A World for Walking at Shelburne Farms
Last year, Steve Phelps logged over 1,000 miles walking at the farm. “It's like meditation,” he says, “It clears your head. It’s so peaceful.”
Steve grew up in nearby Richmond, VT, and first visited Shelburne Farms on a school field trip. But it wasn’t until years later, on doctor’s orders to drop weight, that he started walking here. He shed the weight, and fell in love with the farm.
“If I'm not working, then I'm here,” he says. On a typical visit, he’ll walk all day; 20+ miles, stopping for lunch at the Farm Cart in season, or just grabbing a simple apple. “I know exactly how long it is from point to point,” he says, displaying the phone app that tracks his routes. “The entire outer loop is six miles.” But “I don't set a plan,” he’s clear. “That's part of being here. You don't have to set a schedule. You just start walking.”
Along his walks, he has captured thousands of photos of all subjects in all seasons. “I've encountered a bobcat twice. Turkeys. They don't even run from you.” He thumbs through some of those photos on his phone: deer, foliage, a frozen lake. “I've been taking the same pictures from the same spot, so I get all of the seasons. I've done photography all my life. My dad got me into it.”
Does he ever get bored? “Everybody wants to know that,” he responds. “No, it's different every time I come out. Like right now, the sun is different than it will be this afternoon, and the shadows are different. And I see people who are fun to talk to. And the animals. As you’re walking, you just look around, and you'll see things that nobody else will.”
“There's a fallen log up here,” Steve points out. “When the sun hits it just right, it looks like a wolf laying down. See his nose sticking out?” he asks. “I want to add ears to make it official.”
“You just have to look,” he sums up. “That's how you see the most incredible things.”
Of course, some walks do stand out more than others. “One day Jeremy was haying,” Steve recounts. “I came in the morning, and he was cutting the grass. By noon he was tedding it, and by evening, when I'm leaving, he's making bales, and I've seen the whole process” (and taken pictures).
He continues, “sometimes during the summer, if you're in the woods, it sounds like you're in a tropical jungle with so many bird noises. Just stop and listen. It's amazing.” (Though he knows a lot of the songs, he also has an app to help.) “Hawks are really cool to see,” he adds, “because they just circle around, and if they see something, they just tuck their wings in and go straight for the ground. It's amazing.” He sighs. “I can never catch that in a photo. It is too quick.”
Asked about specific favorite places or seasons, however, he only says, “The whole place is my favorite spot. You never see the same thing twice.”
Two years ago, Steve turned his walks into support for Shelburne Farms: for every mile, he donates a dollar. “This place makes you feel great, and I wanted to do something to keep it going,” he explains. “It's just a joy to be here.”
“The funny thing is,” he reflects, “at the end of the day, I'm not even tired. I'm more or less kind of sad that I have to leave.”
