Vermont Rt. 100

It’s the middle of January and I have already logged well over 2000 miles of commuting to the hill. I’m one of “those guys” a Boston citideot with an appetite, a hunger that can only be satisfied by frozen precipitation on steep terrain. The majority of my season has been spent at Killington due to the close proximity of a ski house I went in on with a few other buddies. I haven’t blogged about it yet because I can’t muster the words to describe how excellent that whole experience has been, maybe I’ll do a recap at some point, but not now.

For me, travel is part of this sport, it always has been. I love the drive, the haul, even loading up my truck with gear; I take pride in successful strategic packing.

We all have to take the good with the bad, the bad is standing at a windy roadside gas station. I swear they install industrial fans to make an already uncomfortable situation more uncomfortable, as if the gas station attendant is sitting in his castle of junk food and soda with a personal space heater and a black & white T.V. cackling at your supreme discomfort. You do a jig, attempting to stimulate blood flow as you watch the digits on the pump screen do the tango back in your face as you feel your jeans pocket heat up due to your credit card melting from inside your wallet. It is at this moment I think about writing to Mobile, Citgo, Suncoco, Cumby’s, Gulf, and BP for a petroleum sponsorship. I then go inside to give his majesty of combos, snickers, slim jims and octane another helping of my Visa for a Red Bull, It is at this point I have that same thought about writing for sponsorship of said beverage, but its all part of the experience and we all know how satisfying the end result is.

I spend a serious amount of time on interstates 89 and 93, and as much as I love the drive it does start to get old quick. This past week I went up to Stowe for the day to the Trapp Family Lodge to do some cross-country skiing. I know its weird but it was nice to do something a little different. Speaking of different, I didn’t take the highway, instead I took VT 100 N from Killington, a vital artery to Vermont skiing, hell, it’s the Superior Vena Cava of East Coast Ski routes, with out it, things just wouldn’t tick. Mount Snow, Okemo, Stratton, Bromley, Magic, Pico, Killington, Middlebury College Snow bowl, Sugarbush, Mad River, Bolton Valley, Stowe, and Jay Peak are all within a few short miles of this scenic by-way.

The Next day I used the Aorta again, this time to access the Middlebury College Snow bowl, the last time I skied there I was on a pair of strait Olin Comp’s. I don’t think the place has changed that much since the last time I was there, although I do remember the summit triple as a double. I’ll have to check the facts with my Snow Bowl historians.

The city is for expressways, tolls, speeding, honking and other forms of mild road rage. Slow it down, get off the highway, turn up the tunes, enjoy the scenery and remind yourself its okay to chill out.