The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-04
PATHFINDER FOLLOWING
 CHAMPLAIN VALLEY
Green Fountains Without Trouble,

The Glidden scouts in the official Stevens Six Pilot car reached Bur- lingtOn, Vt. after a run down through the mountains from Montpelier. Tues day morning the scouts were on the way up the historic and picturesque Champlain Valley on the way to Mon treal.
 While in Montpelier Monday the officials of the A. A. A. Touring Bu- reau spent the day in inspecting hills proposed or suggested by Vermont motorists as ideal for the hill climb event which will be included in the programme of the Glidden Tour. AL though there is no question but that some of the hills of Montpelier and Vermont in general would offer all the gradient obstacles desired, neither Howard Longstreth nor S. M. Butler, chairman respectively of the Touring and Contest Bureau have announced what hill in the whole proposed route seemed the most likely to be selected for the climbing event.
 The journey through Vermont up the Connecticut Valley from Spring field, Vt, to White River, thence the White and it's tributary through the mountains to Montpelier which they reached Sunday evening was the most interesting days work the path finders have had. The roads of Vermont, by the way, have been greatly inn
  ring one or two spots of mud left from the melting of the snow which covered the mountain and valley, but ten days ago, thesroutes through the mountains have Oeen ideal.
 In Williamstown Gulch for in memories. This gulch is famous the state over as one of the places which is different" at all seasons from the rest of the surrounding region. On Sunday afternoon for example, the scouts found some spots slightly dus- ty, then. at the bend of the road a cool breeze would meet them and looking up an uneXposed gulley they would see a sizable Snowbank in which, here and there was a patch of ice. A picturesque place with the, hills. ridges and more distant peaks glimmering in the brilliant sunshine one minute and almost gray the next as great billowy cloud shot over the land. The tourist who knows Vermont with it's mountains and valley, it's rushing, mbling, beautiful rivers and streams which weave their ways back and forth and the brilliant Italian skies. with great billowy clouds of fleece passing and repassing or lying over the distant peak, can we'll imagine.
 When by three Monday afternoon, Messrs. Butler, Longstreth and Fer
 
 data the car was again started for Ot- tawa via. Burlington. The way lay down through the main range of the Green Mountains following the route cut by the Winooski River several years ago" as the geologists tell fns Here the road conditions were. sur prisingiy good considering the season and the rain of the afternoon.
 The wagon road follows the river, the railroad follows the river, every one follows the river and the only other way through except footing it Ca task for an Alpine mountaineer) across the ridges which tower up on either side would be by aeroplane but we've not yet heard of any aviator anxious to attempt that pass with old Mansfield's long sober profile to the north and CamePs Hump sticking up like sore thumb in the south. Then there is that superlative view from F'rench's Hill where the whole range to the east seems spread in one un- broken sweep. Forty miles of this sort of scenery from Montpelier to Burlington and farms, cultivated 1ages and towns scattered along the route. AS the pathfinders rode down in the steady Stevens Six men follow ing ploughs stopped to gaze. Here oxen hauling logs and cord wood made way for the car, while
 
 their occupants smiled at the nervy tourists. who had faith enough in the car and its motor to try the roads which tempt few automobilists at this season of the year. Later the shrewd entertains thousands of curing cars every year and that is why that state has been so busy at road betterment these last two years; they know that a crowd of tourists leave money all along the road side and that there is a reasonable profit to be reaped from each seasons tou-
 In Burlington the Glidden Scouts and their Stevens-Duryea Pilot Car rested Monday night and it rained. It rained exceedingly; and then some; so that going up the Champlain Val ley they may encounter mud; but ev- en at that the trail will not be over difficult, for these days the going is easier than it was in the old days when Indian war parties from time immemorial trailed up and down Champlain to and from the region which Is now Canada where lies Mon treal and Ottawa the objective and end of the Pathfinding tour.