Trout is a lazy, romantic room, perfect for sleeping late and eating breakfast in bed. The early sun floods the octagonal room with light. The king-size bed is made of tree trunks, the headboard is carved like fiddlehead ferns, and the tree roots spread out onto the floor. A "flying" trout hangs from the ceiling, which itself is ribbed, like a guide boat. A wood-burning, river stone fireplace and a thick quilt make this a very cozy campsite indeed. A collection of finely-made oars, a fly-tying desk and a private porch over the rushing whispering stream will make you dream of days spent fishing.

Rate: $625.00 • Click here to see a room comparison chart

The Trout Room is the laziest in the Inn. The early morning sun bounces off the wooden blinds across the walls as in an early Bogart film and the water from the Freeman Brook below the room's balcony changes its sound by the season and the time of the last rain or meltdown. It's hard to stay awake listening to that babble. The Mad River is so named because the soils are so shallow in the Valley and the mountains and hills so steep that the water doesn't have anywhere to go but down, raging into the Mad just behind the Warren Store. The tributary brooks often rage the most as they feed into it. Freeman Brook wiggles through town into the Mad River as does Lincoln Brook and Bradley Brook. At one time there were eleven mills in Warren drawing power from the Mad River. Gristmills, saw mills and wheelwrights. They made butter churns, boxes and bobbins. The old Bowen-Hunter Bobbin Mill (only a five-minute walk from the Inn) is still largely there - after several fires - and the old steam engines and machinery are still in the cellar waiting to be restored. With all this water it is not surprising that there are nine bridges in Warren Village alone, including a Natural Bridge, Covered Bridge, Pedestrian Bridge and two WPA concrete bridges. However, the most interesting thing about the water is what is in it. The Brook Trout. But forget about fishing in the Freeman Brook unless you are less than 14 years old. The Warren Volunteer Fire Department has stocked it ever since John Snow, Chief from 1950-1985, got the idea going. The post is for kids only. However, once you get behind the Warren Store, watch out. The deep pools in the Mad (behind the Post Office it is 20 feet deep, so the kids say) have produced some giants. It is best to fish barbless and release so others can enjoy it.

In the corner of the room, by the window, is a fly-tying desk complete with all you need for making your favorite flies or, if it got snagged, or a new one matching the morning hatch. Alternatively, just for the fun of it, start from scratch following the instructions in the book by the desk.

Hanging in mid-air over the fly vise are four fall Brookies carved out of wood by nationally renowned carver, Doug Guy. Feel the scales and imagine making them out of wood. The big one is the Vermont State record Brook Trout (plus 1/8th of an inch added, just for fun). He then went and carved that state Laker, again with plus 1/8th of an inch (caught in Lake Willoughby). That one is hanging between the fly-tying table and the bedroom.

The ceiling over the fly-tying table is of cedar planking made similarly to the old guide boats, cruisers and canoes of New England fresh water. The brass screws are turned parallel as a signal from the craftsman that he knows... (first seen in the old Garwood speedboats of the twenties). Attached to the end of the workbench is an early outboard motor made entirely of aluminum. Note the big fin behind the prop. This was a transition from inboards where the prop was fixed in front of a rudder (this turned the boat very slowly). This became obsolete rather quickly when it dawned on someone - probably Ron Evenrude in Racine, Wisconsin - that it worked better if you turned the whole motor and eliminated the rudder. If you are mechanically minded, help yourself in starting a restoration run on it. Back against the wall is our collection of canoe paddles. Note the shapes and materials. Some have decals from "Old Town" and other brands. Others are homemade of spruce or pine. The paddle is the oldest tool for water propulsion known to man. The shape of the paddle is a litmus test of the connection between the muscles and limbs of man and the hydraulics of water. It is hard to imagine anything more beautiful than a finely made paddle.

There are four color lithographs by Philip R. Goodwin, who created over 50 unique scenes of the North Woods. His work always sets up unexpected scenes with campers, canoers and wild game; these are four good examples. On the wall by the fireplace is a 19th century oil painting of a camp scene in the Adirondaks by Levi Wells Prentice. Prentice spent his life painting the natural beauty of the lake country and this example is typical of his work. On page 39 in the book, Nature Staged (a book devoted to the work of Prentice), you can see a photograph of a painting similar to the one on the wall. The book survived an earlier fire sprinkler mishap (another story) in the Inn's first week of business back in December 1997 and has a somewhat aged quality to it as a result.

The bedroom is an octagon set in a square to offset the orthogonal geometry of the Inn and the historic buildings in town. This is not a new architectural trick; most New England church spires changed to octagons on the way up, and the octagonal barns of Vermont are the same. At each turn the ceiling beams are held by a tree, seven of them are peeled beech trees and the eighth is a Hophornbeam (Ironwood). These trees are special valley trees, more rare than the Sugar Maple. The Hophornbeam has wispy branches with some leaves still on and a thin tight bark left on. The leaves are pushed out in the spring by the new leaves and could stay here in the room for as long as the Inn lasts. The trees were cut from the Smith family forest in Warren. The root flare is set in river stones to raise the forest floor perceptually to the level of the room, thereby creating a feeling of being grounded and stability that is accentuated by the river-stone fireplace. Here, we went to the Warren gravel pit that is a 100-foot deep alluvial deposit from a glacier. Throughout the pit are stones rounded from the travel of the glacier; many stones are from remote places, carried from Canada by the ice, ground into smooth forms and dumped in these enormous deposits. These are often washed down the rivers and streams continuing the grinding and polishing. We set up the fireplace as if it was made by a band of untrained fisherman setting up the cabin, dragging boulders up from the stream. You can see an old bottle, found in the cellar hole of the Inn after the 1993 fire, tucked in among the stones.

Of course, the bed is the best part of the room where the headboard tilts slightly at the angle the architect assured was, after numerous tests, ideal for sitting up in bed, being served breakfast, reading or talking. It is made from a single slab of pine, cut from an enormous farm tree in Tunbridge. The bench at the foot of the bed is from the same tree and has oversized fiddlehead fern shapes cut in with various holes and shelves built in. The fiddlehead form is also carved on one of the bedposts. Note the room ghost can be seen while sitting in bed looking at the same bedpost. Jim Sardonis, a sculptor from Randolph, carved these. You may have seen his whale's tail just off exit 12 on Interstate 89 on the right towards Burlington, Vermont's most famous contemporary sculpture. Jim also carved from a single 20 ton block of black granite the memorial I designed for Bart Giamotti on the Yale University Campus (Bart was Yale's President and the Baseball Commissioner).

If you need more blankets, go to the closet and pick out the Hudson Bay blanket off the top shelf. No fishing camp is complete without a Hudson Bay blanket or two. These have been made in England since 1650. They were used for trading with the early Indians for beaver pelts. The black slash marks on the blankets determined the number of pelts and what the blanket was worth. Ours is a three-pelt blanket.

As a final note, inspect the Birch bark wainscoting gathered by Chris Goulet of Warren from fallen birch trees of the Lincoln Gap. The mountain range in the shower is crafted of Verde antique Marble. We got this from a quarry in Granville, 20 miles south, and it is the only one in the world with this unique greenish stone color. Definitely worth a visit.

I have worked with Barry Chubb, contractor and craftsman from New Zealand, for a dozen years, and he finds the trees, cuts them and installs them as called for. Designing with natural materials adds another dimension to the mix of work that attracts special artists and lovers of pure form. This room is a testimonial to that concern in art; we are lucky to have so many talented people ready to contribute. Luke Mann, master wood turner, made these awesome light fixtures for the bed and desk, turning the wood paper thin so that the light shines through. And B'fer Roth, of "Treeforms" made the wild bench by the window.
- Dave Sellers