America's Best Kept Secret - Vermont

Traveling around the U.S., I have been missing a sense of community greatly. I miss spending time by the fire chatting with my friends. I miss stargazing and playing sports in groups. I miss cooking food for a group of people with whom I share it afterwards. I miss green nature, cold water plunges, and learning from people who are smarter than I am. I found all of this on my trip to Vermont, a state I had never planned on visiting—a state that once declared its independence and even had its republic. Last weekend, I hiked Vermont’s highest peak with my friends.

Vermont is one of the least populated states in the USA. Once governed by the French, it was given the name "Verd Mont," which translates to "Green Mountain." The place truly lives up to its name. Hiking around the Mount Mansfield area, I was amazed by the sheer number of trees wherever I looked. The views spanned from New York to New Hampshire and even to Canada, all lined with a never-ending expanse of trees. Everywhere I looked, the hills were covered with them, from aspens and pines to maples.

For me personally, it was a bit of a shock to see the hills fully covered with trees. Deforestation has become so common back home in Slovakia that it surprises me to see people actively protecting their forests. To be precise, Vermont now has more of its land covered with forests than it did in the 19th or 20th century. In a world where an estimated 12.4 million acres of forests are permanently converted each year to grow commodity crops such as palm oil, it’s a pleasant surprise.

I was invited to visit Vermont by a good friend of mine with whom I had travelled around Colombia and Japan in previous years. I was excited to see William after a long time, but I knew very little about Vermont before coming here. I think the only time I had paid attention to it was when Chandler and Ross went on a romantic getaway to Vermont in one of the Friends episodes.

After a three-hour drive up from Boston, where we landed, we arrived in Vermont. We made a quick trip to a grocery store and stocked up on supplies for the entire weekend. The plan was to spend the weekend camping around the Stowe area, with a hike leading us to Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak.

As hard-working nomads, we dedicated Friday to our work and agreed to leave by 3 PM. So we set off on our adventure.

While we were waiting for another car with friends to arrive, I noticed movement in the forest across the road. I was reluctant to admit what I had seen. Two minutes later, Jamie stared into the forest for a few seconds and shouted, "What the ****?" I looked over and saw exactly what I thought I had seen—a black bear. I had expected this place to be home to bears, just like back home in Slovakia. However, in my 20+ years of living there, I had seen exactly zero of them, while it took me only half a day in Vermont to see one. Up to 8,000 black bears live in the state.

Enough of the stats and bears. Let’s get right into hiking. As soon as we hit the trail, we realized this was going to be some work. Although we had a trek of roughly 5 to 6 miles ahead, most of it was steep uphill. No switchbacks in the northeast—we had to work for it right from the start. The higher we climbed, the more beautiful scenery and landscapes unfolded before our eyes. After taking a little detour to a vista, we arrived at the lake roughly three to four hours into our hike, earlier than most of us expected.

The lake was stunning, although cold. While looking for options to set up camp, we found an old ski patrol hut right around the corner, which would serve as our refuge for the upcoming night. Since some of us had packed lightly, this opportunity was not to be missed. I wandered off to explore the area and found abandoned ski lifts that had probably not been used by tourists in a few years. The views from these spots, however, were immaculate.

I met a few local hikers on their sunset walk who asked if our group was from Canada on a weekend getaway. Oh, were they surprised to hear that I’m from Slovakia and some of the friends I’m hiking with are from Colombia and Spain! One could tell Vermont is not quite the usual destination for international travellers.

The beautiful part of being further up north in the summer, especially in mid-June, is the length of the day. The sun won’t set until 9 PM, and even after that, it will take an hour before the darkness fully settles. Catching up on stories with friends I hadn’t seen in months, we enjoyed the sun's warm and sparkling light. The colour of the sky improved with every passing minute. Will deserved a special award for singlehandedly carrying a bunch of sirloin steaks in ice to the top, allowing us to feast on a gourmet camping dinner together. We toasted with French red wine and realized how the simplest pleasures are the best in life. You don’t need much more than nature, healthy food, and great company. We topped off the night with a good old game of capitalism—an American card game.

Camping mornings are special because you usually wake up feeling sore from having had, at best, a mediocre sleep, and at worst, freezing to death. Thanks to the refuge, we were all ready to seize the day. The plan was to hike up to Mount Mansfield, although to get there we would need to descend quite a bit first. Carrying the camping gear made our backpacks heavier than usual, but eating all the steaks and drinking all the wine the night before helped lighten our load a bit. In the morning, Laura prepared a delightful coffee brought from Colombia, and energized, we set off for another adventure.

The hike was even steeper than the day before, but the scrambling proved to be more fun than just hiking up a steep hill. We all enjoyed it more, chatting about everything from what cuisine we would choose to eat for the rest of our lives to what our dream adventures are. Time passed quickly, and within a few hours, we found ourselves at the top of the mountain ridge.

I would be repeating myself if I told you again how green and forested the hills are here in Vermont, so I will just say the wind was so strong I felt like I could turn into a kite and fly effortlessly. Reaching the highest point in Vermont was a great achievement. We greeted other travellers, took the mandatory group pictures, and braced ourselves for a challenging descent. What kept our spirits high on the way down was the thought of feasting on meat platters at a local Austrian restaurant as soon as we got back.

After last weekend’s visit to California and San Diego, a place I thought I would fall in love with, I was unsure if there would be a spot in the U.S. that I would enjoy. Vermont proved me wrong within a couple of days. Isn’t that pretty much how life works? We expect one thing and something else will prove us wrong or right within a moment...