Winter Weekend in Stowe

The Grandview Barn on Stowe Hollow Road

Mountains or Oceans.... the oh-so-important question asked of many outdoor enthusiasts and single folk swiping on dating profiles.  For a long time, I was a die-hard no questions asked ocean person.   But as time goes by, I can't deny that there's this magnetic pull to the mountains.  And this attraction?  It's pulling me a little harder into the woods than into the water these days.   

The more time I spent on mountains, the more I started to crave the way my calves burned on a hike, the bittersweet feeling of setting up your tent in the dark, and the absolute quiet that comes with being alone on a far away trail.  

These days, I want to be on a peak with my dog, I want to steal sweaty kisses from someone on a summit,  I want to sit on a rock and eat my smooshed sandwich and warming craft beer - items that taste so much better at elevation.   I want to see the view above the treeline and find the nearest brewery once the bags and the dog have been loaded back into the car.  

The more time I spend in the mountains, the more these scales start to shift.  Jagged peaks and densely wooded trails have become just as important to my happiness as a rugged coastline.  

Stowe Gondola, Stowe Mountain Resort

To be fair, I don't need the Rocky Mountains or 14,000 footers to find my footing -  our mountains here in New England are always beautiful, can certainly be challenging, and are often underrated.   Let me camp in the Berkshires, wander in the Whites or hike in the Greens - that always does the trick.

New Year, New York - The Adirondacks You Didn't Know About

There is this quote I think of often when I am in my "9 to 5" mode.  It's a famous saying by John Muir and when I'm stressed out at the office or packing my bag for a much-needed weekend away in the woods, it pops into my head.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.  Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease.” -John Muir

Moose River Lodge

After the chaos of the holidays and the madness of those last few months of 2018 (she was a doozy) this is exactly how I was feeling.  Tired, nerve-shaken and much too over-civilized.  Cabin fever was setting in and I needed to escape my house on the shoreline for a cabin in the woods.  I get that itch, that itch to be anywhere but home, to explore somewhere new.  I need to go find those mountains, lakes, and streams.  So at the end of December, I packed my bag and the dog and headed north to spend 5 days in the Adirondacks of New York.