Our recent 12 night trip

[dthurk]

Whew.  We just returned from 12 nights in the camper, our longest stretch to date.  We left home on August 12, and headed for Apple Island resort in Vermont on South Hero Island in Lake Champlain.  It was interesting as we drove up along the 120 mile lake to see the Green Mountains of Vermont on the right and the Adirondack Mountains of New York on the left.  Beautiful sight.  
   
   Apple Island resort is a Passport America campground.  It cost us $36 for the 2 nights we were there.  The campground was nice, not great.  Our site was small, and very brightly lit by the evening sun.  It was difficult to enjoy the evening sitting under the awning while blinded by the sun.  They had a nice pool, but swimming in the lake was better by far.   We spent a day visiting St. Anne's shrine, the Lippenzaner Stallions and the Hyde Log Cabin.  
   
   We spend the third night in my sister's driveway in Lyndonville, VT.  On the way, we stopped at Ben and Jerry's factory near Stowe.  After a nice visit with my sister, we headed for Acadia National Park for 6 nights.  We met GeneF and his DW, and had a wonderful time visiting with them for the few days our visits overlapped.  We hiked to the tops of 5 peaks.  One of those was Mt. Champlain, which caused us to climb the Precipice Trail, which is considered the most difficult trail in the park.  We climbed 1,000 feet straight up to get there with the help of iron bars, rungs and railings.  This is not a trail for those with a fear of heights.  Once you hit about 300 feet up, things get pretty intense.  The trail is straight up for about 800 feet, at which point the mountain top begins to round over for the last bit.  We also saw the top of Gorham Mountain, Bald Peak, Beehive (shorter than Precipice but still straight up on that one) and South Bubble mountain.  We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is the tallest in the park at 1500 feet.  It has the distiction of being the first point of land in the US that is touch by the suns rays each morning.  We drove up the morning Sunday, 8/19 and saw a beautiful sunrise.  I thought it was a great way to begin the day of our 29th wedding anniversary.  After that, low tide was approaching, so we searched out Anemone Cave and spent about an hour investigating the various tide pools that were there.  It was quite a memorable time.  Thunder Hole spent most of it's time burping.  We heard some hints of thunder on a day that the weather wasn't to great, but we didn't think it ever lived up to it's name.  Hikes and bike rides on the carriage trails rounded out our time there.  There was much too much to do there than could be covered in 6 days, so we considered changing our plans by adding two more days and taking 2 consecutive days to drive home, but we already had paid reservations at Quinebaug Cove campground near Sturbridge, MA and didn't want to loose that money, so we left Acadia vowing to return again as soon as we can.
   
   Sturbridge was nice, we visited Old Sturbridge Village.  Williamsburg, VA is much more extensive, but still there was lots to be learned at OSV.  We spent a full day in the village, and felt that was adequate for us.  We spent our last non-driving day sitting in the campground and resting, which we rarely do.  It was a nice, relaxing day and helped us transition back to home.  We arrived home on Friday, 8/24.
   
   All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  We were able to add 3 states to our list of "camped in" states.  Check out our photos on Webshots.  The link is listed below in my signature.

[austinado16]

Man, that's a excursion!  Gonna go enjoy your photos right now...

[backpacker3]

Sounds as though you had a good trip and a good time..........

[dthurk]

Man, that's a excursion!  Gonna go enjoy your photos right now...

Thanks!  Let me know what you think of the photos.

[ForestCreature]

Sounds like you had a great trip. Made even better by camping with Gene and Terry. Your pics are really nice....makes me want to go!

[GeneF]

Sounds like you had a great trip. Made even better by camping with Gene and Terry. Your pics are really nice....makes me want to go!

Marcy

You have been invited to go there with DW and I many times.  Now start saving and build up the vacation time.

Northern NH and Acadia are waiting for you and dh.  Also the moose, loons, eagle, and great sunsets.  We can also borrow a couple more kayaks.


Dave

Terry and I enjoyed our campfires with you and the family.  Glad that you found one of the greatest wonders of the NorthEast.

Our downer was that we scraped the awning on a tree on the way out.  Going to have to get some tape to fix a couple of small holes.