Unspoiled Scenery for All Seasons

Third- and fourth-generation Vermonters often call it Mad River Valley, because the lovely little river flows below the summits of two Sugarbush mountains and Mad River Glen. But to everyone else hereabouts it’s just plain Sugarbush.

What’s more important, it’s probably one of the most unspoiled rural areas in the state, the latter-day buildings either hidden in the maples, poplars and elms or designed to fit so comfortably into the Christmas-card scenery that nobody takes offense.

The old covered bridges of weathered wood, magnificent mountain foliage, white-steepled churches and fine dining are still here. Only now Sugarbush is becoming less just a fashionable ski resort and more a year-round holiday destination for visitors of all ages.

Who can forget the charm of a wordless beer commercial filmed here at Christmastime, an old-fashioned sleigh gliding with its bundled occupants through the quiet night on pristine snow? The sense of tradition and natural beauty waits for you here any month of the year.

Here to there: Fly USAir, United or People Express to Burlington, best to rent a car for the 45 minutes onward, as bus service isn’t the greatest. A shuttle bus runs between Sugarbush and Sugarbush North.

How long/how much? A week minimum is best for skiing three major areas, about three days if you’re here for exploring or for the foliage. Prices are moderate for food and lodging. Come in any of the four seasons, natives calling April the fifth, mud season, but we were here in April once and it was beautiful.

Getting settled in: Inns and farms, each seeming more charming than the next, are the way to go here and they’re sprinkled throughout the valley, most of them offering rooms with and without baths. We took the latter twice with no inconvenience.

Beaver Pond Farm (Warren, Vt. 05674; $80 B&B; double with bath, $74 without) is a restored farmhouse on a meadow overlooking several beaver ponds. Golf on an adjoining Robert Trent Jones course, cross-country skiing out front door in winter.

Comfortable rooms and breakfasts absolutely fantastic, prepared by owner, Mrs. Hansen, who gives cooking classes. Fresh juice, baked eggs on leeks with tomato sauce, sausage, muffins, homemade pastries and fruit compote will get even the sluggards going. Cider, setups and hors d’oeuvres before the fireplace in nippy weather.

Lareau Farm (Box 563, Waitsfield, Vt. 05673; $80 B&B; with, $70 without) was built in 1832, a sprawling farmhouse with deer browsing outside the back windows, antique-filled rooms, homemade bedspreads, big black stove in kitchen where breakfast is prepared: baked apples, French toast with maple syrup, homemade biscuits and other such fare. River runs by front door, a Huck Finn swimming hole down the road.

Valley Inn (Box 8, Waitsfield, Vt. 05673; $60 B&B; with, $50 without, a bit higher in winter), family run, large living room with fireplace, lots of magazines and books. Small, simple rooms upstairs, many of them set up for families, cozy pub in basement for guests, also a sauna, hot tub on back porch.

Regional food and drink: Vermont’s apples come at you in every way, shape and form: baked, stewed, pies, pastries, cider or just crisp and juicy to gnaw. Brook trout is a staple, as are chanterelle mushrooms gathered from the woods. Fiddlehead ferns are a delicacy in the spring, poached or steamed with an indefinable woodsy flavor, combined with onions or garlic or used in salads.

Maple syrup graces pancakes and desserts, gallons of it in the smallest cafes, on sale everywhere for a king’s ransom. Vermont Cheddar goes well before or after meals, a pleasant surprise.

Moderate-cost dining: Tucker Hill Lodge (Waitsfield) has been reviewed in scads of Eastern newspapers and magazines for its superb food. Every day the owner Zeke Church hand-scribes a new menu with the likes of venison-cranberry pate, breast of Vermont duck with green peppercorns and ginger, veal Normandy with Calvados, pasta dressed with planked trout. Handsome bedrooms also available here on a half-pension basis.

The Common Man (Warren) knocks your eyes out with a decor combination that really shouldn’t work: a truly magnificent old Vermont barn of hand-hewn rafters between timbered walls, huge fireplace, candle-lit tables and gigantic crystal chandeliers. Soft classical music to ease you into an eclectic menu beautifully prepared: marvelous escargot, bundnerfleish, classic cioppino Livornese.

Beggar’s Banquet (Waitsfield) is perfect for excellent and inexpensive casual meals. The soups, salads and daily specials brought us back several times for lunch.

Going first-class: The Battleground (Vermont 17, Waitsfield 05673; $105 for two-bedroom condo summers, $150 winters) is an elegant town house-resort community that’s hidden in 60 acres of woodland, entered through its own covered bridge. Spacious decks, fieldstone fireplaces, fully equipped kitchens, washers, dryers and just about anything else you can think of make this worth the price.

Brooks running through the grounds, tennis and paddle tennis, swimming pool, three- and four-bedroom places also available. Just minutes from all three mountains, Battleground is as idyllic as one could hope for.

On your own: Winter here, of course, means fine downhill and cross-country skiing, but spring, summer and fall all have their own rewards. Fall foliage is world-famous, summer perfect for hiking, bicycling, tennis, golf, swimming in rivers, lakes and ponds. Fishing, riding and canoeing are popular, while antique sleuths are everywhere. Soaring has become one of the big attractions here.

If you’d like to know all that can be done with sheep and lambs, drop into the Three Bags Full shop at Waitsfield where they raise their own, process the wool and leather, then sell everything but “Baaaa.”

For more information: Call Sugarbush Valley Tourism at (802) 583-2381, or write (Sugarbush Valley, Vt. 05674) for a colorful booklet on the valley, its sights and attractions.