All aboard Vermont’s nature trail

NICOLA ISEARD and her young family make the most of the great outdoors, paddleboarding and canoeing in America’s famous Green Mountain State

THE SUN was just starting its surrender into night, throwing pinks and oranges across the lake. The water was so still it could’ve been mistaken for glass if it weren’t for our canoe – and the family of Canadian geese following us – sending ripples across its surface.

“Maybe the geese want to come on board!” exclaimed Dougie, my boating buddy and four-year-old son, from the bow seat. I wouldn’t blame them. A sunset canoe across Lake Bomoseen – views of the Taconic Mountains beyond as they slowly turn to silhouettes – is one of the finer ways to end a Vermontian day.

It was day two of our week-long family holiday at Lake Bomoseen. Covering 2,400 acres, the lake is the largest that lies entirely within Vermont’s boundaries.

It is still relatively unknown to overseas visitors, overshadowed by its bigger and better-known neighbour Lake Champlain, two hours’ drive north, which straddles the CanadaUS border. But we’d heard rumours about this lake, with its epic views, sunsets and water-sports, which in its 1920s heyday attracted movie big-names, from Walt Disney to Laurence Olivier.

We were staying at Lake Bomoseen Lodge on the eastern shore. It has a mix of bedrooms, apartments and cottages; some just steps from the water, others set back among the trees. All have been recently renovated thanks to the Lodge’s new ownership.

We opted for a lake-view apartment, ideal for the four of us (“us” being me, my husband Chrigl, Dougie and his one-year-old brother PJ), with two double bedrooms and a large and airy open-plan kitchen/lounge/dining room. The “lake-view” part was courtesy of our balcony – not that we spent much time looking at it from up there. We were too busy playing on, or in, it.

The Lodge has its own private beach, where, laid out on the grassy shore, were free-to-use kayaks, canoes, paddleboards and lifejackets. We’d barely been there 48 hours and I’d lost count of how many flotation devices we’d cumulatively used.

You might have thought that after our journey (Bomoseen is a five-hour drive from New York

and the closest international airport) we’d have been somewhat less energised. But, the truth is, the journey was a breeze. We had split the drive, staying overnight at the charming Harwood Hill Motel in Bennington, an hour south. And the drive had proved to be a highlight in itself, taking us through classic Vermont landscape: postcard-worthy colonial houses and red farmhouses set among miles of rolling pasture, meadows and forest. It’s no mystery why it’s called the Green State.

We had been somewhat perturbed as we arrived on Route 30 to find that the lake-side road runs straight through Lake Bomoseen Lodge’s grounds. But it doesn’t affect the ambiance – in fact, it means you can just hop in the car to go exploring at any time. Which is just what we did.

Some mornings we would wake early, grab breakfast (an all-you-cancarry spread of cereals and bagels was laid out in the lodge’s welcome hut for guests to take away) and go for a drive around the lake, ogling the variety of water-side homes that pepper the shore.

Other mornings we’d head for blueberry pancakes at the Birdseye Diner in nearby Castleton, before stocking up on groceries from Brown’s Orchard Farmstand, which sells everything from fresh farm produce to