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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month The SunTree Traveler
Inspired by the article on page 69 of the latest issue of N The Magazine of Naturist Living, your intrepid newsletter editor decided to pop over to Vermont to see if he could find any of these spots. The article, entitled "Four for the Road - A Naturist Tour of Southern Vermont" described four favorite skinny-dipping sites in the Green Mountain State. The sites that they discussed were: Rock River, Scott Bridge, Hamilton Falls and West River. The article mentions that everybody is familiar with the Ledges so they wanted to talk about four other sites not so often frequented in the same area. Rock River The confusing part that cause me to walk miles too far was when the article said after I park the car, then walk toward the river and turn left. That is what I did, but what I should have been told to do was to turn left on the paved road, walk about a hundred feet, then turn right on the gravel road to the cottage area. Enough of the criticism, it was a very nice place and the trail was in very good condition. The river disappears into the rocks as you walk upstream, but it reappears in the form of very nice, clear, large pools along the riverbed. The pool under the river was crowded, so walking upstream, I came to a pool with six clothed people. I continued to walk and found a larger pool with three nude people. I joined them for a swim. Others joined us later until our pool got sort of crowded. People coming later, just walked past us to more pools further along. This is a beautiful place with sand bars and lots of shade and sun at each of the pools. Scott Bridge Scott Bridge is an old covered bridge that is no longer considered safe for cars, but there is adequate parking on the highway end of the bridge. Swimmers can then walk across the bridge (about a quarter of a mile long) to the other bank and take the path down to the river. There are lots of nice swimming areas along the river and one giant, flat rock in the middle of the river for sunning like a lizard. On the day that I was there, I only saw four swimmers there (it was a Tuesday) and they were about a half-mile downstream. After visiting those two places, I decided that I had done an adequate amount of exploring for the day and it was time to go to a place that I knew was a fantastic place. I also knew that if I did any more exploring, I would not have enough daylight to enjoy my very favorite Vermont place. The Ledges West out of Battleboro on Rt. 9, over Hogback Mountain (home of the hundred mile view), left on route 100 and left again to the Ledges. For some people with distorted sense of values, it is easier to say "Go to Mount Snow Ski Area, go south on Rt. 100 across Rt. 9 and you are there. It was the same Tuesday that I had gone to Scott Bridge when I ended up at the Ledges. There must have been about two or three dozen people there. Some had ski boats, rowboats or canoes. The rest were either swimming or pretending to be lizards on the hot rocks (not real hot, but comfortable). I stayed at the Ledges for the rest of the day. What a wonderful place it is. The capacity of the area is totally dependent upon the water level of the lake. It was sort of high when I was there, but that only meant that the people were more strung out along the shore. The nice part of the limited area during high water is the same as being in a hot spring. That is, everybody is sort of in the same place, so there is opportunity to meet others who are enjoying the place.
While I was wandering the Green Mountains of Vermont, other SunTree folks were wandering in the same vicinity, but over a much larger range. Our SunTree members who are former Avalon members took a trip where they visited not only their old West Virginia club, but they rented Aliner camping trailer and did some visiting other clubs (adding validity to being members of a “travel” club). They spend two months visiting many nudist parks including:
As if that were not enough, they participated in the Eastern Naturists Gathering at Eastover in June. They got back home just in time to show up at our 13 August SunTree event in El Paso They then joined the other SunTree participants at DeAnza Springs Resort in California to take part in the Western Gathering. Can’t accuse them of being “stay-at-homes”.
The weather was perfect on 13 August for the potluck and swim event in El Paso. Some complained that with the cloudy, rainy season weather that the pool was not warm enough, but the newsletter editor felt that it was perfect. Those who disagreed had a warm, comfortable hot tub to thaw out with.
SunTree was adequately represented at the Western Naturist Gathering with ten participating members, five of which went on to participate in the field trip to Black's Beach on the final day of the event on Sunday. Before I describe any of the events of the gathering, I wish to mention the efficient and friendly efforts of the staff at DeAnza Springs Resort and the fact that the success of this gathering can, in a large part be credited to their efforts and their attitude. I want, also to mention the friendship of the San Diego Camping Bares. The energetic efforts all of the Black's Beach Bares certainly did add to the success of this gathering and made the field trip to Black's Beach an interesting and fun event. There is no room in this newsletter to give a complete report on the gathering nor to name all of the organizations (let alone the individuals) whose efforts contributed to the positive experience of the gathering. If you have never been to a gathering, you must change that soon. The gatherings are full of opportunities for meeting the people from throughout the country (and beyond) who are exerting great efforts to make clothing optional recreation an acceptable part of society. These people do not work in the interest of the Naturist Society and its members, but for all people who want to participate in nude recreation, even if they are not members of any club or organization. The structure of the gathering allows you to participate in workshops and in sporting events based upon your own desires. The workshops included serious subjects like club organization, introducing people to nude recreation and less serious subject like beer making (though that can get serious), yoga, photography and a number of hobbies. Of course you can "vege out" by the pool with a book if you want to. There were nights of dancing with a live band and a night of karioke (something that I normally hate) which was really enjoyable. Every morning, there was a Naturist Naturalist hike on the grounds of the resort and the nearby state park. The resort is located in a gorge which has adequate natural water and obvious remains of campsites and village sites of the aboriginal people of the vicinity. There are many signs of the work areas, food preparation and pictographs remaining of these communities. Every morning, there was a Naturist Naturalist hike on the grounds of the resort and the nearby state park. The resort is located in a gorge that has adequate natural water and obvious remains of campsites and village sites of the aboriginal people of the vicinity. There are many signs of the work areas, food preparation and pictographs remaining of these communities. On the hike, we got to look over the remnants of and old train wreck of the Carrizo Gorge Railroad that occurred way back in April of 2005 (I recall that it was covered by CNN). It was a great time. I think that all of the SunTree participants will agree.
3 - 4 September I am asking that all who are considering the possibility of participating in that event to leave their name and phone number on the answering machine at the SunTree telephone number. We will establish a calling tree so that you may be notified of any changes in the event plans. Call the SunTree number and leave your name and a way to contact you on the answering machine channel 2. If you have a cellular phone, you might also call the SunTree number from your turn-off of I-25 to check on any late condition changes. It will be posted on channel 2 of the answering machine (call the number, wait for the answering machine pickup, instead of entering "1" after the initial greeting, enter "2" for the latest information). 17 - 18 September El Paso Potluck and Soak This will be a potluck event, so plan on bringing an entrée, side dish or snack for yourself and the others at this event.
Yet Another month for planetary pairing Venus and Jupiter have been building up for their great duet all during August. The major performance is in early September. Those of us who went to the Western Naturist Gathering at DeAnza Springs Resort got an excellent view of the preparation for this event in a beautiful setting. If, after your evening meal, you would have walked out of the DeAnza dining room onto the covered patio area, you would have seen the post sunset sky still bright in early twilight behind the mountains to the west. Since the swimming pool was normally empty at that time, there were no ripples in the water and the western sky was brightly reflected in the pool. The bright lights of Venus and Jupiter along with their star-friend were seen in the sky and in the pool reflection. The view was fantastic. Venus and Jupiter are still just as striking in early September as they hover very close together on the first, low in the southwest in fading evening twilight (that bright star to the left of them is Spica). They are joined on the sixth by the crescent Moon. Virgo's blue star Spica gets in on the action too, just below Venus. By month's end, Jupiter has sunk too low to be easily seen. The big news is Mars, which again doubles in brightness and breaks the magnitude -1 barrier (I don't want to give away any secrets, but just wait till next month when it will double its brightness again). Up before 10:00 PM at midmonth, it stops its eastward motion and begins retrograding among the stars of Aries. Darkness lengthens at its fastest annual rate, by three minutes nightly in most locations. Autumn begins with the equinox on 22 September at 4:23 PM MDT. As far as other sights are concerned, there are two very bright stars in the sky (these are real stars, not planets). Around 9 PM early in September (right after twilight in late September) you can find the bright star Arcturus shining brightly above the western horizon. At the same time, look straight up to the highest point in the sky and you can see Vega. It is also very bright. If you like annular eclipses of the Sun, you need to make your plans for the October eclipse. We will not be able to see it here, so you will need to book a flight to Europe or Africa. Book early to get cheap tickets. © 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Winter 2012 |
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Prowling the back roads of the Green Mountains
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