Happy Vermont

Outdoor recreation is breathing new life into Poultney, which is home to Lake St. Catherine, the Poultney River, the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail and Slate Valley Trails. James Johnson lives off the grid in a yurt on land once owned by his grandmother. He's also the founder of the Fifth Season Race and Ride, a quirky mud season ride where participants ride around to local sugarhouses. In this episode of Happy Vermont, James Johnson and other locals talk about life in Poultney, exploring the outdoors in Poultney, and why they call this tight-knit community home. Read more: https://happyvermont.com/2024/04/09/outdoor-recreation-renaissance-in-poultney/

Pete and Sandy Gebbie are farmers and skiers. They have three rope tows on their 400-acre property, which sits at an elevation of about 2,000 feet. When the snow is good, friends come over to ski. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the first rope tow, which opened in Woodstock in January 1934. In this episode, Pete and Sandy talk to host Erica Houskeeper about running a rope tow and what the tradition of rope tow skiing means to Vermonters.

Vermont’s skiing had a big year in 1934. Ninety years ago, the first rope tow opened in Woodstock. It’s also when the Stowe Ski Patrol got its start, when the Civilian Conservation Corps were busy building trails in Vermont, and when the first purpose cut ski trail was completed on Mount Mansfield. Brian Lindner of Waterbury is a historian, ski patroller, and outdoor enthusiast. While hiking on Camel's Hump when he was a boy in the 1960s, he stumbled upon World War II plane wreckage, which sparked his lifelong interest in local history. In this episode, Brian talks with host Erica Houskeeper about the story of the plane that crashed into Camel's Hump, the early days of Stowe Mountain Resort, and the spot along Interstate 89 that goes over the top of the engine room of an old rope tow.

Jane Dorney of Richmond is a geographer who helps people connect to the Vermont landscape and understand how it evolved. She approaches her work with the geographer’s question: Why are things where they are? In this episode of Happy Vermont, host Erica Houskeeper talks to Jane about settlement patterns, maps, town centers, villages, covered bridges and old mill sites. https://janedorney.com https://happyvermont.com

Mount Tom in Woodstock isn’t a particularly tall mountain. But its environmental legacy, easy public access and central place in the community are monumental. Mount Tom is where you’ll find miles of trails, beautiful views, a shining mountain top star, and the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the only national park in Vermont. It’s also where the American environmental movement was essentially born 160 years ago. Host Erica Houskeeper talks with resident Randy Richardson about the mountain's legacy, hiking trails, and special place in the community. She also checks in with resident Norm Frates about replacing the wooden Woodstock Star on the south peak of Mount Tom, which was installed after World War II. For more Vermont stories, event listings and podcast episodes, visit www.happyvermont.com.

John Lent, of Waltham, started volunteering many years ago at the Vergennes Community Foodshelf with his late wife, Mary Ann. She was the driving force behind the couple’s volunteering efforts in the community. After Mary Ann died in 2020, John decided to keep volunteering in her honor. John is not only an avid volunteer, he’s also an accomplished marathon runner. He’s completed marathons in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, and all seven continents. In this episode of Happy Vermont, John shares what motivates him to volunteer and why getting out of your comfort zone is essential. Learn more: Vergennes Community Foodshelf Vermont Sports magazine interview with John Lent HappyVermont.com

Alicia Taylor and Joanna Alpizar met at a pop-up roller-skating event in Burlington. The two BIPOC women became fast friends and are now on a mission to create a public, welcoming, year-round space for roller-skating in the Burlington, Vermont area. In this podcast episode of Happy Vermont, Alicia and Joanna talk about the joy of roller-skating, the history of roller-skating, and creating a welcoming skating space for the community. Read the story here on HappyVermont.com. Support Happy Vermont on Patreon.

Jamie Franklin opened an exhibition at Bennington Museum earlier this year called Haunted Vermont, which explores disappearances in the Bennington Triangle and the work of mystery writer Shirley Jackson. Jackson lived in North Bennington and some of her work was inspired by the strange happenings in this area of Southern Vermont. This episode of Happy Vermont highlights disappearances in Glastenbury, witches in Pownal, and vampires in Manchester and Shirley Jackson's work. https://benningtonmuseum.org https://happyvermont.com/2023/10/11/bennington-triangle-happy-vermont-podcast/

Every fall, John Anderson of Dummerston and a group of volunteers monitor birds that are migrating south for the season. For decades, these volunteers, known as the Putney Mountain Hawk Watchers, have recorded the number and kinds of hawks they see and report the information to Hawk Migration of North America, which maintains an online hawk count database. Established in 1974, Putney Mountain Hawk Watch is the only autumn raptor watch in Vermont that is monitored daily between August and November. In this episode of Happy Vermont, John talks about hawk watching, what it brings to his life, and the time he saw more 6,000 birds fly over Putney Mountain in one day. https://happyvermont.com http://putneymountain.org

If you’ve ever been to Shelburne Orchards, chances are you’ve seen or been lucky enough to meet owner Nick Cowles. Nick has spent most of his life at the orchard, which his father purchased in the 1950s. Nick loved growing up there, and when you visit, it’s easy to see why. Host Erica Houskeeper met up with Nick to talk about apples, brandy, and how running the orchard changed his life for the better. www.happyvermont.com www.shelburneorchards.com

The summer she turned seven years old, Charity Clark's first outing on Vermont's Long Trail was at Little Rock Pond in Mount Tabor. Years later, she completed the 272-mile footpath across the Green Mountains, the oldest long-distance hiking trail in the United States. Today, Charity is Vermont's first female attorney general. Even with a busy schedule in Vermont’s highest law enforcement office, she spends as much time as she can outside—hiking, skiing or exploring the woods. In this episode of Happy Vermont, Charity shares her love for hiking and the outdoors and why Vermont is her forever home. Read the story: https://happyvermont.com/2023/08/29/hiking-the-long-trail-charity-clark-podcast/

Happy Vermont podcast host Erica Houskeeper shares ways to explore Vermont this summer and fall. She also weighs in on why we can't take Vermont communities for granted. happyvermont.com

Terri Armata of Bennington is one of Vermont’s most dedicated butterfly watchers. A retired hospital employee, Terri has seen about 100 species in Vermont, nearly every kind ever found in the state. Host Erica Houskeeper met with Terri at Merck Forest in Rupert to talk about good places to find butterflies, her passion for butterfly watching, and Vermont's second Butterfly Atlas Project survey. happyvermont.com vermont-butterfly-atlas merckforest.org patreon.com/happyvermontpodcast

Spencer Potter created Woodchuck Golf in his backyard in Waitsfield in 2004. The six-hole course, which runs on donations, attracts golfers from near and far looking for an offbeat and challenging experience. Happy Vermont podcast host Erica Houskeeper met up with Spencer to find out what motivates him about running a public backyard golf course in Vermont's Mad River Valley. www.woodchuckgolf.com happyvermont.com

Most of Vermont's forests and hillsides were clear-cut in the late 1800s. But in a few places, like Gifford Woods State Park in Killington, old trees were spared and continue to stand tall today. Host Erica Houskeeper talks to Vermont State Parks regional manager Rebecca Roy about ancient trees—some more than 300 years old—that visitors can see up close at Gifford Woods State Park. Visit Happy Vermont: happyvermont.com Learn more about Gifford Woods State Park: vtstateparks.com/gifford Become a Happy Vermont Patreon member

A question host Erica Houskeeper often asks people is, how did you end up in Vermont? As she gets older, Erica thinks more and more about how she ended up in the Green Mountains more than 40 years ago. In this solo episode, she shares some personal memories of her family's early days in southern Vermont (a bittersweet, challenging time), and answers a few lighthearted questions from Happy Vermont readers and listeners. Find Vermont stories: https://happyvermont.com Find Vermont events: https://happyvermont.com/events/ Support Happy Vermont on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/happyvermontpodcast

After moving to Vershire in 2020, Justin Willeau was eager to find ways to meet people in town and contribute to the community. Vershire, a hard-to-get-to place in Orange County, doesn't have a coffee house or a bar. So Justin decided to create weekly get-togethers revolving around coffee and beer. Justin started a Coffee Bar on Saturday mornings and a Beer Exchange on Thursday nights at the Church Orr House on Route 113. In this episode, host Erica Houskeeper talks to Justin about serving in the Navy, getting involved in the community, and finding a place like Vershire to call home. VerShare and the Church Orr House https://vershare.org Happy Vermont https://happyvermont.com

Butternut Mountain is the tallest peak that falls entirely within the town of Johnson. On the mountain's southern slope, the Marvin family owns 600 acres where they produce maple syrup for their business, Butternut Mountain Farm. David Marvin started Butternut Mountain Farm in the early 1970s on land owned by his father, Dr. James Wallace Marvin, a botanist and the co-founder of UVM's Proctor Maple Research Center. In this podcast episode of Happy Vermont, Butternut Mountain Farm's David Marvin and his children, Emma and Ira, talk with host Erica Houskeeper about the history of maple sugaring, how Butternut Mountain Farm came to be, and their hopes for the future. https://happyvermont.com/2023/03/23/butternut-mountain-farm-maple-syrup-podcast/ https://butternutmountainfarm.com Help support Happy Vermont's storytelling on Patreon

Tony Clark found his way to Vermont in the late 1960s. He bought an old farm in the middle of nowhere in Goshen and eventually turned it into an inn and cross-country ski center. One of his greatest legacies was helping to establish Vermont's 16,000-acre Moosalamoo National Recreation Area in 2007. Tony died a year ago in March 2022. Host Erica Houskeeper met with his daughter, Britta, who grew up at the inn and is now working on her Ph.D. at Harvard. She is also helping to run the property’s Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center. The center offers about 35 kilometers of trails for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, mountain biking, and trail running. There are no fees as the center is run with help from volunteers and donations to keep the trails accessible to the public. https://happyvermont.com/2023/03/11/blueberry-hill-trails-goshen-podcast/ https://www.patreon.com/happyvermontpodcast

Johnathan Croft, who leads the mapping section at the Agency of Transportation, loves everything about Vermont roads. Johnathan met with host Erica Houskeeper to talk about the history of the McCullough Turnpike and the App Gap, as well as Vermont's toll roads, turnpikes, shunpikes, and the dirt roads of East Barnard. Read more: https://happyvermont.com/2023/02/16/podcast-mccullough-turnpike-app-gap/