Jamaica, Vermont

Mrs and I spent a wonderful few days in Jamaica, VT camping in the same site we had last year in Jamaica State Park. This was our second trip with the little pop-up camper. Our site was "Ironwood". The campground was extremely quiet and we had no neighbors to speak of. We believe this is due in part to school being in session a little bit longer this year and also a bit of rainy weather. We arrived there on June 11th and stayed until June 16th.

We like Jamaica and this is the only Vermont State Park that we have stayed at twice. It also gave me a great place to hide in the woods for my 4oth birthday.

So, trip in review.... This may be a bit long....

We left the Cape at about 7:30 in the morning and arrived at camp at about 11:45. Excellent ride with no issues other than a brake/blinker light on the camper that worked only some of the time. After setting up the camp we headed off to D&K's Jamaica Grocery for beer and hard cider. This is an excellent store jam packed with just about everything you could possibly want or need and very close to the campground. There is also a pretty good stock of gluten-free products. They also have lots of wine in stock, but no hard liquor.

Back at the campground we stopped at the ranger's station to buy firewood and then filled our big water jug.

With the camper in tow, we did not feel the need to bring our stand-alone canopy so we moved the picnic table into the lean-to and set up the camp kitchen in there. The lean-tos at Jamaica are very nice with shelves and plenty of hooks to hang jackets, towels, etc.


This system worked very well and when it rained we added a tarp to the front of the lean-to so we could sit closer to the fire.


Saturday June 12, 2010 ---

Rain. Moderate showers on and off the entire day. After coffee and breakfast we decided to take a ride down Rt 30 to the River Bend Market in Townshend. No rum there, but we enjoyed listening to NPR. Stopped at the Scott Covered Bridge to look for a geocache that we could not find last year. Mrs located it after some searching.

We stopped in Jamaica on the way back and found two wifi hot spots that we did not even need to get out of the car for. The library and the Jamaica Coffee House. We stopped in at the Jamaica Coffee House for a coffee and to check our e-mail on the iPod. Good coffee and a friendly atmosphere.


We then stopped across the street at a rustic furniture place to look at their furniture and some trellises. The trellises are quite nice and appeared fairly easy to put together, so we went away with some good ideas.

Back at the still rather empty campground we made a wonderful lunch of grilled cheese and even a hot dog or two; as 'natural' as possible as far as hot dogs go. We played a couple games of checkers while it rained. We enjoyed sitting under our mostly dry tarp and relaxed with nothing to do but sit, sip a beer/cider and watch the sparks from the fire.

After supper we read our books. I had brought along a newly published book by our friend T.M. (Ted) Murphy and his brother, Seton called The Running Waves. More on that in another post.



Sunday June 13, 2010

Woke to more rain showers. Took a ride into Jamaica again to take a look at the farmer's market which consisted of several small canopies set up in front of the businesses on Rt 30. Not much yet from the local farms. Also went into one of the stores. We also went into some of the stores and galleries along the road including Hot Glass Works, a fine art gallery, and another stop at the coffee house.

Some photos from the farmers market.







US Post Office, Jamaica, VT 05343

After our little trip to town, we headed back to camp to walk the Overlook Trail Loop which ends (or begins) at our camp site.

Hiking weather was damp, overcast, temps in the lower 60s. WE quickly discovered we were overdressed for the hike, but went on anyway. I brought only the small point and shoot digital camera and no binoculars which was a good test for my birding by ear. Really, it's tough to see any of the little buggers in the canopy, and if you stand still for even a few moments, the mosquitoes quickly find you.

Birds heard and some seen :

- Blackburnian warbler
- American Robin
- Chipping sparrow
- Least flycatcher
- Veery
- Black-throated green warbler
- Red-eyed vireo
- Winter wren
- Ovenbird
- Eastern wood Peewee
- Pileated woodpecker
- Rose-breasted grosbeak
- Wood thrush
- Scarlet tanager
- Mourning dove
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Black-throated blue warbler

Also saw red eft.

What's a red eft? This is a red eft.


Some images from the loop hike.

Multi-use trail along the West River leading to the trailhead.

The overlook. The village of Jamaica is visible just right of center.

Almost the same shot, with some dope in the way. ;)

Trail nearing the end close to the campground.

The weather seemed to be improving a bit. Great supper of Vermont Natural Beef burgers and camp potatoes on the fire.

That's concludes the first half of the trip. Next half to follow in the near future.