July 22, 2025

Shunpiking gone sideways!

I had a mostly back roads (unpaved) route planned, but first our GPS went out and then the road we wanted into Halifax was closed. We did find Halifax, by sheer luck. From there, we wandered east but couldn’t find either the Green River covered bridge or Guilford as hoped.  But with all the wandering, I’m confident we were in Guilford at some point, so I’m marking it completed and will try to find the actual town another day. Eventually we gave up and returned to Rt 9.

Finding Marlboro was much easier, although the very sharp turn onto South Road from Rt 9 was a bit heart stopping. Coming into Brattleboro, we stopped at the Creamery Covered Bridge, which has a pedestrian covered sidewalk alongside. The bridge is closed to traffic, so it was nice to be able to walk through it without worrying about getting run over.

Brattleboro fulfilled its reputation as an eclectic, artsy town. We wandered on foot and found the famous murals, browsed several shops, walked down to the river and the closed bridge to New Hampshire, and saw many interesting, clearly historical buildings. The traffic was bad, complete with large trucks making big city level of noise. I wonder how bad it gets during leaf peeping season??? The main intersection was confusing and scary, but we got through it alive.

Lastly, we followed the river south to Vernon. Our stop was at the Governor Hunt House and Community Center. It didn’t look more than 250 years old, but it was beautiful. The views of the river from Fort Bridgeman Rd were also beautiful, with the mountains so close on the other side.