JEFFERSONVILLE, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s bottling day at Smugglers’ Notch Distillery, with vodka on the production line. Vodka is the legacy liquor of this Jeffersonville operation, and the first spirit owner Jeremy Elliott ever made after jumping from a career in pharmaceutical science.

“My mind works very well with science… chemistry,” Elliott explains. “What could I do with my skill set that I currently had?”

When his old job announced they were closing up shop, he was determined to find a way to stay in Vermont while using his science skills. Turns out, alcohol was the answer.

“My goal was to make the world’s best vodka,” Elliott says.

An ambitious goal, but one that he was determined to make happen. In 2006, he started learning the ropes of distilling, bouncing around the country to learn the trade. Shortly after, he opened up Smugglers’ Notch Distillery with his dad, Ron.

“And in 2010 we were rated 95 in the Wine Enthusiast, Double Gold World Spirits Competition… so we have the highest-rated domestic vodka still to this day in the United States,” he says.

Now, his 12 other products follow closely behind. The lineup includes rum, bourbon, whiskey, and even canned vodka cocktails. Many of them are made in their Jeffersonville distillery. The success, Elliott says, is a science. Each product goes through extensive research and development before hitting shelves.

“It’s very important that when I got to market with one of my products that it is the best it can be,” he explains.

The proof is in the performance. With a staff of 28 people, Elliott estimates these products reach 100,000 customers per year. They’re available at liquor stores throughout the Northeast, or at their six tasting rooms in Vermont.

“When people come in to visit us and they get to sample our products and take some home, they have a story that goes home with them. What we’re selling is not only spirits, but the whole Vermont experience,” he says.

Bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup sits next to the stiff drinks in their Jeffersonville tasting room, stocked next to their stiff drinks. They work closely with local producers to stock that and make their other maple mixtures.

“I have a maple bourbon, I have a maple cream liquor, I have a bourbon maple cream liquor and I have a maple gin,” Elliott says.

But the real benefit of stopping into a tasting room, aside from the experience and selection, is the education. Teaching customers about what’s in their cocktails is something Elliott is passionate about… quite a pivot from pharmaceutical science, but one that’s certainly neat.

“This journey has been wild but it’s been so gratifying as well,” Elliott says with a smile.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.

SANDGATE, Vt. (WCAX) – Police say a Vermont teen was seriously injured when she was run over by a Jeep with no one behind the wheel.

It happened Monday at about 7:30 a.m. on SE Corners Road in Sandgate.

Vermont State Police Austin Carrier, 20, of Sandgate, was driving a white 2001 Jeep Cherokee, towing a green 1994 Jeep Cherokee with a chain. Jalen Davis, 18, of Bennington, was steering the green Jeep.

Investigators say as the white Jeep started to go up a hill, the driveshaft broke and both Jeeps began rolling backward. They say both Carrier and Davis jumped out of the Jeeps they were in.

But troopers say when Davis jumped out of the green Jeep, she tripped and fell, and was run over by the white Jeep.

Police say Davis was airlifted to the Albany Medical Center with serious injuries. We don’t know the extent of her injuries or her condition.

Police say the incident and the filing of any possible charges are still under investigation.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.

Day 112:

Good ole classic post zero day. It’s probably the toughest wake up on trail to be honest. I got up at like 6:15 not particularly happy with my life, but on we go anyway. Fortunately it was pouring rain outside, so we forgo getting an early start in favor of not getting absolutely soaked. We had breakfast at the hotel around 8, and hitched a ride back to trail. We were on the road by 8:30.

The early morning was great. For a while. First of all about 10 steps back into the woods we crossed 1600 miles, which is pretty dope. After that, we had a nice stroll for a couple miles down by the side of a river. It’s always nice to walk by a river, except because of the rain it was humid and buggy. Not ideal. But eventually we turned away from the river, only to start our way into a lovely little vertical rock scramble. It wasn’t actually that bad, we made pretty quick work of it.

About an hour into the day we crossed the boarder into Vermont! Only 3 states left to go. Holy shit we’re really getting there. Unfortunately the rumors of Vermud are true. There was a mud field literally waiting for us at the boarder, and it did not let up from there. Probably not helped by the fact that it had just lured earlier. The trail turned into a literal stream at one point, so that was pretty fun to content with.

Originally we thought we were gonna have to make a decision between a shelter that was like 13 miles up and one that was like 20 miles up. We thought the 13 might be better because we got a late start, but by lunch it was clear we were moving way faster than we thought we would be. We cleared the first shelter by 2:30, and headed on the rest of the way.

The rest of the hike was certainly not easy. About a mile past the shelter we crossed a hill with a really nice view of New York (?) to the west. It was very pretty. But immediately after, we started a super steep decent down to a road. It was rocky, and steep, and wet. It was only 8/10 of a mile but it took us like 45 minutes. Don’t worry though, once we crossed the road it immediately went right back up! Ohhhhhh boy.

The climb honestly wasn’t that bad. I made the mistake of pointing out that the shelter we were staying at was half way up the climb. “It could be worse” I said. Famous last words. Not 3 minutes after I said that it started pouring on our heads. And all of a sudden we were soaked again. I swear we did this just like 2 days ago. But yeah, soon enough we were properly soaked.

How long did the rain last? Exactly as long as it took us to get to the shelter. Great! Now we can set up our tents and get dry! Except as soon as we pulled out our tents it started pouring, and they were swamped before we could do anything about it. We spent the next hour or so bouncing back and forth to the shelter, shuttling our stuff and seeing if we could salvage the tents. Eventually we decided to just stay in the shelter. It’s crowded, but everyone seems nice, so it’ll be fine.

Getting back on trail after a zero is always tough. It’s like a taste of the real world, just long enough for you to miss some things before you go again. But todays was surprisingly not bad. I think it’s because we’re getting so close to the end now that I can finally see it. And it’s getting more and more real. Absolute insanity.

Quote of the day: “Remember kids, always dip your stick first. That’s what they say!”

Today I’m grateful for rock highways, dry clothes, and german shepards.

Day 113:

Everything was still soaked when I woke up this morning. Worse than that, it was kinda chilly outside. In a normal circumstance, I would’ve had to put my wet clothes back on to keep the other set dry for a while. But I simply couldn’t bring myself to do that today. Plus it’s not supposed to rain again so I think we’ll be alright. The cold did slow me down through, it was almost 8 before I left.

The morning was started by a pretty steep uphill, followed by a long cruisy downhill. The big excitement came when I ran into a river with no way to rock hop across. I had to ford it, even with the water up to my knees. Fortunately, the one wet piece of clothing I did put on was my socks, so I wasn’t getting a new pair soaked. But other than that, it was an easy morning. And shockingly, less muddy than it was yesterday, despite the rain.

I sat down for lunch at a shelter around 1 o’clock. Today was really a beautiful day, so I set my clothes and shoes out to dry while I ate. The shelter I was at had a really really nice view, so I sat there and hung out for a while. But after an hour or so I decided to press on. There was basically one more steep uphill for the day, and I wanted to get it over with as quickly as I could.

Right after that uphill was another shelter where I ran into Lindsey. We were technically doing another like 2.5 miles, but it was only 3:50 or so so we hung out for a while, took care of some logistics stuff we needed to solve for tomorrow, and filled up with what might be the best water on trail (yeah it was real good). Around 4:30 we pressed on.

The last 2.5 miles felt really really long. But I guess that’s just kinda how things have been going recently. Mostly I was just very very tired, and hungry, so I just wanted to be at camp and sit. We did get there around 5:30, and quickly hung our tents (which had gotten swamped yesterday before we bailed to the shelter) to dry before cooking dinner. The black flies are out in FORCE tonight, but we can’t exactly set up our tents yet cause they’re still wet. So that’s lovely.

Overall today was a pretty good day. It was nice weather, pretty easy trail, and good views. It’s kinda weird being this close to the end. I really have felt the anticipation building for finishing, and what come after. I’m a little worried about, partly because I’m being superstitious and don’t want to jinx myself. But I also don’t want to get so caught up in finishing that I don’t appreciate what I’m doing right now. But at the same time, I don’t necessarily want to drag or slow down just because I’m scared of missing out. I don’t know. Tough balance to keep, but I guess that’s just how it goes.

Quote of the day: “Noah Kahan does not get his coffee here”

Today I’m grateful for sunshine, cold water, and anti chaffing cream.

Day 114+115:

Alright y’all i’m not gonna lie, I lost motivation to journal for a couple days again. I think that an important thing I’ve learned along this journey is that sometimes, you’re just gonna not want to do something. A lot of the time, you can do it anyway! And that’s great! But sometimes you just can’t, and that’s ok too. So that’s what it was for these two days. But I don’t want to leave y’all in the dark, so here’s some quick highlights!

⁃ Crossed Stratton Mountain (second highest peak in Vermont)

⁃ Slept on the summit of Bromley Mountain next to a ski lift! And with an amazing sunset

⁃ Set eyes on Killington for the first time (a full 49 miles before we get there!)

⁃ Had to make it 7 miles with a half liter of water in humid ass weather

⁃ Successfully made it 41 miles!

That’s about all. Sorry these days are short but yeah. That’s what it’s got to be for now.

Day 116:

Well it turns out that after 5 months on trail, there’s still plenty of time for firsts. Today is the first day that we’re getting forced off of trail because of weather. But let’s back up for a second. We slept about 20 miles from the summit of Killington last night. The plan? Get to the summit tonight, sleep at 4000 feetfor the first time since Virginia. Seems awesome right? Well, only one problem. The remnants of a tropical storm are rolling through New England today. And Killington peak is projected to get 3.5 inches of rain tonight. So that’s is NOT an environment to stay in.

So what’s the plan? Well we were gonna take a short day tomorrow and go into Rutland anyway, so we just pivoted that to today. No biggie, it left us with only 8 miles to do this morning. There was a big climb at the start of it, which kinda sucked, but we got a good view out of it at least, so that was nice.

The rest of the day was pretty easily downhill. Except for the end, which got quite steep. But we crossed through a really cool river gorge, so that was kinda dope. And then we got a shuttle into town. Rutland is home of the infamous Yellow Deli. Unfortunately the deli itself is closed, but their hostel is still open! So that’s where we’re gonna stay for tonight. With a cult! They were pretty nice though. And yeah, the rest of the day was spent resupplying, hanging out, and going to the bar to watch soccer. It didn’t actually rain here, but apparently it did out in the mountains, so I think we made the right call. Back to the road tomorrow!

Quote of the day: “Sorry I was just being a bit dyslexic.”

Today I’m grateful for UPS, chili mac, and bear boxes.

Day 117:

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Killington day. Our first 4000 footer since Virginia. Get excited! We got to sleep in a little bit because breakfast at the hostel didn’t start until 7:30 anyways. The food was shockingly good, and we ate plenty to fuel up. We caught a shuttle back to trail and got started around 9:30.

The first chunk of the day was some classic northeast hiking. And by “classic hiking” I mean basically vertical rock scrambling. So that was fun. A nice way to warm up. I was just thinking about how vermont has been pretty kind to us so far, so maybe my thoughts jinxed us. But it didn’t last too long, we were out of it within a couple miles.

That steep uphill was followed by a long steady downhill. At the bottom we ran into a road, and hopped off for a minute to go visit a local farm stand. They have freshly grown fruit and veggies, and really good ice cream. They also apparently have the best chocolate milk on trail, but they were unfortunately out of it, so we didn’t get any. But that may be for the best, I don’t think it would’ve sat well heading up Killington.

The climb started for real after that. Now, the thing that I forgot about this type of mountain is that the climb is always that steep, but damn is it long. It was definitely steep in places, but the real challenge was just that we were climbing for like 2 and a half hours. But honestly, I had a pretty good time! It was nice to get challenged by the terrain again. It’s been a while since we had that.

We stopped on the of the mountain for a late lunch. There’s a shelter up there that’s a little bit run down, but still a nice spot for a lunch break. To be honest, it was a little chilly at 4000 feet! I’ve kinda forgotten what altitude (if you can call that altitude) was like, but it’s kinda fun! I’m excited to get more of that soon!

We pushed on to the next shelter, where we stopped for another pit stop. At this point it was already 5:30, and we were thinking about whether or not we wanted to push 3 more miles to the next shelter. But when we got to the shelter we ran into a really cool ridge runner and got lost in conversation, so we just decided to stay here for the night. It’s a bit of a short day, but we got a late start so it is what it is.

I forgot how much I enjoy climbing up mountains! It really kicked my brain back into gear, when the physical challenge increased again. It felt a lot like a runners high. If this is what the Whites are like, sign me up! Famous last words lol.

Quote of the day: “Eventually you’ll start like smelling the people in front of you.”

Today I’m grateful for Killington, wind, and cheesy rice.

Day 118:

When you sleep at altitude, you wake up in a cloud. These are things I need to remember now. But it was kinda warm so that was fine at least. Still I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed til like 7:30. I was on the way by 8.

The first chunk of the morning was pretty easy. A long steady downhill for the first 2 miles was what I had to warm up, and I got to just simply fly down that. After there was a bit of a steep climb, which would become a theme of the day. Somehow Vermont has slid under the radar in terms of states we’ve heard about with pointless climbs, but basically al log today was just up and down and up and down. It kinda sucked.

The late morning had the biggest climb of the whole day, 1500 feet over 2 miles. Honestly, that climb felt harder than Killington, which is CRAZY to think about, but it’s true. My legs were tired when I got to the top, for the first time in a LONG time. But yeah, just on the other side of that climb I got to a shelter for lunch where I ran into Lindsey. We sat around for another like hour or so just hanging out, and finally hit the road again at 1:30.

The end of the day was no better than the middle. First, we had a nice steep downhill to remember how to hike (it took us a second). It was a really pretty down climb, through a whole bunch of ferns and pine forests. They also decided to throw a ladder climb into the middle of the trail for…. fun? I guess? It was pretty funny but I wouldn’t consider it “fun” to climb down a ladder with my pack on.

At the bottom of that downhill we filled up water for the last time today. We had 2.5 miles to go to our stay for the night, and a big old climb to do, but there was zero water at the top, so we had to camel up. And then we started our stupid, last, long ass climb of the day. And it was stupid and long and annoying. But we summited whatever mountain in that was eventually. At the top, there’s a private cabin that allows hikers to stay there, so we hung out for the night. It’s a really cool place, with a nice view off the roof. Good stuff.

Something I feel like people don’t really talk about in relation to the trail is that after a certain point, you start to get pretty homesick. I think both me and Lindsey are feeling a bit of that right now. Again, it’s not bad enough for us to get off or anything like that, but it is definitely making the mental side of things harder. And I’m glad the days are getting harder cause it distracts me most of the day.

Quote of the day: “I just go balls out for a day”

Today I’m grateful for downhill, viewpoints and cabins.

Day 119:

My favorite part of this trail is undoubtedly when old men wake up at 4:30 in the morning and start talking really loudly INSIDE THE SHELTER. Sorry, anyways… that was quite a way to wake up this morning. I did my best to sleep through it but honestly, once I’m up I’m up. not much I can do about it. The worst part is that I was STILL out of camp before all the people who had already been up for 2 hours. But I digress.

When you sleep on top of a mountain, it tends to make your morning pretty darn easy. There’s nowhere to go but down! Well that’s not strictly true. Most of the morning was down, along a wide and well cleared path. There were a few new blow downs from a storm that came through last night, so it was a bit of an obstacle course, but that only makes it more fun! There was one short climb, but it wasn’t too bad. It was also directly through the sun, which made for a very ethereal look in the morning mist. Something something stairway to heaven.

After that majestic moment, it was actually all downhill to a road crossing. Only 6 miles from where I started, I managed to get there by 9:15. While that was a pretty good pace for me, it meant that I had accidentally arrived too early to stop at the farm stand that was just off the road. Or so I thought, but the owner was actually pulling in as I walked by, and invited me in. I stopped in for a quick second, but I had to go find Lindsey. Where was she? Well the coffee shop down the street of course! We hung out there for a while, and then rolled back to the farm stand, where we probably spent another 45 or so minutes before heading out.

Most of the rest of the day was spent climbing. Not all at once, but steadily steadily we were heading back up into the mountains. It kinda feels like we’re back in like Tennessee, because every once in a while we’ll break into the open and see what we’re about to climb up. I’m honestly not sure if that makes it better or worse. But at the peak of our climb we stopped for a quick lunch, before beginning our decent down the other side of the mountain.

The decent was easy. Wide and flat paths, not too rocky or muddy, this is the type of stuff you love to see. And that’s basically how we hiked for the rest of the day. At one point we hit another field where we got a clear view of the mountains in front of us, all the way to New Hampshire which is pretty cool. But we also got a clear view of a rain storm that was about to hit us. It wasn’t too too bad, but we did throw our rain gear on just to be safe.

Towards the end of the day we wandered down into West Hartford, a tiny town on the edge of Vermont. WE stopped with a trail angel for a quick soda and some watermelon, and then walked over to a local business who let us tent out in the back yard. It was truly wonderful. If you’re hiking through there, go see Captain Stache. 100% worth it. But yeah, that’s where we stayed the night! And a mostly uneventful evening it was!

Again, I feel really really good about the hiking we’re doing right now. Im not entirely sure Lindsey agrees. These are the first mountains we’ve climbed in a while that actually felt challenging, so it’s for sure an adjustment, but I love that type of stuff. And tomorrow we finally hit New Hampshire! We’re really really almost there. Holy shit.

Today I’m grateful for lumber roads, waterfalls, and baby powder.