Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin flanked by VT Commissioner of Tourism Megan Smith and Killington Resort President Chris Nyberg cut the ribbon to re-open Route 4 for traffic in Killington. 

In a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by a multitude of Vermont officials, construction and public safety personnel and several hundred Killington residents, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin officially opened Route 4 for public travel across Vermont. The road has been closed for 18 days after being virtually destroyed by Hurricane Irene as it swept through the area on Sunday August 28th.

Governor Shumlin spoke of the can do attitude of the people of Vermont. He spoke of how local Vermonters have risen to the challenge to rebuild the state after the storm. He commended local officials for taking charge of the situation, and mobilizing the resources to quickly respond. He praised the citizens of Killington, Mendon, Pittsfield, Bridgewater, and Rutland for their volunteer efforts to look after one another, freeing up time for emergency personnel to plot out a recovery process for the area.

Governor Shumlin singled out, with truly high praise, local construction contractors including Craig Mosher of Killington and Doug Casella of Mendon for quickly getting their equipment on to the destroyed road in the first days after the storm. Their initiative set the stage to jumpstart reconstruction efforts. Without local contractors taking the initiative to reopen roads for emergency vehicles, without waiting for approval from the State to work on roads, the situation could have been much worse for the citizens of our community.

Tourism Commissioner Megan Smith spoke about welcoming back visitors to Vermont for fall foliage season. The reopening of Route 4 provides a vital corridor for tourists visiting the state to see fall colors. Route 4 reopening signifies that the State of Vermont is open again for all to visit.

Local officials also spoke at the gathering. Killington Resort President Chris Nyberg, town of Killington Interim Town Manager Seth Webb, and Killington Chamber of Commerce President Chris Karr all spoke about how the community has been hard at work during the period of road reconstruction to prepare the area to greet visitors to Killington. To back that up, they mentioned that the Killington Resort will be restarting the Gondola to Killington Peak this weekend for scenic fall foliage rides. The 2 golf courses in Killington have reopened. Traditional fall events including the Killington BrewFest on October 1 and the Killington Ski Club Ski Swap on Columbus Day weekend are all set to take place again this year.

The official ribbon cutting took place around 11:30 AM. You probably will see pictures of it on TV in the news this evening.

Killington Vermont is back open for business. We at the Birch Ridge Inn look forward to greeting you when you visit.

The Birch Ridge Inn at Killington on a rainy late summer day. 

The last stanza of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Rainy Day" is totally apropos for Killington this afternoon:

"Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary."

Killington has been very dreary today as a light late summer drizzle hangs over the area. Heavy clouds are skidding low across the tops of the mountain peaks. It is cool, it is damp, and it seems foreboding.

In a normal year, today would seem like a normal transitional day as the summer season slides into fall then into winter. We are still kissed by the color across the landscape of an abundance of summer flowers, intermixed with early fall colors. The colorful tableau will be with us for many more weeks, before we slide into "Twig Season" waiting for the first winter snow.

But the sun actually is shining in Killington today, and all across central Vermont. After 3 short weeks of what can only be described as heroic efforts, Route 4, the main corridor across Vermont on which every guest visiting Killington must travel, will be officially opened.

Today, the Vermont Department of Transportation announced that Route 4 will be officially opened for all travel in each direction starting tomorrow, Friday September 16th. From the release put out by the town of Killington:

"There will be a state press conference with Governor Shumlin and other officials Friday, Sept. 16 at 11AM at the intersection of Rt. 4 and River Road in Killington to officially open the road and welcome visitors back to the region. All are encouraged to attend...... Don't forget to bring your Vermont pride!"

If you are planning on attending tomorrows ceremony, the town has asked us all to " please park along the side of River Road and access the road via Thundering Brook Road."

To all of the citizens, contractors, volunteers, National Guard Members (from Vermont New Hampshire and Maine) who worked to make this possible, we salute you. And to our politicians, we commend you for having the foresight to quickly gauge the level of peril caused by Hurricane Irene on the great state of Vermont, for responding in kind to the peril, and for having the courage to enable Vermonters to get the job done. If "The Suits" had taken control of the situation, we could have been eating MRE's and drinking FEMA supplied water all winter, like they are in other parts of this country years after being struck by natural disasters. Instead, Vermont is hanging out the "Open Sign" and brimming with activity to welcome guests back to travel across the state to visit some of the prettiest places on earth.

Come up to Vermont this fall to look at the splendor of the change of seasons on display. Plan your winter vacation to Killington for some of the best skiing and riding on earth. And if your drive up to visit us takes you briefly on a detour onto a local road, stop for a minute if you can, look around, take in the unexpected...Some days must be dark and dreary...but behind the clouds the sun is still shining!

Fall colors showing on the 4th hole at the Green Mountain National Golf Course 

After a long stretch, today we indulged ourselves with a round of golf with a friend at Green Mountain National in Killington. The good news is that it was just a beautiful day to be on the course. The bad news is that after a long layoff, my body was just missing some of the finer motor control reactions necessary to hit a golf ball well. This had the added effect of making it hard to focus my mind on the game, especially late into the back nine. But so it goes... Did I tell you it was a beautiful day!

I have been playing golf since forever, so I know that this too shall pass. Hopefully, Mother Nature and life around the inn allows for several more rounds before it is time to put away the clubs and take out the long boards.

Green Mountain National is in beautiful shape. The rest it has received these last few weeks really shows all over the course. The greens were putting very true. My putter, on the other hand... well GOLF is a four letter word.

The fairways on the course were very lush. Divots from earlier summer play have grown back in, leaving the fairways nice and smooth. With the exception of a few holes which naturally accumulate water, I don't think I did a lift/clean/place all day.

My game on the other hand; well that's a different story. Having not played in over 3 weeks, I came out free swinging. After starting off a little rocky, I finished the last 6 holes of the front nine very strong. Then, as often happens when things go your way in golf, my mind kicked into gear. Never....Never....Never...let your mind think when you are swinging a golf club. Do all of your thinking as you prepare for the shot. But once you stand over the ball, you are committed and it should be automatic... But alas, this is GOLF I am writing about, and GOLF is the ultimate four letter word.

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

Closing KUDO"S to Chris Franco, chef at On The Rocks in Killington, for his Hole in One today on the 5th hole at Green Mountain National. Congratulations Franco!

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.