Local Wanders

Sisters Audra Ouellette and Kris Bowdish have been busy designing, creating and maintaining Addison County’s only corn maze, located at 181 Thompson Hill Road in Weybridge, Vt. Now, as the early signs of foliage brighten up the landscape, the two enjoy watching people of all ages find their way out of their nine-acre labyrinth.

Ouellette and Bowdish are part of a fourth generation dairy farming family and their current plot of land has been with their family since the 1930s. The sisters love working and connecting with the land, but the two did not want to continue dairy farming. So, they began growing vegetables, like squash, pumpkin and sweet corn, and crafting an annual corn maze on their land at Weybridge Farms.

It is the farm’s third year in operation, and the sisters are learning the ins and outs of the business. The corn maze has been a success in past years and attracted many visitors.
“The best method of advertising has been through word of mouth,” said Bowdish.

Ouellette is the self-proclaimed artist of the family and she is responsible for designing the layout of the maze. She begins toying with ideas in February and draws inspiration from various sources.

“Originally, the design for this year’s maze was going to be based on fractal geometry, but we changed the theme to crop circles instead,” said Ouellette.

Once the sisters agree on a preliminary sketch, they transfer the design onto a sheet of graph paper, which is scaled to account for the location of every row of corn in the plot. Next, they cut the corn stalks by hand, starting early in the season when the plants are about six inches high. It is impossible to know what the design looks like from above until they receive the official aerial photograph. They do not release this photograph until the end of the growing season to prevent visitors from planning a route through the maze.

During daylight hours the maze takes about one hour to complete. However, when night falls the maze is a different and difficult challenge, with some families taking up to two and half hours to find their way out. From 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., guests are invited to the maze and they must bring their own flashlights, so they can navigate the maze in the dark.
“At night we get some college students and even returning families who solved the maze earlier that day,” said Bowdish.

For those who want to experience the ultimate fright, there will be a special “Haunted Maze” on the two weekends before Halloween (Oct. 15-16 and 22-23). While attempting to solve the enigma at night, guests will have to dodge scarecrows and real-life “ghouls.”

New additions to Weybridge Farms’ autumn festivities include weekly Sunday hayrides around the property and a pumpkin launch organized by the local Boy Scouts chapter. A trebuchet will launch pumpkins into the sky using a 500-pound counterweight on Oct. 10 and on Halloween weekend.

The maze is open to the public on Fridays from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Last admission is one hour before closing.