Vermont Camping In September (2014) - Part 1

Mrs and I headed back to Vermont in September for a six night stay.  We had left Bella on the Lower Cape with friends (who also happen to be the wonderful women I worked for at the kennel back in the 90s).  They are enjoying their retirement and were looking forward to having a greyhound back in the house.

We packed the Subaru and headed to Killington with Harry and Luna to stay at Gifford Woods State Park.  We have stayed here before, but chose a different leanto site this time.

The site we chose is called "Ash".  The campground access road is part of The Appalachian Trail, so we followed white blazes to get to the site.

We arrived on Sunday September 7th and intended to stay until Saturday the 13th.  We set up camp in our usual fashion, though these days we are traveling with fewer things.  The site is really nice overlooking a fairly steep drop off and one tent camp site below and to the right, but otherwise private.

Unfortunately we were subjected to one of the worst experiences we've had in a Vermont State Park.  Apparently somewhere nearby there is a shooting range.  I don't mind the typical shooting range, of a couple guys popping a few rounds, blasting  a few targets, but this went on and on and on into the dark of night and didn't stop until after 8 pm.  And it wasn't just a couple handguns.  No, instead there were some of the most horrendously loud and heavy gunfire I have ever heard.  We felt like a war zone was  right nearby.  Add to the heavy gunfire what sounded and felt to us like canon fire.  I cannot begin to describe how distressing and stressful this was.  To the point I almost packed everything up and left.
What annoyed me even more is that Harry is HORRIBLY frightened of fireworks, gunfire, thunder and the like.  He was almost beyond consolable and spent a terrible evening in the car shaking and panting.

We were astonished at how awful this was.  One of THE WORST Vermont experiences ever.  And we were only a few hours into our trip.

After the horrid gun and canon fire finally stopped, we were able to enjoy a little time by the fire and eventually Harry calmed down a bit, but refused his meal.  We had come prepared to camp at the Moosalamoo campground if we were going to have good weather, so we decided to load up on firewood and head there on Monday.  Moosalamoo is a US Forest Service campground with minimal support.  Self pay camping and pit toilets.  I had purchased a three-person Big Agnes Fly Creek UL3 tent and we brought it along thinking we might go elsewhere to camp for a couple nights not knowing it would be because the VT State Park experience would be ruined by idiots with guns.

On Monday we loaded up what we thought we would need and abandoned our site at Gifford Woods. We headed for Moosalamoo with the hope of finding a nice, peaceful place to camp and enjoy.  We arrived and drove around the giant loop to check out the sites.  There were only a few sites occupied and it was SO quiet.  We noticed that a young woman was packing up her site and decided to stand by at the informational kiosk until she departed.  Once she was gone we swooped right in to check out the site.  Site #17.  This would be home for the night.

The self pay and informational kiosk at Mooslamoo Campground.
Have I mentioned how great the 2015 Subaru Forester is?  Perhaps not.  Another post on that someday.

Our Big Agnes Fly Creek UL3.  UL stands for ultralight and 3 for three-person…  It would be a tight fit for three.  In fact, the dogs stayed in the car.

Luna enjoying her Koolaroo bed.

The fly Creek all buttoned up .  Great tent!

Fire ring at Moosalamoo.  We brought plenty of wood from Gifford.

More on this trip later.