This episode of Vermont Edition also included a conversation with VTDigger reporter Peter D'Auria about plans for a and some possible updates to .
Your shoes are soggy. Your car wheels are spinning. You're not sure if you should dress for sun, rain, or even snow. Yes, it's mud season.
Some Vermonters like Keegan Tierney, the 's director of field programs, approach mud season with optimism and energy. Others, like Vermont Edition host Mikaela Lefrak, drudge their way through the sludge each year. Vermont's state geologist Ben DeJong, University of Vermont geology professor Paul Bierman, along with mud-loving Tierney explained how this season affects our landscape, and ways to make the best of it.
Learn about the region's geology
Next time your tires get stuck in the mud, don't just blame it on your unpaved road. Vermont's bedrock is predominately made of silt and clay 鈥� the same ingredients as...mud.
DeJong explained that Vermont's land originated in a shallow sea to our east hundreds of millions of years ago. "Those silts and clays were turned into rock and then shoved up as our Green Mountains," he said. "It's safe to say that if Vermont was built on all sandstone, and we had abundant, well-drained sand and gravel, we might see very different road conditions each March."
Hit the trails
Despite the seasonal slop, some are already lacing up their hiking boots. But before you hit the trail, check to make sure the trail itself and the road that leads to it are both open. A number of roads up to popular trails, like Camel's Hump Road, are currently closed to non-resident traffic.
Tierney urged people to obey signs about road and trail closures to avoid getting stuck. He recommended trails at lower elevations. "This early in the season, starting lower in the Champlain Valley you're going to find things that are much drier," he said. "They dry out progressively heading up the hills in elevation."
Notice the details
On 开云体育's Instagram, people wrote in about their favorite parts of mud season. Many focused on the easy-to-miss elements of this time of year: spotting crocus blooms, setting up seeds under grow lights indoors, and the pungent-but-fresh smell of the air. "Even when it's sort of stinky," one person wrote, "it's a sign of spring."
Stop hibernating
Mud season is a good time to shake off your solitary winter habits and start getting back out in the world. One caller from Huntington said she and her neighbors got together for a progressive brunch after a particularly horrific mud season. They walk up and down the Huntington hills to each others' houses, enjoying a new at each stop. "We've made it into an occasion," she said.
They've been brunching together now for more than 20 years.
Get boiling
If you have maple taps of your own, you don't need this list 鈥� you're already busy!
If you don't have your own taps, there are still lots of opportunities to celebrate Vermont's sweetest product. for one, is coming up March 22-23. Sugar makers across the state open their sugarhouses to visitors for the weekend.
"We live in the city and don't have any buckets," Bierman said. Instead, he takes the time to go out and visit friends who do. This time of year also brings up cherished memories for him of visiting sugar houses with his kids, who usually would end up knee-deep in mud.
Broadcast live on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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