At this stage, choosing which towns to visit is a bit like throwing darts at a map. To get the most out of the Fall foliage season, I decide to go north early on, moving south as the foliage fades. Today, I decided to start out in Johnson.

As I drive through Stowe and Morrisville toward Johnson, I'm surprised by the number of out of state leaf peepers on a Monday afternoon. The traffic is annoying, and as I head to the northwest, I can see the cloud cover thickening. By the time I reach Johnson, it's pouring rain. I see a sign for Waterville, so I decide to continue driving, hoping that the rain will let up. I can always come back to Johnson.

I enter the town of Waterville and notice what looks to be the center of town off to the left. There's a covered bridge down Church Street, but I'll come back to that. I continue driving though town. I stop and photograph two more covered bridges; I am not usually drawn to things like covered bridges that are so often photographed by others, but clearly, Waterville is about covered bridges. So after photographing the Kissing Bridge, I head back to town.

Once again I pass through town and turn up a side road on the left. I drive for a while, the road is narrow and winding, and as I'm heading further off track not finding anything I want to shoot, it's raining again, so I decide to turn around and head back to town. It always amazes me the things I see when I turn the car around. The large barn I passed on the way out didn't strike me at the time. But when I approach it from the other side, its glorious white splendor; I have a thing for white barns, stops me in my tracks. I pull off the road as far as I can and head into the field behind the barn looking for the best vantage point, which of course lands me in the middle of a small stream. Fortunately I wore my waterproof hiking boots today.

Finally, having shot over twenty frames of the white barn, I head back to town where I park my car in front of the general store. I photograph the white church with the town green in the foreground, and then start toward the covered bridge.

I'm greeted by one of the town's residents, Bob, also a photographer, who is out walking his dogs. We talk about photography, the wonderful light, the foliage, and of course, Waterville. Bob generously leads me to a spot on his property where I can shoot the profile of the bridge. The water is high, but I'm able to climb down onto the shore using the rock steps he shows me and the support of my tripod. He later directs me to some beach areas around the river where there are beautiful rock formations and lots of turns in the water. I find the river with its brilliant foliage backdrop intriguing and spend until almost dark photographing the water.

Needless to say, I don't make it back to Johnson. Instead, I make my way home over the Smuggler's Notch road; another spectacular surprise of its own.