Autumn Is Beautiful But Brief in Stowe Vermont
Autumn is a very short season in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Here in Stowe, it seems to last about 3 weeks. Each week is packed to the brim with activity, and the small mountain town is in a constant state of hustle and bustle. Thousands and thousands of tourists come to Stowe, VT looking for things to do and sights to see.
As much as all the tourists can be annoying to any local, It’s not as though I can’t understand the madness. Autumn in the Green Mountains is an absolutely breathtaking event to witness. The tourists bring money to the local economy and the town buzzes with the collected humanity. And then, all of a sudden, It’s over.
And Then There is Stick Season
After about three weeks of decent foliage, with one week being the definitive peak, everything changes. Here in the Green Mountains of Vermont we enter our 5th season: Stick Season. Where does the name come from? You guessed it: when the leaves have all fallen, all that is left are the naked branches. Essentially just waiting for their fate of becoming a stick!
So stick season is defined by the lack of leaves, but also i is defined by what it is not. It is not winter. There is no snow. Well maybe a flurry, or maybe Mount Mansfield or Stowe Mountain Resort will get a good coating here and there and a gaggle of ski bums will hike up to ski down.
It is cold like winter and the temperature no longer feels like fall. Without the snow or leaves, and with the cold temperatures, there is nothing to do. Eventually the tourists get the hint as the restaurants and shops close up for the month before Thanksgiving and the town gets a glimpse of solitude.
What Is There To Do During Stick Season?
Nothing. There really is not much to do, and that is what makes stick season special to me. I find it as a much needed break from the madness. I sometimes call it meditation season because I find it is a great time (if not the only time) of year for me to really focus on mental health, spirituality, and meditation.
I do enjoy going for a walk or hike during stick season (duh, I am the Stowe Forager after all). But I will say that there really is not much to see. Everything is grey, all the time. And I mean everything. All the plants, the trees, the sky, the ground, the water – just everything, grey.
But there is some sort of mystic beauty in all this grey. As Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows once said: grey is my favorite color. There is something incredibly grounding about the color, and so too, about stick season in Stowe, Vermont.
Foraging or Photographing?
I find that on my regular foraging walks, it becomes much harder to find anything edible. Sure there are still some things you can find and eat, maybe some late berries of some sort, or a tuber root. And it can be fun to find these things, as it is quite hard to do, so perhaps more rewarding.
But for me, I just don’t really enjoy foraging for the things I can find during stick season, so it sort of ends up marking the end of my foraging season. I do find that I really enjoy take photos. I feel less pressure to get a good shot, as there is very little actually calling out for attention.
Instead I find myself becoming more creative with my photography. Taking strange photos of strange things, and maybe giving them a fun edit after. And that is stick season in Stowe Vermont. The Green Mountains of Vermont, but in grey.
