Last Friday, I drove as far up the Ottauquechee watershed as I could, following River Road west past the Sherburne Library and Killington Town Hall. I took a very steep dead-end dirt road up Wolf Hill, which rises at the end of the gentle valley River Road valley. The watercourse which evolves into the river is down on the right somewhere in this picture. I had neither the will or footwear to bushwhack my way to find it. I thought this was as close as I would get to the headwaters and so mused about the mysterious beginnings of this river I sought to know.
I did not quite have it right. Driving back down Wolf Hill Road in low gear, I turned right to take the last piece of River Road, heading north toward Rt. 100. My map suggested that a northerly branch of the headwaters might be visible until it reached its source. Just short of Rt. 100, I saw through the trees on some land marked "Private" what looked like a small pond. I decided this must be the head of the river. Beyond Rt. 100, the map shows a shift in topography and the beginning of a different watershed.
The stream emerged from the private patch to follow River Road. As I drove back down the hill, the infant Ottauquechee flanked the road, little more than a drainage ditch.
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