Tripadvisor by Laura Begley Bloom - June 12, 2024
Wilburton InnImage: Management/Tripadvisor
The last time The WeekEnder visited Manchester, Vermont, we were skiing on the local slopes and playing in the snow at The Equinox resort with a Golden Retriever named Cooper. With summer in full swing, we’re headed back to explore more of this charming corner of the Green Mountains, along with surrounding small towns like Dorset and Sunderland. The plan? To soak in the sun, enjoy great music and theater, go fly-fishing, hike, and hang out on a farm with adorable alpacas.
{Left} Will Rucker (L) and Ryan Koss (R), {Right} Geoff Grant
It was exactly this mix of awesomeness that attracted Will Rucker, the executive artistic director at the Dorset Theatre Festival, and his husband, Ryan Koss, the festival’s managing creative director. “It’s a great place to recharge and rejuvenate,” says Rucker. “Crossing the border into Vermont, I feel myself relax, and there’s a certain hill on Route 7 where you can see the Green Mountains open up.” According to Rucker, a day well spent in the Manchester area would mean you get out and get active, hit some great places to eat, “and then land on a porch somewhere, hopefully, if you’re lucky.”
Manchester is also well-known as the home of famed fishing supplier Orvis, which was founded here in 1856. Geoff Grant, the merchant at Orvis Adventures, says his twenty-something friends who live in big cities sometimes question why he lives in a small, quiet town like Manchester—a place with only two traffic lights. But for this outdoor enthusiast, it’s a nobrainer. "My argument is that it’s similar to places like Jackson Hole or Bozeman or Park City," he says. "Even though you’re not going to a 12,000- foot elevation mountain, in summer you can be downhill biking within a stone’s throw. You can be fishing in 10 minutes. You can golf at four different courses. You can hike. If you’re into an active outdoor lifestyle, you can do so many different things in one weekend without traveling far.”
Anne and Don Pollard (L), Jenny Lin (R)
But nature isn’t the only draw. “It is such a creative place with so much to do, arts-wise. There are galleries everywhere. There’s the Lincoln family home, Hildene, where a wild organ plays when you go in. And of course, there are all the amazing festivals,” says Rucker. The Dorset Theatre Festival has been hosting world-class summer performances for 47 years and is known as an incubator for new plays and playwrights. And then there’s the Manchester Music Festival, which brings acclaimed musicians from around the globe and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this season. For the festival’s new director, Jenny Lin—who is also a classical pianist and splits her time between Manchester and New York City—the rich cultural heritage was only part of the attraction. “The air is absolutely amazing. You just can’t believe it,” she says. “I want to bottle it up and bring it back to New York.”
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With everything this area has going for it, you might find yourself dreaming of owning your own little piece. That’s what happened to Don and Anne Pollard, who came here over 30 years ago on a family ski trip. They loved it so much they ended up buying the 70-acre Hill Farm, just five miles outside Manchester. Originally, the farm was only a family retreat, but they eventually transformed it into a boutique resort, complete with a 200-year-old renovated inn, cottages for rent, and a mile-long stretch of the legendary Battenkill River, where Orvis-approved guides will take you fly-fishing. “I’m probably the most unintentional inn owner that you will ever meet,” says Don Pollard. But he clearly knows what he’s doing. Hill Farm also has a farm-to-table restaurant that has become the local hot spot, thanks to chef Austin Poulin, who used to work at the acclaimed Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the Hudson Valley. Oh, and did we mention the farm’s herd of alpacas? “They’re very lovable, gentle creatures,” says Pollard. “Guests like to feed them apples that we supply and take photos with them.”
And though you might not be able to buy your own farm, on a weekend getaway you can still get those alpaca photo ops and lungfuls of that fresh Vermont air.
–Laura Begley Bloom, New York’s Senior WeekEnder Writer