I drove up to Vermont this morning to spend the weekend doing outdoorsy winter activities. The trip had originally been planned by other friends so that we could go ice climbing, but they all had to reschedule at the last minute. I couldn’t reschedule and I’d already sent in a deposit, so I had to change my plans a bit. I drove up myself to Jenn’s house in Norwich, VT. I met Jenn last winter on couchsurfing when she was looking for a host in Philly and I saw her Katahdin summit photo from 2010. We’ve kept in touch, although unfortunately she wasn’t home the weekend I was coming through her town on my hike. She was up for an adventure this weekend though!

Despite lots of snow recently, the roads were fine the whole trip, except for the last quarter mile up the steep, snow covered dirt road to Jenn’s house. It took my Corolla five tries to get up the hill and into the driveway. Once I was settled in, we headed out to visit Eleanor and talk about homesteading. Eleanor is 67 and about to buy land to do just that. She also took us on a snowshoe tour of the Mountain School. She was a work camper there at age 15 in 1963, right before it opened, and she lived there as a teacher for five years in the 1970s. It’s a very interesting place.

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