Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Essays
    • Q&A
    • Podcasts
    • Review
    • Videos
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Summer 2017 Road Taken

The Road to Bread Loaf

By Peter Newton, MA English ’92
Illustration by Mariko Jesse
July 20, 2017
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

Each June I make my pilgrimage to the mountain. An erstwhile Buddhist, I follow the river roads up through small New England towns, my own version of Basho’s journey north to the interior. I-91 to I-89 to 103 to 100 to 125—it’s the combination to my life that unlocks many things. By now, I must know every shutter on every window of each little house I pass. Certain trees have acted as mile markers over the years. A crooked barn with its swayback roof has continued to decay before my eyes. Chickens peck along the shoulder of Route 103 oblivious to the traffic like a row of white stones left along the roadside as a rite of way. I slow down to witness the most uninteresting scenic views. A pond dotted with yellow lilies. Someone’s new fence. Or just how the rocks—thrown by the spring thaw—have landed in the river. No passenger would tolerate my interior monologues. But it’s okay, I travel alone. A monk on retreat. A teacher on sabbatical. There’s the freedom of being a kid at recess. And I no longer try to contain myself.

Soundlessly, but for the open windows in the car, I drive north for the summer. There’s the wind. Occasional singing. The scent of early mowing. I meander through mill towns up and over Bethel Mountain Road, a shortcut that only works in the balmy times. You wouldn’t want to negotiate some of those hairpins in December. Now, it’s all smooth sailing. I mean except for the remnant frost heaves here and there I’ve learned to look out for. Nature’s speed bumps. And they’re right—what’s the rush anyway.

Eventually, I make my way down into Rochester for a fill-up and a vanilla creemee to kick things off. Life’s little rituals. North through the happiest little valley that’s right out of central casting for “The Happiest Little Valley.” Gets me every time. I imagine what it must’ve been like to live in one of the farmhouses when the road was dirt. Before the endless summer traffic of out-of-staters. There must’ve been no need to ever leave. Food in the field. Sun in the sky. Neighbors far and near enough to come dance in the barn on a Saturday night.

Once I’m past Hancock I realize that I have a chronic commitment to the mountain and the pilgrims who gather here each summer. This is my 30th consecutive trip to Bread Loaf in a lifetime of just past 50 summers. Bread Loaf satisfies the need to escape and come home at the same time. Mine is not a flight from unhappiness but a migration all the same—for the sake of itself. The act of traveling, arriving, and returning. In doing so maybe I have contributed to some bigger purpose. Maybe I’m an odd bird who found his flock a long time ago and recognized them for what they were: family. A species of other odd birds. Maybe I’ve simply enjoyed the ride.

By following the exact same route each June, I believe the course of my life has been changed. There’s an ebb and flow to the roads up in Vermont. A banking to the left and the right that I feel in my body. These are the elements I’m made of. Blueberries come July. Raspberries sooner still. And mountainous clouds. I place these words one beside the other as a quiet tribute to the place. A sign for those who might notice that I am on the way.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

More Than a Game

In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
Photograph by Devin Yalkin
October 21, 2022

Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

Catching up with a young filmmaker who is rapidly making a name for himself at Vice.

By Mara Dolan
Film stills by Munya Munyati
September 16, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Dispatches

Lost and Found

Artists give new meaning to discarded objects in a Museum of Art exhibit.

By Jessie Raymond ’90
Art by Mark Dion
November 30, 2023

Silo Transformation

A common sight in the Vermont countryside becomes a public art display on the Middlebury campus.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photo by EJ Bartlett
November 10, 2023

No Risk, No Gain

From an early age, Elsa Alvarado ’18 knew she wanted to be in politics. Her perseverance led her to a leadership role at the Pentagon and a political path forward.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photo by Adam Ewing
October 19, 2023

Japan Wants to Dump Water from a Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean

Middlebury's Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress thinks that's a terrible idea.

By Sierra Abukins
August 11, 2023

When Mini Golf Meets Reproductive Justice

A summertime staple becomes a first-of-its-kind teaching tool.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs by Todd Balfour
June 30, 2023

Welcome to All Things Scottish

Toward the end of the academic year, a group of Midd students turned Battell Beach into a setting that more closely resembled a Scottish moor.

By Caroline Crawford
Photograph by Brian MacDonald
June 30, 2023

Let’s Dance

How can one's digital experiences be interpreted through performance art? Choreographer Maia Sauer ’22 and a troupe of recent Midd grads attempt to find out.

By Alexandra Jhamb Burns '21.5
Photographs by Alexis Welch '22
June 2, 2023

The Repatriation

The Leopard Head Hip Ornament returns to Africa.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Courtesy Middlebury Museum of Art
February 16, 2023

Adventures in Filmmaking

Two professors and an alum have embarked on a journey to take a screenplay from its creation to the end product of a full-length feature film.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Still Photograph from The Swim Lesson Proof of Concept
February 14, 2023
View All

Essays

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Brian Staufer
January 20, 2023

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Old Stories Being Told Differently, Part 2, featuring Carolyn Finney

Our guest for episode three of season three is Carolyn Finney, who is a storyteller, author, cultural geographer, and self-described “accidental environmentalist” whose work explores the intersection of identity, privilege, and our natural surroundings. In part two of this two-part interview, Carolyn joins host and president of Middlebury, Laurie Patton, to discuss how her upbringing and family history in Westchester County, New York became the foundation of her life’s work.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
October 2, 2023

Old Stories Being Told Differently, Part 1, featuring Carolyn Finney

Our guest for episode three of season three is Carolyn Finney, who is a storyteller, author, cultural geographer, and self-described “accidental environmentalist” whose work explores the intersection of identity, privilege, and our natural surroundings. In part one of this two-part interview, Carolyn joins host and president of Middlebury, Laurie Patton, to discuss how her upbringing and family history in Westchester County, New York became the foundation of her life’s work.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
September 18, 2023

Every Book You Write Is a Mystery, feat. Rebecca Makkai, MA English ’04

Our guest for episode two of season three is Rebecca Makkai, MA English '04, a critically acclaimed novelist and short story writer. She joins Laurie Patton to discuss her teaching career, overcoming writer's block, her time at Bread Loaf, dabbling in other genres or mediums for inspiration, and her deep personal roots to Vermont.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
May 30, 2023

Review

Editors’ Picks for September and October

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
October 6, 2023

Editors’ Picks for July and August

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
August 11, 2023

The Morse Code

A remarkable journalist helped create community in a small Vermont town.

By Tim Etchells ’74
August 4, 2023

Videos

Creating Community Through Hip Hop

For three days in March, the sounds, styles, and fashions of global hip hop converged on Middlebury for an electric symposium.

By Jordan Saint-Louis '24
April 17, 2023

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2023 Middlebury College Publications.