Last month, I traveled back home to Vermont for a few days to catch up with family, friends and spend some quality time with my favorite person, my niece. Each time I go home, I spend some quality time with my brother doing something outdoor oriented, sometimes shooting guns (attempting to hit a target), canoeing, snowshoeing or going for a drive. This time around, we went canoeing and fishing and hiking.

Canoeing and Fishing

Vermont is beautiful. The mountains are rich and you will find tons of lakes and ponds tucked around, just waiting to be explored. We came across a few of them, in desolate areas. I swear, my brother knows every nook and cranny in Vermont. The man doesn’t get lost.

Needless to say, we didn’t catch any fish, on a lake that is. We ended up catching a few trout in a brook that we went to later. I did get my legs extremely sun burnt. The views were amazing. My rowing skills were not. The oars were taken away, apparently there was too much laughing and not enough “straight” rowing. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Hiking

I should’ve learned my lesson snowshoeing. Vermont had a ton of snow this winter, I think the most they’ve seen in a few years so it wasn’t surprising that there were still a few snowpatches at the top of the mountain where we went to hike. We started off on the northern most part of the Long Trail in Richford, Vermont. The thing is, when you hike with my brother, you may start off on a trail but I guarantee that you won’t stay on it. You will eventually come back onto the trail but again, you may not end on it. We started on the trail, went off the train, came back on only to get back off, found it again and eventually cut through the woods to get back to the main road to where we parked the truck. Again – the man doesn’t get lost.

Tons of moose trackings and rubbings on the trees, and a few views peaking out of the trees. As exhausting as it was to hike with someone who seems to still have energy to run up the mountain after hiking for three hours, it was well worth it!