Stick season? Ugh. sounds like November--but here, add rain.
What's northeast of the Northeast? Canadian Maritimes?
Rural northern Maine. (When I say "the Northeast" to people out here, they think "New York City" or "Boston," and rural northern Maine is an entirely different world from those places. Closer culturally and physically to the Canadian Maritimes than to places that people in the US think of as the "Northeast," actually.)
And, yeah, there was usually plenty of rain in October and November. Snow in December was such a relief -- the water feels drier when it's frozen. Until it melts. But for a kid, being outside long enough for snow to melt usually means doing something really, really fun, like building snow castles or sledding or something, so the wet feels like the price you pay for having fun. November rain is... well, from a New England Puritan kind of perspective, I guess it's like being punished without even getting to sin first.
Snow in Colorado is always really dry.
And when it melts, it just MELTS, it doesn't do that horrible freeze/thaw thing for months on end. (A long spring is one thing. A long mud season... I don't miss April in Maine, that's for sure. April and November. Such miserable months back East. Pretty nice out here, though.)