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The Amazing Vermont Race2006-09-30We roused early on a Saturday morning and drove east from Burlington on Route 15 towards our rendezvous at the Common Ground Campground in Hyde Park. Arriving just before 8 AM, we found a few teams already milling about the parking lot, sizing each other up, sipping coffees and trying to gear up for the day ahead. The mood was decidedly relaxed, as the teams tried to wake up on a dewy early fall morning in central Vermont. The mood was soon to turn though, as the race organizers gathered the teams together, and told us that our first clue was hidden down a dirt road in a paintball field around the bend. The next thing we knew, we were off at a full sprint through the woods, going from zero to sixty in 5 seconds. After some muddy sprints, and foraging through the various paintball obstacles, we finally pulled clues that showed:  We sprinted back to the parking lot, hopped in the cars, and were off down the road to the Audet Farm where one team member from each team had to sprint out into the field of hay bales, take a running start at one of them, and push it at a roll for a few feet in order to see if there was a clue hiding underneath. I dropped my shoulder into 5 bales before finally finding my clue, then sprinted back across the field towards the parking lot.  I handed the envelope to my teammate who told me that the next clue told us to continue north, to compete in the: Christmas Tree Challenge Drive to North Hyde Park Village and take a right down Ferry Street just past the lumber yard. Look for the bright green Marking tape and a staff member will park you and hand you your next challenge. When we arrived, the race organizer told us that we could take one of two routes from the parking area to the top of the hill. The first route was a winding logging road that was longer, but less steep and clearly cut in its winding path to the top of the hill. The second was a bushwhacked hike straight up the side of the mountain. We chose the logging road, and when we arrived at the top, found the clue box tucked under a tree on the ground, which had a number of uniquely colored ornaments inside.  The clue on the box indicated that we had to take one of the ornaments, and find its match hanging on one of the trees somewhere in the Christmas Tree field, grab both of the ornaments, race back down the hill, and present an unbroken matching pair to the race organizer. It was a quick dash to find two ornaments that matched, but the long run down was a careful jaunt to make sure we didn’t break one of the ornaments. The Los Burros team, decked out in bright green custom t-shirts had a close call as they made their way to the bottom of the hill and were just about to present their ornaments to the official when the glass bulbs slid out of a team member’s hands and fell to the ground. Luckily for Los Burros, both of the ornaments survived the tumble, and they were not forced to return to the field to find two new ones. Once we finished the Christmas Tree challenge, we received this clue: Go to Perry’s Corn Maze On the Mountain Road in Stowe. There you will receive your next challenge. We hopped into the cars and drove south, back past the Audet Farm and the Common Ground Campground on route 100 towards Stowe. Other teams knew of shortcuts to make it to the Corn Maze on the Mountain Road more quickly, but we were lucky to find when we arrived that the next challenge wouldn’t start until 9 AM. We were back to a level playing field with 4 of the teams, who were all stationed at the entrance of the Corn Maze at 9 AM. We were told that deep within the corn maze stood a lockbox that each team had to open and retrieve a pen from before weaving our way back out of the maze. We found the lockbox in short order, but then got lost deep in a corner of the maze in a series of loops. Luckily, we doubled back towards the exit, and traversed over a bridge that lies above the path carved into the corn maze. From our vantage point on top of the bridge we could spot the exit and get our bearings before submerging once again into the rows of corn. Back on track, we sprinted through the rest of the maze, and emerged finding that we scored 2nd place. The Corn Maze turned out to be the last challenge of the morning, so the race organizers gave us a break for lunch, and told the teams to reconvene at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe at 12:30. The break in the race gave us some time to recuperate, fuel up for the second leg, and keep ourselves entertained around the town of Stowe on a beautiful Fall day:  In the picture below, the teams are reconvening at the von Trapp Lodge, getting geared up for the afternoon portion of the race.  At 12:30, the race organizers announced our next challenge. Follow the access road to the top of the hill, where the Chapel lies, seek out the clue box there for your next location, and return to the starting point to answer 5 questions about the Chapel and its surroundings. Answer one of the questions wrong, and you’re forced to wait in purgatory until the next team behind you arrives. We made the long trail run up the mountain to the chapel where we found the structure peacefully lying there, even though all the teams were scattered and scrambling about, trying to drink in as much information about our surroundings as we could absorb.  We were the second team down the mountain, and found the first place team very happy to see us, as they had answered the “How many hinges are on the chapel door?” question incorrectly. Once we arrived, however, they were set free and raced off to the next location, which the cluebox at the chapel had told us was the Ben & Jerry’s factory “Flavor Graveyard”. We then answered all 5 questions correctly, and were off in hot pursuit. When we got to the Ben & Jerry’s though, we had to ask around to find out where the “Flavor Graveyard” was located on the premises, and the time we lost locating and sprinting to the site meant we were bumped back into 3rd place. Once there, the race organizers told us that we would have to take a list of ingredients, such as “Vanilla with chocolate covered almonds, pecans and walnuts” find the flavor gravestone in the yard that matches that description, and provide the title of the retired flavor “Economic Crunch”.   We dashed through the list of 10 flavors, then presented our findings to the official, and were presented with our next clue: Go to the Waterbury Flea Market Look up, look down, look all around for the next Black and red clue box. The combination is: 22 – 0 – 26 Open it to get your next directions, and remember to lock it back up We raced back to our cars, and began to pull out of the parking lot, asking a B&J employee along the way where we could find the Waterbury Flea Market. She told us to drive to the T, and instead of heading into town take a right and it was just down the road. As we pulled up to the Flea market, we could see the neon green Los Burros t-shirts racing through the sea of people at the flea market. We hopped out of the car and waded through the people, looking high and looking low before both teams spotted the clue box tucked into the trees alongside the edge of the clearing. Digging into the lockbox for our next clue, we found: Cemetery Challenge Go to the Stowe Cemetery on Cemetery Street and look for Green marking tape and park in the designated parking area. Run into the cemetery and look for the staff member present, The staff member will hand you your next challenge. Heading back towards Stowe, we drove through the Village and took our first left onto the Lane. During the whole drive we had the Los Burros team right on our back bumper, and when we arrived, we found the race leaders were already there. Sprinting through the field towards a person we spotted across the field on the bench, we soon found out it was just a decoy, and not the staff member we were looking for. A confused few precious minutes were squandered wandering along the river, searching for the graveyard before we finally spotted the plot. Once there, we got our next clue which asked us to seek out the gravestones of a few residents, add their ages together, and present their total age to the staff member.  After an extensive search, we finally gathered the ages requested, tallied the years together, and scored our next clue: Go back to the Common Ground Campground For your final challenge The first annual Amazing Vermont Race was coming full circle, as we were told to head back to the race’s starting point, a time that seemed like worlds away, but was just a few hours earlier that morning. We knew that Common Ground was located on Route 100, so decided to follow that route north to the campground, but savvier racers found shortcuts to beat us to the punch. We left the Stowe Cemetery with the Los Burros team hot on our tails, but then saw them dart off onto Stagecoach Road while we continued on Route 100. When we arrived at Common Ground, the Los Burros car was already in the parking lot. We parked and ran up the path to the shuffleboard court where each team member had to slide a shuffle puck down the length of the court and score a “10”. The Winners of the 2006 Amazing Vermont Race had already sealed the victory when we arrived:  But there was a heated battle for Second Place, as we faced off against the Los Burros team. Some close calls for both teams, as we rotated shots back and forth. We had the first team member to score a “10”, but the Los Burros team was the first to have both parties succeed, and pulled out Second Place by a narrow margin:  All five teams made it to the finish line, and had many war stories to tell about the day’s journey. There were a lot of close calls, some tight competition, and tons of fun exploring central Vermont. After the awards ceremony, and all the prizes were given out, each of the teams sent a heartfelt thank you to the race organizers, especially Keith Mailhotte, who put a lot of time and effort into organizing the AVR and making sure that everything went smoothly. Keith spent all that time putting this event together as a fundraiser for the Mystic Lodge #56 Boy Scouts, and we all hope that he will decide to do it again. If you would like more information about the race, please email Keith at keithation@stowevt.net. We can’t wait until next year’s event! One of the prizes we won was a gift certificate to the Bonz Steakhouse in Morristown. After a long day trekking through central Vermont, we decided to head to Bonz after the race to enjoy the rest of the sunny fall day out on their front deck and raise an Otter Creek brew in celebration. | |||
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