 to the East. Every now and then, a virtual drawbridge is raised as a flagman stops traffic to allow construction equipment to work on road repair. While the road is still officially closed by the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT), travel since Thursday has been unrestricted. Local residents are still being encouraged to restrict travel to early morning and early evening hours to allow road crews to complete repairs. But overall, travel restrictions to the East have now been eased and vehicle traffic is now unimpeded except for road delays where construction crews are finishing repairs.

To the west of Killington, miracles are taking place. The AOT committed publicly yesterday afternoon to have Route 4 to the West of Killington open for 2 way public travel by next weekend. From the pictures we saw of the road destruction, and from first hand reports of people we know living near Route 4 in Mendon, the work by road crews to repair this vital east-west transportation corridor in the middle of Vermont can be viewed as nothing but heroic.

To our north and south, work is also taking place rapidly to restore travel on Route 100, America's Fall Foliage Highway and a vital winter link to the ski resorts of Vermont's Green Mountains. Route 100 to the south of Killington to Ludlow was re-opened on Thursday. Work on Route 100 north is continuing, with travel allowed to Pittsfield Vermont.

The bottom line to all of this. . . it will only be a matter of days before unrestricted travel to Killington will be restored in all directions. There may be some delays as crews continue to repair the damage to the roads caused by Irene, but getting to Killington to visit with us at the Birch Ridge Inn will not be a challenge.

All in all, we were very fortunate that the inn received minimal physical damage. That has allow us to put our business activities aside and help out our neighbors, who suffered greater impacts from Irene, by volunteering our personal time and what ever materials we had at the inn. Over the last few days, that work has significantly declined and we have been able to return our attention to the inn to prepare to welcome guests back to Killington.

The staff at the inn has continued to be on hand to both volunteer in the community and tend to the needs of emergency personnel staying with us. We made a decision last week to keep food service available to the community with a bar menu our chef created based upon the supplies we had on hand. We will probably run with that limited menu one more week, before returning to full dinner service in Mid September.

As the road situation has become clearer, we are now accepting reservations again for fall foliage season. The leaves on the trees are beginning their annual color change. Next week we will start to post the progression of fall colors with our daily Fall Foliage Picture of the inn on the blog. Whether it is a scenic get-a-way for fall foliage season, or a winter ski trip to Killington, we invite you back to Vermont to enjoy a beautiful time in the Green Mountain State.

There are a lot of great activities that have been planned at Killington for this years fall foliage season. More on that in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your past business and your continuing support.

Bill, Mary, and the staff of the Birch Ridge Inn.

Message from the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington Vermont 

Several moments ago, I sent the following message to our email list. For those of you not on it, here it is:

Over the last several days, we have received countless messages of support from guests who have stayed or dined at the Birch Ridge Inn. Thank you...thank you...thank you.

Your words of encouragement are truly gratifying. They have reaffirmed our decision 15 years ago to become innkeepers, and they also are very uplifting to our staff as we all face the uncertainty thrown our way these last few days.

As you have probably seen in the news, Hurricane Irene hit Vermont particularly hard. Fortunately, across the state there was minimal personal injury. Amid very sporadic telephone and internet service, our first priority over the last couple of days has been to contact all of our staff to make sure that they are ok. Those who live in Killington and Mendon have been to the inn and are working with us to continue to service guests and the community. Several of our staff found themselves stranded outside of Killington, but they are safe and that is all that matters.

At the inn, we survived the storm with minimal damage. We have been hosting guests stranded in Killington, and emergency personnel coordinating the response to the storm, since the first rain drops over the area. The only damage of any consequence that we sustained was to drainage ditches purposefully built behind the inn, and beside the driveway at the inn's entrance, for just such a storm. Our restaurant has been open as normal during the evening, serving dinner prepared by Chef Stephen "Frizzie" Byrne. Our restaurant will continue to operate, at least for the next few days. After that, we will be evaluating the situation day by day.

Killington became an island as a result of Hurricane Irene. Major road damage was sustained along both Route 4 (the east-west corridor thru Vermont) and Route 100 (the north-south corridor). Temporary, single lane, roads have been bulldozed through the debris to allow emergency vehicles to make it to Killington. In the Sherburne Flats area of Killington, where the Roaring Brook breached Route 4, this was done by a local excavator who decided it was easier to get forgiveness than receive permission. Countless other stories abound about Vermonters getting the work done versus standing around waiting for help. Yesterday, a convoy of cars was organized, with police escort, and sent on Route 4 east to Woodstock Vermont to evacuate guests trapped in the area as a result of the storm. One daily convoy in and out has been established at this time to maintain access to the east of Killington.

Relief supplies are being delivered into Killington from Rutland to the West Another local resident has arranged a convoy of trucks which goes to Rutland each day at 6:30AM and picks up product at the Home Depot parking lot from various suppliers. The Vermont National Guard has delivered water and MRE's (meals ready to eat) to Killington via helicopter. In the middle of all of this, there are signs that normalcy will return. For instance, yesterday, much to our surprise, our trash contractor stopped at the inn to empty our dumpster.

In Killington, the situation is currently stable. Most of the town has electricity, with Central Vermont Power trying to bring everyone back online by the end of the week. Phone and Internet service are problematic. These services are provided to Killiington by Vtel with fiber cables running alongside Route 100 and Route 4 to access the global communications network. Initially, these lines were damaged when the roads were cut by water flowing off the mountains from the hurricane. Vtel has been repairing the lines, but as you can imagine, heavy equipment deployed to make emergency repairs to roads in the area are accidentally cutting the cables several times each day at random locations. This has made it very hard for reliable communication out of the area, but we expect that service will improve day by day.

The net of all of this is that overall we are doing well. While the pictures seen on television are stark, we and our staff are all safe and actively planning to greet you when you visit us again in the near future. While hosting guests the next few weeks will be problematic due to the conditions of the roads in the area, we are still planning to host fall foliage guests in late September and October. Planning is fully underway at the Killington Resort to open for the ski season in late October according to schedule. We will stay in touch to keep you updated.

Again, thank you for the many messages of encouragement and support. Many have asked "is there anything we can do?" The simple answer for the Birch Ridge Inn and it's employees, and for the people of Killington in general, would be to plan to return to the area to visit with us in the near future. Whether it's a trip to see fall foliage colors, or a winter vacation for some skiing and riding at the "Beast of the East", we hope to see you in Killington very soon.

Thank you for your past business and your continuing support.

Bill, Mary, and the staff of the Birch Ridge Inn.

A very quick update. Our phone and internet connections have not been reliable, so I am keeping this short. I will provide a more detailed update with pictures in the coming days.

The Birch Ridge Inn survived the hurricane with minimal damage. The physical building is ok. We still need to do roof checks, etc, but first pass is good. Landscaping around the inn is going to take some time to clean up. On the plus side, the system of drainage control ditches we installed behind the inn during construction in 1997 did the job they were designed for and protected the building from the torrent of water washing down the mountain. On the minus side, they sacrificed themselves, dumping a lot of silt into the landscaped area behind the inn, which will require a some work to repair.

The driveway to the inn now has a drainage canal instead of a drainage ditch. The little ditch, which for years has successfully coped with spring runoff, is now a chasm about 6 feet wide and 4 to 5 feet deep alongside the driveway. Otherwise, except for intermittent power, telephone, and cable, everything else at the inn is fine.

From a staff side, we have spoken with most of the people who work for us. Communications is difficult, but everyone we have contacted is ok. We are all very lucky.

Around Killington, not so good. While most structures in town are fine, many along the Roaring Brook, and the Ottaquechee River have been severely damaged or destroyed. All roads leading into Killington, Route 4 East and West and Route 100 North and South are cut. Bridges are out around the state. Culverts used to carry little streams under roadbeds are now big fissures. It is quite stunning the power of rain water.

We do have some nice guests at the inn who have managed quite well though the last few days. Over the next few days, as communications out of the area stabilize, and after we have finished helping our neighbors, we will be reaching out to guests who have bookings at the inn in the near term to figure out travel plans.

While we survived Hurricane Irene, our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have been less fortunate. The people of Killington Vermont are resilient. We will all get through this!

Driving the ball on hole 12 at Green Mountain National Golf Course. 

Just a beautiful day in Killington for a round of golf. Temperatures in the low 70's, a light breeze, and a sky filled with puffy white clouds capping the mountain tops. We have a few more days like this left this summer.

After some brief but torrential rain storms yesterday, today was just perfect for a round of golf. The rain left the course damp, so there was not a lot of roll. But it also left the greens soft, allowing plenty of opportunity to challenge todays pin placements.

You can definitely tell that the season is about to change. Temperatures last night dipped to the low 50's, resulting in the heat coming on at the inn for the first time in several months. At the golf course, Dr J, the starter, looked like he was dressed for winter. When comments were made about his wardrobe, he replied that he was at the course at 6:30 AM to get it open. There was not "frost delay" but it was "pretty chilly". Of course, most of us in Killington will take "chilly" over "hot and humid" any day.

Where ever you may be, keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sun screen!