An early start for us, in the car by 10:00 for our hike in the Green Mountains National Forest. The Lye Brook Falls Trail is 4.6 miles round trip along a forested trail with plenty of rocks and a few small streams to cross on the rocks to get to the falls. It is considered a wilderness trail and is all uphill toward the falls with an elevation gain of 740 feet. We arrived at the falls in an hour and 10 minutes, spent 30 minutes resting at and admiring the falls then 1 hour downhill to the trail head. After our picnic lunch at the trail head we visited Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home. The Hildene, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a 412 acre estate with a 24 room, 8000 square foot Georgian Revival Mansion built in 1903 for Robert Todd Lincoln, the only child of Abraham Lincoln to survive to adulthood. R. Lincoln and his family moved into the home in 1905 and it was occupied by the family until 1975 when the last descendant died. The estate was donated and is now preserved. We toured the house and the formal gardens behind the house. The house is located between the Green Mountains and the Taconic Mountains with beautiful views in every direction. The estate includes an observatory, an animal farm, a vegetable farm, hiking trails and a restored 1903 Pullman Palace Car. R. Lincoln was general counsel for the Pullman Palace Car Company founded in 1862 by George Pullman. Upon George Pullman’s death in 1897, R. Lincoln became the company’s president and served as its chairman from 1911 to 1922. The estate has a nubian goat farm and makes goat cheese. The goats are milked at 3:30 am and 3:30 pm and we just so happened to arrive at the goat farm at 3:15 so we got to see the milking in process. After walking on some trails at Hildene including on the floating boardwalk, we drove the town of Manchester, lots of hotels and restaurants. A cute little town made for tourists. A fun day and 19,000 steps.
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