Vermont Air
[img_assist|nid=665|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=250|height=168]By Abbott de Rham
As beautiful as Vermont is from the ground, it takes on a whole new dimension when seen from the air.
Touring Vermont via its terrestrial byways is an experience consisting of winding roads, small towns, mountains and valleys. Unlike the panoramic views in places like “Big Sky” Montana or the Colorado Rockies, our experience is more intimate and revealed in a series of vignettes through gaps in trees, across farm fields, over the village green, from rock outcroppings on a hiking trail or atop a pass where the road widens to allow cars to stop and take in the view. My roots are firmly planted in Vermont. Using my own unskilled hands I built our house (still building thirty two years later), tend the garden, heat with wood, make maple syrup, walk the woods and by chance of fate I am also a pilot of a small airplane.
As beautiful as our part of the world is from the ground, it takes on a new dimension—literally and figuratively—when seen from the air. Only then can you see how the varied Vermont landscape fits to its adjoining neighbors. You see the great panorama of the spine of the Green Mountains, as well as the Taconics building to their highest point on Mount Equinox. In between the two you see the entire length of the great southwest Valley of Vermont. To the east and on the back side of Stratton lies a plateau of virtually uninhabited forest land encompassing Green Mountain National Forest, the Lye Brook Wilderness area and the Deerfield River watershed. After ascending to the top of Stratton Mountain you see the tight valley of the West River as it winds its way toward Brattleboro. Cross one more ridge and the mountains give way to the Connecticut River valley. Flying at 7,500 feet above sea level on a CAVU day (Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited) you can see the Maine/Massachusetts coast; White Mountains and Mt. Washington; Canada; New York Catskills, Taconics and Adirondacks; Berkshires and beyond into Connecticut. See something interesting? Fly over and take a look. You easily observe the effects of glaciers on our mountains, and the various watersheds that send rainfall to the Hudson, St Lawrence and Connecticut rivers. Flying out of the mountains and over the Champlain Valley gives an entirely different impression of this ancient lake bed. The mountain peaks become your navigation aids. Depending on the direction of travel, Peru Peak, Stratton Mountain, Mount Ascutney, Mount Greylock and Dorset Mountain each points the way home…..