The results are in! we are very proud to announce that participants awarded our Benedict Arnold tour with eight "10's" out of nine evaluations, the ninth being a "9+!"

"Looking forward to going on another trip with you!  Ed: 5 stars!  Marty: 5 stars!  Ed Bearss is the BEST!!!" 

- Dave & Dottie Segal

"How can one rate Ed? He is the best of the best!  Marty is sensational - she has the gift of planning and anticipating needs."

"Everything about the tour was excellent. We have been on many tours with Ed but this is the first where hotels & meals were all top quality."

- Diane & Kimball Nedved

"It was a great trip! Marty is the best tour director with whom I have had the privilege of traveling. Everything was well planned, well executed and done in good humor." 

- Maggie Wildman

In August 2007, our group traced Arnold's 1775 secret expedition through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec City. From Quebec, we travelled through New York stopping at the sites of several of his greatest victories including Valcour Island, Ft. Ticonderoga, and Saratoga National Battlefield Park. Our tour concluded at West Point, site of Arnold's infamous act of treason.

South Mountain Expeditions inherited this itinerary that Ed had led five times before. We took this fascinating program and made many dramatic improvements.  We added a private, after- hours tour of Fort Western in Augusta, Maine. Director Jay Adams and his staff gave us an in-depth tour and invited us to try our hand firing a musket and a cannon.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a catered dinner to music provided by a fiddle player. 

In Plattsburgh, NY, Professor Tom Mandeville at Clinton Community College was our host for a fabulous steak barbecue dinner on a bluff overlooking Lake Champlain where Ed interpreted the Battle of Valcour Island.

South Mountain reviewed the accommodations used in past years and decided we needed to upgrade three of the hotels.  One example, instead of staying at the Super 8 Motel in Ticonderoga, we spent the night at the historic Queensbury Hotel in Glens Falls, NY.

We also found room for improvement in many of the meals. We substituted hot catered meals in scenic venues in place of four sack lunches.  For example, instead of dropping participants off at McDonald's on a strip mall, as happened on Ed's 2005 tour sponsored by another tour operator, we included lunch at a seaside restaurant where folks sampled lobster rolls while soaking up the beauty of the rugged Maine Coast. In a grove of white birches on the site of one of Arnold's campsites, we enjoyed  roasted chicken and homemade cherry cobbler on a shaded deck overlooking the Kennebec River. 

We toasted our journey's end with a glass of champagne at a sumptuous brunch at the charming Bird & Bottle Inn built in 1761.