This years “excellent adventure” was a two week bikepacking trip through central Vermont and southeastern New England. For over two years now, I’ve been planning some kind of bikepacking trip in New England that gets up to Burlington VT a place I’ve visited before and like and as an excuse to visit friends and family along the way.

The original trip as envisioned several years ago was from Annapolis up through NYC and the Empire State Trail, across Lake Champlain to Burlington and down through Vermont and south to see family in Massachusetts. Who knew it would be so hard to find that much time to do such a long trip? With trying to squeeze a bikepacking trip into a typically busy summer Snipe calendar, I’ve had to breaking this trip into parts.

The first part of that loop turned into last summer’s adventure: A Different East Coast Greenway. This left the northern part of the loop for this year. I had several iterations of the loop all starting somewhere near or north of NYC (using Amtrak to get to/from there) either finishing the loop as envisioned or a number of other perturbations. Cut to the chase, my friend Scott Cone who purchased Discovery Bicycle Tours a number of years ago, whom I was planning on visiting in Pomfret VT said they were running a tour that was a slightly more accessible version of the Green Mountain Gravel Growler route on bikepacking.com (ie not hardcore MTB). It sounded like fun and I enlisted my bikepacking partner in crime Charles Valade to join in the fun and since he had to go up that way anyway for other reasons, it was a win-win for him. After discussing with Lisa, a plan formed to include a full Annapolis Pline family visit to my sister’s on Cape Cod (and a round trip Snipe repair at Jibetech!) on the front end and more family visits by bike on the back end.

The trip overview finally ended up as: Drive to the Wellfleet on the Cape (Lisa drove home), ride to Provincetown, take the fast ferry to Boston and over a week ride to Burlington solo. Spend a day in Burlington visiting friends. Join the Discovery Tours group for a week in central Vermont followed by a car ride with Charles to the Boston area. The last section was the Tour De Family from Boston to New Bedford to Newport and finally to Providence to the Amtrak Station and to BWI via the train and a final spin down the B&A Trail to my house in Annapolis.

When route planning I tried to find as much off road/rail trail stuff as possible so it was both more pleasant that road riding and the grades would be known and not steep, something very important when riding a 50lb rig. I was pretty much running the same stuff as I did last summer with as minimal gear as possible. As I always do, I plan my routes in RideWithGPS and put them on my Garmin 520 for turn by turn directions and upload the “as ridden” tracks to Strava. They are mostly the same, but I often do deviate a little based on conditions on the ground and detours for sightseeing (not much) or food.

Since stuffing two weeks worth of riding into one post is nutty, I’m going to break this into four posts: Part 1 the trip to Burlington (this post), Part 2 the trip with Discovery Tour, Part 3 the Tour de Family and Part 4 some reflections and thoughts on the future. I’ve picked a subset of pictures to show in the posts, but if you want to see a superset, see the Google Photos album.

This post is a day by day description of the rides as that was the vibe of this part of the trip. The vibe of the second two parts of the trip lent itself to a more holistic description of those days rather than a daily blow by blow. Vive la différence!

Day 1: Wellfleet MA to Littleton MA

After some family fun in Wellfleet for a few days, a nice ride with my sister and a fully loaded test ride, I set off on Monday July 17 for Provincetown, a 15 mile ride I’ve done literally 100 times, but never gets old. I got to Provincetown a bit early so I could grab a sandwich for the 2 hr ferry ride, not to mention I was really anxious to get rolling. I am alway a bit anxious before starting out and the best way to keep that at bay is to just goooo.

The ferry ride was really nice as it was a warm day with no breeze so was completely flat and the breeze off the water felt cool once we were underway. I really like these ferry rides in the middle of bikepacking as it breaks things up and add some interest. Of course once you get to Boston, there’s a lot more going on!

I weaved my way through Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington and jumped on the Minuteman Bikeway all the way to Concord MA for another 20 miles through the NW burbs to Spacious Skies Campground in Littleton. Like most of the “campgrounds” I stayed at it was basically an RV park, but they have good bathrooms and showers, my primary criteria. When I got there late afternoon the mosquitos were already out in force so I set up the tent and dove in, only leaving to shower and walk up to a pub just outside the grounds for pizza and a local IPA. Back at the tent, I struggled to stay away until dark, read my kindle for a few minutes and crashed.

Day 2: Littleton MA to Suncook NH

As would be my daily routine, I woke up early – first light is about 4:30am in these parts – protected myself from the mosquitos, made breakfast, packed up (the final pack up and changing into kit in the bath house away from the mosquitos!) and rolled at about 7am while it was still cool. I quickly got on the Nashua River Trail into Nashua NH, then the rest of the ride was on NH 3A and US 3 – not great, but not horrible roads – up through Manchester, basically paralleling the Merrimack River to the Suncook Family Camp Resort.

I arrived pretty early since it was only 50 miles and I left so early. Again your basic RV park, but as I had scouted on the web earlier, they are under new management and appear to be working on improving it, but they have a long way to go. However, the staff was friendly and helpful. No matter, as long as I got a shower and a decent place to set the tent, I was fine. I got my kit cleaned and mostly dry with the sun out but it did start raining in the late afternoon and pretty much rained all night. I had a little food with me, but nothing significant for dinner, thinking I’d ride a mile or two to some food, but given it was raining, I stayed put and had a cliff bar. I basically was in my tent for about 12 hours, reading and surfing the web as I still had a good internet connection. At least the mosquitos were not as bad, no doubt aided by the Off I bought during the day (a different orange scent which I was OK with).

Day 3: Suncook NH to Canaan NH

After a night of rain, the morning came with some fog that burned off pretty quickly to sunshine. I tried to wash the sand off my tent off as best I could and hung it up to dry, or at least not be dripping wet when I packed it. That’s one thing I really hate about these “RV” type spots is the flat spots are typically hard packed sand or limestone (to support heavy vehicles) and make a complete mess with a tent when wet. Furthermore, they are typically tucked into trees so there is no ideal grassy spot that drains well which is more suited to a tent setup.

But it is what it is… I packed up and got rolling for one of the longer days, but once through Concord, a really nice town or as Addison Del Mastro would call it, an “embryonic city” – this is an area that has the development pattern of a city, but it has just not matured – but it was still early in the morning and I had already had some breakfast so I just stopped to snap some pictures.

The real treat for the day was the Northern Rail Trail that goes from the northern outskirts of Concord along the Merrimack River to Franklin NH where it takes a left and heads up and across the state and then down into to Lebanon and White River Junction Vermont. It’s mostly crushed limestone, but there are some dirt areas, and it reminds me very much of the Allegheny Highlands Trail in West Virginia that I rode several times (alone and with Charles) in 2019. It’s very shaded, quiet, mostly uphill and remote. There is easy access off the trail into some small towns like Franklin, but since I was rolling so early and I was really hungry for lunch at 10am, I had to settle for a convenience store sandwich, chips and a real coke. Fortunately, I’m just not that picky! I exited the trail at mile 45 and had a little paved/gravel kicker up to the campsite that really hurt. This was some foreshadowing for some of the terrain I would experience in Part 2!

The Crescent Campsites was also an RV type site, this time with a lot of “seasonal” guests (ie park the RV for the summer) it appeared, but it was well taken care of with nice facilities and some nice green space that I really enjoyed hanging out in and my kit had a good opportunity to fully dry. I bought a really good sub sandwich for dinner just before the hill up to the campground which got the job done well. I definitely was tired, but relaxed.

Day 4: Canaan NH to Randolph VT

The night at Crescent Campsites was very pleasant and I was able to explore around the lake a bit in the morning with my coffee. It was a cool and foggy morning and the lake was really beautiful. Such a nice serene morning, very peaceful.

I did my usual pack up and had a visit by my camping neighbor and we chatted for almost an hour about adventures he’d taken as a 14 year old on a bike. Interesting guy. He’s in an old truck towing a motorcycle and camping gear. I believe he was just a few years older than me from the dates on his stories, but definitely appeared older and my guess is he was a little lonely. It was fun to hear some of his stories and I think we both enjoyed some brief companionship.

I left a little later than usual, but that was fine as it was a beautiful day and I was in no rush. The rest of the Northern Rail Trail was a 20 mile slide down into Lebanon and then to White River Junction where the trail ends, basically at the intersection of I-89 and I-91, something I remember well from going to Killington to ski with my father when I was in high school. I stopped in Lebanon at the local bike shop for some air and for a lunch recommendation. They were spot on with the Marsh Brothers Deli and I had the best turkey sandwich I’ve ever had. The specialize in wood fired meats and my sandwich had the first cut of the day. I you go through Lebanon, definitely stop there (only open during the week). I ate half and saved half for a late afternoon snack.

From there I took some smaller roads (paved and gravel with some steep ramps) until after West Hartford VT where I came out onto VT 14 which rolls along nicely in a gentle uphill along the White River. My I passed on some smaller roads that parallel VT 14 between Sharon and Royalton because they ran along the White River and I had no intel on any possible washouts. I knew from the profile the last 5 miles uphill from VT 14 to the Lake Champagne RV/Campground in East Randolph VT would be tough, but they were another ball buster with some ramps that were 15+% which with my 50 lb rig and a 36×42 were still really hard. Oh, and gravel.

But to my surprise, Floyds Store awaited me at the top only 100 yards from the campground. And what I came to realize was de rigueur for Vermont, was a great selection of local VT IPAs even in a small general store! I bought one – I only dared buy one because I would have drank myself silly – and some Minestrone and Raman soups for dinner. This was a great surprise because I was really not sure what I was going to do for dinner.

Another nice surprise was the layout of this place. It was basically a series of large grassy knolls next to a postage stamp sized Lake Champagne, well, really more of a swimming hole. It was just so different than the other RV parks in the woods and perfect for a tent situation. I pitched the tent on top of a hill that I knew would drain well if the expected rain came early and it was right next to the nice showers. I cleaned up, washed my kit and hung it out to dry (the afternoon ritual) and really, really enjoyed my beer. I ate and jumped into my tent for my Annapolis Planning Commission meeting (since I was near I-89, my internet 5G speed was 100mbps!) so I did it off camera on my phone, which was easy enough as It was a light agenda.

I had been watching the weather for a day or so and there was forecast for rain all day Friday starting at about 6am with possible severe thunderstorms in the afternoon. This made me a little anxious as it was the longest day at almost 70 miles so my plan was to go to sleep early, wake early and get packed up before the rain and try and make it to Burlington before any severe weather. Given all the flooding issues, I was a little spooked as much of the ride was along the Winooski River, the source of a lot of the flooding in the area.

Day 5: Randolph VT to Burlington VT

I did wake up at 4:30, have some quick coffee and breakfast as it got light. It was really cloudy with imminent rain, so I quickly packed up and was all ready to roll at 6am, just as the rain started. Fortunately, I had a really good rain jacket I bought and the Snipe Nationals last year and the hood fit up over my helmet. As long as I kept working I was warm. Very wet, but warm.

The 25 miles or so to Montpelier were on mostly steep rolling gravel roads, but fortunately even in torrential downpours, they weren’t soft (I had basically very little tread on the Maxxis Receptor 40mm tires I was using since I knew I would be on road a lot). It was a lot of effort and at that point I was feeling pretty tired and a little crampy coming into Montpelier. Given it was raining so hard, I only stopped to take one picture of a scene I could not let go by unrecorded.

I was hoping to find a little food and water in Montpelier, but as I went through, I was not prepared for the flooding devastation. Basically the entire town had been under 5 feet of water a week earlier and now most first floors had been gutted and dumped out onto the curb. Needless to say, nothing was open for supplies and after checking things out I decided to stay on US 2 for the rest of the 45 miles to Burlington because I was really suspect of the gravel roads I had planned along the Winooski River. I wasn’t feeling great (this was the “depth of despair” low of the trip) and I really didn’t want to add extra miles if I had to turn around and the gravel would have been much more work.

On the way out of town I stopped at a farm store and the staff graciously gave me some filtered tap water and let me wash my bike (and myself) off with their hose, since it was a sandy, muddy mess. Most importantly they said the Red Hen coffee shop a few miles down US 2 was open. What a great stop for a hot cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich (I got two, one for later). Once rejuvenated with food and coffee I felt a bit better, but still crampy, so I just pedaled steady. The road was more or less gently sloping downstream with the river and was mostly in good shape, plus I was surfing a SE tailwind bringing in the thunderstorms, so it was pretty fast and easy riding. Fortunately, the storms were mostly west of me earlier and I eventually landed in Burlington at about noon in bright sunshine for the rest of the day. Sometimes, things just go your way!

While coming into Burlington on US 2 is not all that nice (it’s a bit STROADy albeit having a bike lane), once you are in the city and past UVM, as you come down the hill through downtown, you see Lake Champlain with the quintessential “TADA!” view. Man it felt sooo good! Once I got to the waterfront, I took a few pictures and called my friend Steve Callison to let him know I had arrived (he had offered to pick me up along the way if I needed an “extraction”). He was tied up so sent me to Foam Brewers and I relaxed, ate my second sandwich and pounded two Double IPAs.

It was such emotional relief to get there and enjoy the loopiness of a couple bears in the afternoon sun. All the latent stress of the last five days flowed out of my head. I eventually recovered and rode up the lakeshore trail to his house. I cleaned up, we hung out for the afternoon and eventually Steve and Janet (old Snipe sailing friends from Ohio) and their two sons went to the Mule Bar in Willston for dinner as the final round of heavy thunderstorms passed through. It was a fun evening and I crashed hard that night. In a bed. The best part was putting my feet down when going to the head in the middle of the night! That’s the only aspect of camping that grates on me, having to crawl out of a small, one person tent and haul myself up off the ground 3 times a night to pee.

Day 6: The Tour of Northern Burlington

This was ostensibly rest day, and it was definitely needed. Thanks to the comforts of Steve’s house I was able to chill, regroup, do some laundry (all week my single kit was never really clean, but never really dirty), but needed a thorough wash. I’ll have more on this in my wrap up post.

On the agenda for the beautiful, cool summer day was to meet Sara Headley a former ABRTer who landed in Burlington (she went to UVM) after racing professionally in Europe and living in northern California. It was fun to catch up with her and have Steve make a new local connection.

Steve and I kitted up and rode north along the Island Line Trail over the Lake Champlain Causeway and took the bike ferry across the 100 yard channel. That was yet another fun, if not really short, ferry ride to add to my bikepacking ferry rides! I also didn’t realize that Montreal is only about 85 miles north of there so I’m definitely going to add a bike trip to Montreal and Quebec City to the bucket list. Especially because Charles Valade is a native and speaks French! We rode up around Grand Isle and back to his house at a conversational pace. It was exactly the active recover kind of day I needed.

When we got back to the house I packed the rest of my gear and bid Steve and Janet au revoir (I would see Steve in a week after Part 2 of the trip) and rode up to the Mallet’s Bay Campground where I met Charles and the three Discovery Tour leaders.

Onto Part 2 of the adventure!