Hail to the leaf

[Times photo: Scott Keeler] The mist of an early October morning floats through the Green Mountains behind the Battenkill Farm in West Arlington, Vt.

By BETTY LOWRY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 7, 2001

In October, New England bursts with color and with seasonal festivals.

If all the words written about autumn were strung together, they could circle the globe and come back to the scarlet hills and white clapboard villages of New England. Yet words fail.

How to explain the rush that begins when the first tree branches explode into crimson on the horizon? Or the hush that fills onlookers as the valleys turn to gold? How to describe the old-fashioned celebrations of harvest that break all the stereotypes of Yankee reserve?

While maples are the scarlet of autumn, the deeper reds belong to staghorn sumac and northern red oak. White ash turns purple. Basswood, beech and elm are among the many yellows. If there's a theme song to the season, it might be Hail to the Leaf!

[Times photo: Scott Keeler] Fall colors frame the First Congregational Church in Bennington, Vt.; buried in its graveyard is the poet Robert Frost.

Across southern New England, they say, a frost will ensure a double rainbow of color, with the second and best arriving the third week of October. Frost or not, the coasts come to flare in time to coincide with jack-o-lantern carving contests and roadside stands offering maple syrup by the gallon, apples by the bushel and fresh-pressed cider by the mug.

Inevitably there are chowder fests, in which area chefs compete in seaside towns such as Mystic, Conn., and the proceeds benefit local charities.

You have to see all of this color and activity to appreciate it, and here, your viewing choices are almost as numerous as the leaf colors:

You can fly up and drive around, join a package tour, set out as a backpacker on the jewel-colored Appalachian Trail or launch a canoe on Golden Pond.

Perhaps you would rather follow other mountain bikers along the back roads of Connecticut's Litchfield Hills, circling lakes with Native American names or going inn to inn through the highlands of central Vermont.

Train buffs climb aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad as it chugs through New Hampshire on an eye-popping route from North Conway to Crawford Notch. Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express and Vermonter carry leaf-peepers out of Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station.

Rising above it all are hot air balloons and gliders that dip and soar like birds of prey.

In upper Maine, the Connecticut lakes and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom region, autumn comes in mid to late September. By the first week of October, the Green and White mountain chains have lost their identities to red and gold, and the seasonal events begin.

There is an outbreak of quilt shows, hayrides and turkey shoots. In New Hampshire, events include the 11th annual Harvest Festival of Crafts in Farmington Oct. 19-21 and the Pumpkin Festival in Keene Oct. 27.

Meanwhile, the Berkshire Hills and New Hampshire's Monadnock corner will be crowded with browsers in the overflowing antique shops, their village greens buried under showers of new gold leaves. Maine's classic windjammers will be making their final runs of the year, stopping at islands fragrant with pine and purple with beach plums.

From about this weekend, woodlands of the Connecticut River valley burst like a magician's bouquet.

[Times photo: Old Sturbridge Village] Visitors admire an ox-drawn cart at Old Sturbridge Village, in Massachusetts.

And the 63-mile Mohawk Trail (a.k.a. Massachusetts Route 2, from Orange to Williamstown) is a slash of color. Leave it only to visit the new Museum of Contemporary Art in the revitalized mill town of North Adams, and to see the 18th and 19th century houses of Historic Deerfield.

South of Boston, out on Nantucket Island, a glut of cranberries forced the cancellation of the annual Cranberry Weekend. However, Nantucket is holding a monthlong Fall on Nantucket, with an ongoing arts festival and the annual chowder fest on Saturday.

Old Sturbridge in south-central Massachusetts, an 1830s make-believe village with authentic structures from New England, will have a 19th century style Harvest Weekend Oct. 20 and 21, with such period pastimes as horse-and-buggy rides and baking gingerbread.

In Rhode Island it is time to pick the grapes and taste the wine in Little Compton, to see the Autumnfest in Woonsocket and to join in the monthlong Harvest-by-the-Sea Festival in Newport, where the mansions of yesteryear's rich boast gardens full of prize chrysanthemums. The Autumnfest began Saturday and ends Monday.

Rhode Island's state tree is the red maple, which tells you something about the color waiting in the region's southeast corner.

As the days get shorter, chlorophyll production in the trees comes to an end. The green retreats, revealing the reds, yellows, oranges, golds and purples that have been there all along. The seasonal brilliance depends on a magic balance of rainy summer and cold autumn, and whether there is an early killing frost.

-- Freelance writer Betty Lowry lives in Massachusetts.

If you go

On the trail of fall foliage The time for foliage speculation in New England is almost over, and various hotlines are advising leaf-peepers on the state of foliage.

Expect mild sunny days, but bring a jacket for crisp evenings and an umbrella, just in case.

WHERE TO STAY: Country inns and B&Bs fill up early, but in New Hampshire and Vermont you can nearly always find a room or even a condo suite in a not-yet-in-season ski resort.

WHERE TO DINE: From the dining rooms of country inns to old-fashioned village diners to church suppers (watch for signs posted in general stores) you will find hearty food freshly prepared. Prices are low to moderate in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and moderate to expensive in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: For maps, times and dates of events, contact tourism agencies in these states; all phone numbers listed are toll-free:

Connecticut: Call 1-800-282-6863; the Web site is www.CTBound.org.

Massachusetts: 1-800-227-6277; www.massvacation.com.

Maine: 1-888-624-6345; www.visitmaine.com.

New Hampshire: 1-800-386-4664, www.visitnh.gov.

Rhode Island: 1-800-556-2484; www.visitrhodeisland.com.

Vermont: 1-800-837-6668; www.1-800-VERMONT.com.

For local foliage reports and updated foliage maps, visit www.weather.com or call the U.S. Forest Service hotline toll-free at 1-800-354-4595. Also check with the Foliage Network, (518) 347-0149, e-mail info@foliagenetwork.com; the foliage map, updated with reports from hundreds of volunteers, is at www.foliagenetwork.com.

For Amtrak schedules call toll-free 1-800-872-7245; www.amtrak.com.

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