It's called Smuggler's Notch because it was the pathway for cattle and other contraband to be smuggled into the US from Canada, and it is only a one-hour-and-change drive to the Canadian border. It now connects two ski resorts--Smugglers Notch to the North and Stowe to the south.

It is designated a scenic road, in part because it is only a lane and a half wide-no trucks or buses allowed. One must go slow because of the hairpin turns, but also to avoid a collision with oncoming traffic. Because of the endless switchbacks, the driver can't enjoy the view....dodging truck sized boulders that jut up here and there making the road a granite obstacle course is not something one can ignore to look up and see the view.

Inside the 1/2 mile south of the notch the trees close in forming a tunnel of elderly ash. It's well past peak this high up, the trees are virtually bare...but ominously gorgeous...a few dozen leaves cling to each, listless with the exhaustion of an overlong summer and well into the journey from yellowed, to dry, to the ground. And yet, they cling with a tenacity that suggests a competition to see which can hold out the longest, perhaps knowing that if they last to the first big snow, there will be no cruel tires to crush them into dust for at least 4 months.

Since the sun is already behind the peak of Mt. Mansfield to the Southwest, in the half light around the next bend one half expects to find a headless horseman warming up for an evening's ride. This is not a road you travel after dusk or before dawn. EVER.

At the last scenic pullover spot, the trees clear and the valley falls away on the northern side and one can't help but wonder how the cattle ever made it up this side (the southern side, while striking, is a more gentle slope.) And then one drives down the northern slope and sees how they did it...clinging to the northeastern edge, not quite at the ridge line. But steep? Let's just say the brakes will never be the same...but heck, it's a rental, right? :-)

It's one of those roads that your ears pop while going up and while coming down, where the adrenaline pumps and once traversed, leaving knuckles aching and stiff with the soreness of early arthritis--or perhaps just the natural result of a 3 mile death grip.

Tomorrow it rains and I'll have none of it....But Wednesday, it only seems right to traverse it from North to South...

If only I could take pictures and drive...