Hatching The Plan

The initial plan is to pick Sage up in Boston when I arrive in late May, then (pretty much straight away) mosey on over to Burlington, and spend some days getting to know the area.

Camping, swimming, riding the bike path, hanging out…

We have two weeks together, so I’m scheming a mix of two-wheeled rambles, some bipeding, kayaking on the lake, and if possible, a ‘lil RC’ing too, as it sounds like there is a great local shop in Colchester. During our two weeks, we plan to head off on a couple of short bikepacking trips: one watery with bike paths, the other woodlandy and off-road.

Once my trip with Sage is over, I’ll spend some time in the area solo touring before my flight to London, visiting friends or checking out cool stuff. Maybe, take the Amtrak Vermonter for some of the way?

Burlington-based Ideas So Far

• Ride out to the Snowflake Bentley Museum in the Old Red Mill in Jericho (and try maple syrup candies), and swim in the Browns River.
• Check out the Old Spokes Home and ride these three fantastic-sounding Burlington routes: https://oldspokeshome.com/blog/3-bike-rides-falling-love-burlington, which includes the Burlington Bike Path – https://www.twowheeledwanderer.com/posts/burlington-bike-path/
• Connect with the local Vermont RC car scene! (And maybe get Sage a new car!) https://mikesautopartsvt.com/hobby in Colchester (reached by a bike path) and https://www.facebook.com/vermontrc/.

The Bikepacking Trips

We’re thinking of a mellow 3-day ride along the lakefront out of Burlington, and then a more rugged 3-4 woodland loop, ideally low traffic and mostly offroad (but not too technical), with easy logistics so we can make the most of our time together.

The Watery Trip:

• Ride a loop out of Burlington to Swanton, via islands/causeway/ferry (we have a place to camp there) and either ride back, or bus from St Albans if we’re running short of time. This route should be super mellow and will get us back into the swing of things, as it’s a while since we’ve bike toured together. And, there’s a great RC car shop for us to check out in Colchester! https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42887563

The Woodland Trip:

• A version of Seth’s route in the Northeast Kingdom: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42867061/. It looks wonderful and remote, with plenty of lakes to jump in and woodland to explore. I think it will be manageable for us in terms of the distance if we split it up into 4 days. For more info and photos, see https://www.tipsyrider.com/2016/08/30/bikepacking-bliss-in-vermonts-northeast-kingdom. Will likely take a bus from Burlington to Montpelier to access it.

Other ideas:

• Bikepacking in the Green Mountains? (https://www.tipsyrider.com/2015/07/03/bikepacking-the-moosalamoo-national-recreation-area-vermont/)
• Or even, bite off a piece of Bikepacking.com’s Green Mountain Gravel Growler? Minus the beer, of course (-;

Logistical Stuff I Need To Figure Out

• We have a ride from Boston to Burlington but need to work out how we get back to Boston on public transport… with one bike. Flix bus doesn’t take bikes on that line route, from what I can see.
• A bike for Sage. Borrow one in Burlington? Rent one? Maybe it’s worth buying him a second-hand 26in MTB from the Old Spokes Home, so he has a bike for riding to school in the fall. (All sorted! Sage is going to ride Jen’s Surly Troll!)

Other VT resources and routes

https://www.vermontbikepackers.org/

https://bikepacking.com/locations/vermont/

https://greenmountaingravel.com/

Lamoille Valley Rail Trail: https://vtrans.vermont.gov/lvrt

Missisquoi Rail Trail: https://www.mvrailtrail.org/

And other suggestions for New England

I asked IG a while back for general, family-friendly New England ideas, and received some great suggestions.

• “If you take the Purple Line train from Boston to Fitchburg you can get to Vermont or western New Hampshire that same day. There’s lots of good riding around Keene and Brattleboro.”
• “Use Bing Maps for gravel roads.”
• “The black flies usually get bad in mid-May but they’re also manageable with long sleeves, bug spray, and a fire if you’re not moving. The woods can be bad – open and breezy is better.”
• “Biking on Cape Cod is phenomenal. Paved rail trails, single track overlooking the beach, and sandy power line trails. May is perfect there before all the tourist post-memorial day.” Maybe we can squeeze in this trip when we get back to Boston.
• Arcadia National Park – https://www.tipsyrider.com/2015/09/10/cycling-the-carriage-roads-of-acadia/.

If anyone has any ideas, especially bike paths/bike shops/bike culture that we could check out, or cool places to camp, please let me know!