There’s a quiet murmured question working its way around The Valley this week, last week and the prior week and it has to do with Vermont’s fifth and messiest season.
That’s right. Mud Season. We will go ahead and tempt fate and ask that question this week. Are we going to skip mud season this year? It’s usually well upon us by now, fender deep, thick, viscous, pernicious and the dictator of our travels.
On my road, there’s a very active neighborhood email chain that is used to discuss everything from lost dogs, bears, whether the road is icy or plowed or blocked by a stuck car. Mud season is a very active time for this neighborhood email chain. This year, we’ve got nada. We’ve got so much nada that the woman who started and loosely manages it (and has been away in warmer, sunnier and less muddy climes for two months) reached out by text to ask if there’d been any mud.
The Valley Reporter received a letter to the editor this week from some former residents who moved to Tennessee. They still read The Valley Reporter and said they missed hearing about mud season this year.
There were some bus route changes that the school district announced, due to mud, but they were not extensive, certainly not as extensive as in year’s prior and they’re already over. We’ve hardly had to monitor overnight temps to see if the road froze at night leaving a navigable morning window.
What gives Mother Nature? We’re holding our collective breath, wondering if we’re going to escape Mud Season this year. Our undercarriages, wheels and brakes are holding their breath as well.
Why are we not hearing about the far reaches of Plunkton Road and Center Fayston Road and Strong Road and Tucker Hill Road and South Hill Road and River Road?
At my house, we’ve hardly dared discuss this other than to note that the plentiful rain and warmer temps this week would assuredly bring on whatever muddy morass we’re going to get.
Do we really just get to skip Mud Season this year? That will be a first for me in many decades. Does anyone else remember a year without a Mud Season?
