Vermont has a deep tradition of roadside springs — spots where locals would stop, fill jugs, and take home water that was simply better than what came from the tap. Many of these springs have been forgotten or closed off. Lucky Seven Spring in the mountain town of Ripton is one of the ones that survived, quietly flowing from a steel pipe into a metal trough beside unpaved Lincoln Road, just a couple of miles from the highway. 

Lucky Seven Spring stands out in several ways, and its many fans keep it busy, with some serious visitors filling cars full of jugs. Linger a while and you will meet some characters. It is in a lovely, shady spot, across the road from the North Branch of the Middlebury River. 

Evaluating a public spring, enthusiasts look for certain qualities: drinkability, reliability, flow, access, and the answer to the question, “What is uphill from here?”

Drinkability, the taste: “The best!” “Fantastic!” “Finest spring water ever!”—these are the reviews on the Internet; I agree. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is low: around 50ppm (my test, 2017), which is ideal in the 20-to-500 range found in spring water. It’s delicious. 

Reliability is 100% as near as I can tell; the flow is robust and doesn’t change much throughout the year, fast enough to keep it very cold and fill jugs quickly.  Access is excellent and easy for vehicles, but watch out—it is close to the gravel road’s traffic. And uphill from the spring, ain’t nothin’ but woods. 

Another outstanding feature is the welded plate steel water trough, perhaps 200 gallons, a throwback to Ripton’s roots when horses were pulling wagons along the Lincoln Road. 

This reviewer has been drinking from Lucky Seven spring for some 46 years; I raised a family on it, even when our tap water was adequate—even when there were closer springs. The people I meet there all agree: it’s the finest in the land.