From Gulf to Valley

In the distance, you can make out where the water emerges from the ice at the turn toward a a more rapid and shallow reach. 

Upriver from the bridge an open lead (seen above) along the left bank continued underneath, then disappeared.  A balmy 16 degrees this morning, and snowing again.

This afternoon, I followed another tributary along most of its length.  Gulf Stream flows into Barnard Brook not far from where the latter joins the Ottauquechee.  Gulf Stream twins Barnard Brook until they join up.  Both originate in that town's highlands. The Brook carved out the valley home to Stage Road, running right by the Suicide Six ski lodge.  The Stream originates in the aptly named Barnard Gulf.  I followed this narrow defile, along a side road off Rt. 12 called Gulf Road, crossing from the White River watershed into Ottauquechee territory.  Having crested a hill, I drove down alongside a stream a few feet wide, with the hills steeply rising on both sides.  Gulf Stream created the path taken by Rt. 12 all the way down to Woodstock.  The bridges crossing it grow longer and longer as it makes its way to join the Brook.