Feeling Left Out? Some Vermonters Wish for Snow Wallop

Washington, D.C. is bracing for a big hit from a powerful winter storm, but northern Vermont is expected to dodge it

Northern Vermont is expected to dodge the powerful winter storm predicted to bring high winds and up to two feet of heavy, wet snow to the Washington, D.C. area. That has some outdoors enthusiasts in Vermont wishing they could cash in on all that fresh snowfall.

"It's a shame," said cross-country skier Jill Wolcott. "It would be wonderful to get that. We're much more equipped than Washington, D.C. for two feet!"

Wolcott was hitting the trails at the Catamount Family Outdoor Center in Williston Thursday. The location could use a significant dumping of snow so it could open even more terrain.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., people were stocking up on food, water, and snow shovels in advance of the approaching monster storm. NBC News reported the city's mayor urged drivers to stay off the roads with the system expected to arrive Friday.

"We haven't had a forecasted storm of 24 inches in my memory," said Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C.

"We would appreciate it up here a little bit more," observed Brad Erling, a snowmobile and equipment dealer at Land Air in Essex.

Erling said there is a lot of pent-up demand in Vermont's snowmobiling community to get outside on their machines. Trails statewide are open, and riders are enjoying them, but enthusiasts always want to see coverage expand, and so do the businesses that rely on traffic from riders.

"In Vermont, the economy really depends on us having snow, so we really do wish we'd get dumped on as much as possible," Erling told necn.

In Richmond, 8-year-old Jackson Hehir was certainly enjoying sledding on the maybe two inches he had on the ground by the town's famous Round Church, but leave it to a kid to want more.

"I wish we had a big, gigantic blizzard that [brought] one foot of snow," Hehir exclaimed.

Maybe next time, Jackson.

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