We spent a great week in Vermont. A couple days in Stowe, a couple days in East Burke at Kingdom Trails, and visits to several breweries along the way. The weather was impeccable the whole time and the riding was stellar. We stopped in Middlebury on the drive up to visit Otter Creek and picked up some Imperial IPA and Russian Imperial Stout.
From there we ventured over Lincoln Notch--a pretty heinous forest road through the Green Mountain Nat'l Forest--with the pop-up camper in tow to reach Warren, where we could purchase some of Lawson's Finest Liquids. This is a brewery so small, they don't give tours, there are only two retail outlets for their brews, and only a couple places have it on tap. It's a one-man show. We obtained a couple bottles of Maple Nipple (great name) while dodging the time trialists warming up for the beginning of a road bike stage race that weekend.
Our next stop was Waterbury, for two reasons: a new fork for Donna's Lenz from Five Hills Bike Shop (the brick and mortar arm of Bike29.com) and dinner at The Alchemist brew pub. After a great dinner and several really good brews, we finally rolled into Smuggler's Notch State Park outside of Stowe around 7:00 that evening. Set up the camper and crashed hard.
Saturday we hooked up with the Stowe Mtn Bike Club for their annual Pond Jump and BBQ. They showed us some great trails and then we chilled by the pond and watched people launch themselves into the pond. We spread some Troegs love, ensuring we would be invited back next time. It's a great club with great people. Thanks to Rick (the prez), Hardy (trailcutter extraordinaire), Ron (big dawg of Iride), and everyone in SMBC for the good times.
On the way back to the camper, we stopped in at The Shed for another brewery notch in our belts and some nachos. The beer was barely okay and it is really a tourist attraction now. We decided we never had to go back. The harbinger of this decision was Rick's reaction to our intention of stopping there. One word. "Why?" We figured it out.
Jeez, this is going to be a long post.
Sunday was a ride on the town trails by ourselves--about 2 hours of fun and then a stop by the local farmers' market for some good local fare. Then off to East Burke. We stopped in at Rock Art on the way, in the hopes that someone might be tending the tanks on Sunday, but, alas, it was not to be. It was a cool little place the last time we were there about 4 years ago and they expanded a bit since then. Their Vermonster is worth checking out. Stopped at a sugar shack further along and picked up some sweet, sweet maple syrup made on the premises--better source than any grocery store schwag. Rolled into East Burke and up to the Burke Mtn Campground, which we quickly dubbed, "The Ghetto," for its low-brow condition when compared to Smugg's. It turned out to be okay after the hordes of Labor Day weekenders left the next day.
Monday it was time to ride Kingdom--we started from the campground and made a nice loop that ended up with a road climb back to the campground. Lots of these trails deserve multiple rides to really get to know the lines and take full advantage of some of the alt lines with drops and other fun stuff.
Tuesday we met up with Scot and Jen, who just happened to be there at the same time, and rode with them. This time we drove down to town to start and pulled off a really fun loop of most of the trails in the Darling Hill area. Sure, we missed a few, but we tried to backtrack as little as possible. One trail deserved backtracking, though. Sidewinder was excellent. I haven't laughed that much on a bike in awhile. Big swoopy loops from side to side in a steep-walled, narrow hollow that made you feel it in the transitions. The last trail was worthy of sessioning, too. Kitchel, the downhill back towards town, with huge banked turns and tabletops in between, was begging to be thrashed. Alas, by this point, we were kinda beat and decided not to partake a second time. Back at the general store, the conversation went from buying a couple single beers for post-ride refreshment to instead purchasing two six packs. Afterwards, in the parking lot, both six packs disappeared in short order. I think we were trying to fulfill the new beer-to-ride ratio we came up with that day. For each hour of riding, you earned 10 beers. We were looking at around 35 beers for the day. Made sense to start hearty after the ride. Dinner that night was at Juniper's at the Wildflower Inn. Great view, good beer, good food.
We pulled out of town on Wednesday to head for our friends' house in CT and stopped off at Harpoon on the way. This is a great brewery--they put out quality. Had some samples, made some purchases, and were off again. Our friends met us with cocktails and stupendous food and hospitality in their beautiful home set amongst the woods outside of Hartford. The next morning, after looking at the weather in PA, we decided to fit a ride in CT before heading to uncertain conditions. Nepaug State Forest, just down the road from our friends, has a challenging and Michaux-like trail network. As in, not mapped, lots of rocks and rock features, and in a one-uppance, lots of built jumps and gaps by the locals. This is another place that deserves multiple rides and a dropped saddle. We lucked out by running into a hiker that gave us a general idea of where to go, and then later, we ran into another rider that showed us some stuff we would not have found by ourselves.
Afterwards, it was on to PA and the RCST Bash and rain, rain, and rain. By the time it quit on Sunday, we just opted to pack up and head home. Of course, while we were sitting in the quagmire, we found out that the weather in VT was still beautiful...I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. We had a straight week of great weather, so we really couldn't complain.We're ready to go back.
