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Emerald Lake State Park
East Dorset, Vermont

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Steve's Review:

This is a great campground! Nestled on the side of a mountain in Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest, the sites overlook Emerald Lake, a decent-sized body of water ideal for canoeing. But it's far from New York; at best, it's a four hour trip of 222 miles. On a summer Friday, it's a different story.

We now store our camping equipment in Westchester, near where I work. The plan was simple: Roberta would get the boys out of camp at 3:00 PM, take a train to White Plains where I'd have the packed car waiting. Then we would zip over the Tappan Zee Bridge and zoom upstate on the New York State Thruway. From Troy, we'd scoot over NYS 7 to Bennington, where we'd grab US 7 30 miles to the campsite, arriving about 8:00 PM.

When the boys arrived, they needed to make a pitstop. We drove to a local Target to use the facilities. By the time we actually got on the road, it was already 5:00 PM, and the Tappan Zee was a parking lot. We took the Taconic State Parkway and zoomed through Westchester County. Just when we started to get smug about our easy trip, the TSP came to a complete stop. We took local roads through Putnam Valley and made our way to Peekskill, where we took US 6 to the Bear Mountain Bridge.

I love my little wagon, a four-cylinder Hyundai that gets 33 mpg on a typical highway trip. One thing that it does not do well, when laden with our full complement of camping gear, is climb mountains. We huffed and puffed our way through Bear Mountain State Park, where we had camped only a couple of weeks before, and eventually made it to Woodbury where we connected with I-87. As light began to fade, we made it to Troy ("Home of Uncle Sam") and stopped at Quizno's for gourmet subs.

We missed the Bennington Bypass (VT-279), which added a few extra miles to our journey, and by the time we reached Dorset, it was 9:30 and dark! Even the park rangers had gone. Fortunately, we knew our site number and we were able to find it. Roberta and I were able to get the tent setup quickly, despite in the dark.

My college fratority brother, Aaron, and his family were already set up at the site adjacent to ours. We've camped together a few times and their daughters are five and seven. Aaron's a former Outward Bound instructor and an experienced camper who makes a mean fire. We sat in front of the fire and caught up over some Glenlivet.

Generally, I've had bad experiences at camping areas where alcohol is permitted or tolerated. I try to avoid campground with the word "Family" in the name, as these places usually permit alcohol and attract a rowdy crowd. Don't get me wrong, I like to enjoy a scotch or a beer in the great outdoors just as much as the next guy; but if giving that up makes for a quieter campground, I'll gladly forgo it. Most state parks prohibit alcohol, but Vermont permits it, provided that campers imbibe responsibly.

We were doing just that when a group of teens started walking through the campsite at 12:30 AM calling to "Laura." Apparently, she had gotten quite drunk, and wandered into the forest in an angry huff and none of her friends could find her. Without any real idea of where this girl was, her friends thought it would be a good idea to wake up the entire campground searching for her. Ahh, youth! Aside from this group of clowns, the place was quite peaceful.

After a night's rest, we awoke to a warm and pleasant day. We went over to the Bondsville Fair, in the shadow of Stratton Mountain Ski Resort. This fair has been running since 1797—although I doubt they rode the Tip Top back then. We enjoyed the fair. It wasn't too crowded and the kids had fun running around and paying the carney games. The sun was oppressively strong—it was one of the hottest days of the year for Southern Vermont—Emerald Lake was starting to sound really good.

The lake was great! Aaron had brought his canoe and took the kids out two at a time. Jana, Roberta and I swam with the other two. After the heat we'd had at the fair, the cool water felt delightful! The lake is in a day-use area, but it seemed that most of the people at the beach had camped the night before. Heading back to the sites around 6:00 PM, we saw ominous clouds coming over the ridge of the mountain.

During dinner, the clouds continued and we began to hear the distant rumble of thunder. A search using Roberta's Web-enabled phone revealed that a National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm alert for Southern Vermont! As the thunder got closer and louder, it became increasingly clear that we were going to get slammed. By 8:30 PM, everyone headed for the safety of the tents.

Steve in-tent

I still had some cleanup to do at the site and was prattling about when the skies let loose. For the next hour or so, we were treated to teeming rain, constant lightning flashes and booming thunder. It was one of the most violent thunderstroms I've ever witnessed! I later learned that the storm had winds in the 50–70 mph range in the area due north of us and it had knocked out power for over 30,000 customers, including the campground. Fortunately, while we got socked with rain, the lightning was not right on top of us.

To hear a sound recording of that thunderstorm, click here. soundfile(562 kB MP3 format)

I spent the duration of the storm in the screenhouse. I learned two important things:

  1. The small roof of the screen house was largely waterproof, except maybe at the sewn seams.
  2. The large screen windows of the screen house were mostly not waterproof, and their steep angle caused rain water to splash inward to all points but the very center; since the picnic table was already at the very center, I was guaranteed to get soaking wet.

My guys stayed safe and dry in our tent; our friends rode it out in the safety of their minivan. Everyone survived just fine. Eventually, the rain slowed enough for Aaron to come over and join me in the screenhut for some beer and conversation.

We spent Sunday morning drying out our gear and packing for the long ride home. The power outage had prevented pumps from operating and the park's water level had dropped too low. As a result, the bathrooms were closed. Communication from the park rangers could have been better as we didn't know that only some bathrooms were locked, while others remained open. At any rate, the sun peeked put and we were able to dry most of the gear and pack up the car. I-87 was crowded and after suffering through one completely inexplicable episode of stop & go traffic south of Albany, we bolted when we saw cars stopping for a second time. We made our way across the river at the Mid-Hudson (aka Roosevelt) Bridge at Poughkeepsie and wended our way home from there.

Definitely a great time with our friends at a Class A campground. I've come to view the thunderstorm as a value-added feature—a little extra bit of the natural world to enhance the experience. Though remote for us, we enjoyed the park even more on our second visit and will return sometime in the future.

—SBW

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