Vermont Sports November/December 2020

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VERMONT

SPORTS

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30

30th Anniversary Issue

30 PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE OF OUTDOOR SPORTS IN VERMONT

10 INNOVATIONS THAT ROCKED OUR WORLD

8 NEW PLACES TO EXPLORE AND MORE

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SOUTHWESTERN VERMONT MEDICAL CENTER ORTHOPEDICS RESTORING

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Michaela Schneiderbauer, MD, MBA, is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and Joint Replacement Specialist. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her fellowship at the University of Miami.

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VERMONT

SPECIAL 30TH ANNIVERARY ISSUE

SPORTS

NEW ENGLAND’S OUTDOOR MAGAZINE

5 The Start

30 Years of Vermont Sports

ON THE COVER:

This magazine made at least one person move to Vermont.

In 2000, Brian Mohr discovered this powder paradise, somewhere in the woods between Mad River Glen and Sugarbush.Photo by Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

7 Speak Up

How Vermont Sports Started

Founding publisher Kate Carter tells how and why she launched this publication in 1990.

PUBLISHER

Angelo Lynn - publisher@vtsports.com

EDITOR/CO-PUBLISHER

9

Lisa Lynn - editor@vtsports.com

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

News

Ski Reservations Required

Shawn Braley

Plus, Vermonters set records, VMBA seeks new executive director.

MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Nathan Endres, Dr. David Lisle, Dr. James Slauterbeck —University of Vermont Robert Larner College of Medicine; Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation; Jamie Sheahan, M.S., R.D.

13 Calendar

Race & Event Guide

CONTRIBUTORS

9 Feature

Brian Mohr, Phyl Newbeck, Leath Tonino

ADVERTISING

10 Innovations Made In Vermont

Lisa Lynn | (802) 388-4944 ads@vtsports.com

Whether it was 40 years of constant innovations coming from companies such as Burton or Concept2 or recent success stories such as Skida and Darn Tough, Vermont has been a place where new ideas flourish.

ADVERTISING SALES Greg Meulemans | (802) 366-0689 greg@vtsports.com Wilkie Bushby | (646) 831-5647 wilkie@vtskiandride.com

15

Dave Honeywell | (802) 583-4653 dave_golfhouse@madriver.com

Feature

The New Basecamps

You may know all the usual spots but this winter get out and explore these emerging outdoor hubs and take part in the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance treasure hunt.

SUBSCRIPTIONS, PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION ads@vtsports.com

EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION OFFICE Vermont Sports | 58 Maple Street Middlebury, Vt. 05753 | 802-388-4944

23

Vermont Sports is independently owned and operated by Addison Press Inc., 58 Maple Street, Middlebury, Vt. 05753. It is published 9 times per year. Established in 1990. Vermont Sports subscriptions in the U.S.: one year $25. Canada: (US funds), please add $5 per year postage.

Email ads@addisonindependent.com

Feature

The Vermont Sports 30

Meet the people who have had a lasting impact on the landscape of outdoor recreation here in the last 30 years.

BE SOCIAL! www.facebook.com/VermontSportsMagazine Twitter: @Vermont_Sports www.instagram.com/vtsportsmag

34 Endgame

Frozen in Place

How do you savor this fleeting season? By Leath Tonino

VERMONT SPORTS IS A PROUD MEMBER OF

ADVERTISERS! The deadline for the January issue of Vermont Sports is December 18. Contact ads@vtsports.com today to reserve your space.

NOV./DEC. 2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 3

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THE START

30 YEARS OF VERMONT SPORTS

T

hink back, if you can to what Vermont was like in the early 1990s. Burton had forged a path for snowboarding and it was growing like wildfire. Concept2 was revolutionizing fitness equipment. Events like the Burlington Criterium, the Burlington Marathon and the Bud Light Triathlon were drawing huge crowds. Trail systems like Kingdom Trails (established formally in 1994) were blossoming. Backcountry skiing (and secret glading), epitomized by the iconic shot Brian Mohr took in 2000 that graces our cover, was taking off.

I remember coming to Vermont in 1997 for what was one of the early incarnations of what evolved into NEMBAFest. Pedro’s Mountain Bike Festival was held in a field in Randolph and it felt a little like the Woodstock of mountain biking. I was the editor of Bicycling Magazine at the time, based out of Pennsylvania. After a weekend of riding the Randolph trails, camping out, waking up to is-this-for-real views and sharing beers with people I still call friends today I vowed I would move here.

It didn't happen right away but I found every excuse I could to visit, driving five or six hours to compete in the Bud Light Triathlon at Mount Snow or the Lake Dunmore triathlon series or the Stowe Derby in the winter. For five years, I shared a ski house in Stowe.

Every time I crossed the border, I would look for Vermont Sports. I pored over the race calendar and the results pages (this was before results were posted online) and read every Reader Athlete profile. Vermont Sports made me want to compete, to explore the state and, ultimately, to move here. I finally did, first from 2001-2003 to work in advertising and then back again in 2006 to edit EatingWell.

I never intended to edit this magazine but when my husband, Angelo Lynn, bought it in 2013 from Sky Barsch and then asked me to join the family business in 2015 it was like picking up again with a long-lost friend.

We have tried our best to respect and evolve the wonderful publication that Kate Carter started in 1990 (see her story on the following page). In the past seven years, writers such as Leath Tonino, Bill McKibben, Sue Halpern, Kirk Kardashian

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Shawn Braley, Vermont Sports' designer since 2005.

Since 1947

and David Goodman have helped tell the stories of the people, places, businesses and gear that have made Vermont what it is. Established photographers Brian Mohr, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur and John Lazenby have been joined by new talent such as Nathanael Asaro and Brooks Curran.

Their stories and images are archived at Vtsports.com and we repost the best of them in our enewsletters.

There have been several constants.

Art director Shawn Braley has done a yeoman’s job of designing and putting together every issue since 2005 and advertisers such as Outdoor Gear Exchange, Onion River Outdoors, West Hill shop and many others have helped us grow the magazine and extend its distribution to seven states.

Thanks to all of them—and most of all, to you, our readers— this print magazine (now digital, too) has not only survived 30 years but had its best year ever in 2019.

This special issue celebrates Vermont Sports’ 30 years by focusing on the people who changed our landscape and the innovations they brought to sports.

Did we miss people? I am sure we did—and we’d like to hear who you think should be added. This is just the start of an annual honor roll we hope to add to in years to come.

—Lisa Lynn, Editor, lisa.lynn@vtsports.com

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SPEAK UP

HOW VERMONT SPORTS STARTED

IN 1990, IT WAS TIME FOR VERMONT’S OUTDOOR SPORTS SCENE TO HAVE ITS OWN MAGAZINE BY KATE CARTER

M

y inspiration for Vermont Sports came from several places—the need for a job (I had been a ski resort photographer), the desire to work for myself and create something worthwhile, and the belief that Vermont’s outdoor sports enthusiasts would support this type of publication. When I lived in Colorado from 1980 to 1986, I read the now-defunct Rocky Mountain Sports & Fitness from cover to cover every month, and well after I moved to Vermont, it was my template.

The first issue of Vermont Sports Monthly was July 1990, and featured the Burlington Criterium bicycle race on the cover. Over the years the criterium evolved into the Green Mountain Stage Race, organized by race director Gary Kessler of Fayston.

This past September would have been its 20th anniversary. Hopefully it will return in 2021.

Vermont hosted many other highprofile races that Vermont Sports featured: Bud Light Triathlon in 1991; Vermont City Marathon, which started in 1989, the Craftsbury Marathon cross-country race; the Vermont 50 Mountain Bike or Ultra-Run; the 100 on 100 team running race; and so many more national and local events.

Vermont’s active outdoor sports climate gave me confidence that the magazine would succeed.

But it wasn’t just about racing.

Kate Carter (right) put out the first issue of Vermont Sports (above) in 1990.

The magazine was always about the people who participated, the people who made the sports happen. So many people believed in the magazine and were eager to be a part of it in some way, from writers and photographers, to readers and advertisers, to the businesses where anyone could pick up a free copy.

I was fortunate to have a stable of talented writers and photographers.

Vermont Sports was a springboard for many who went on to noteworthy careers. Berne Broudy, writer,

photographer, and adventurer, was always ready with an interesting article about gear. I could always count on writer/photographer Brian Mohr to deliver exciting photos and stories.

Cross-country skier John Morton participated as an athlete, coach, and team leader in seven Olympic Games for the United States in the biathlon event. He could write endlessly about his skiing (and human experiences, in general) and must have contributed over 100 articles to Vermont Sports.

Phyl Newbeck wrote the Reader Athlete column. She still does, today.

We went digital in 1996 and in 2001 we printed our first four-color cover photo. Still printed on newsprint, it took the magazine to another level.

Over time, it became my goal to sell the magazine before I turned 50.

When I was 47, out of the blue, I got a phone call from Chris Blau. Blau bought

the magazine in 2001 and brought graphic artist/designer Shawn Braley to the production team. Shawn has stayed with the magazine through its changes in ownership, and continues to be the publication’s designer. When Blau sold the magazine in 2010 to Sky Barsch, it was time for me to move on.

In 2013, newspaper publisher Angelo Lynn, bought the magazine from Barsch. it’s been pleasantly satisfying to see that what began as a venture into the unknown, in such capable hands.

He and his wife, editor/co-publisher Lisa Lynn also also own Vermont Ski + Ride magazine and the Addison County Independent weekly newspaper, so Vermont Sports fits right into their quiver of local home-grown publications.

One of my favorite stories to come out of my ownership of Vermont Sports involves Belle McDougall, who was featured on the cover of the February 1998 issue, backcountry skiing at Bolton Valley Resort. Belle could ski like an eagle could fly. She also made a great Reader Athlete interview—so great that she got a couple of hits from single men.

One of those men was Duncan McDougall, who set about courting Belle. Two years later they wed, and soon they had Jesse, who is now a sophomore at the University of Toronto.

It’s a wonderful, happy-ending story that I still enjoy telling, and it never would have happened without Vermont Sports.

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NEWS

SKI RESERVATIONS REQUIRED

VMBA SEEKS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR After 12 years, Vermont Mountain Bike Executive Director Tom Stuessy will be stepping down in January 2021 to pursue his other passion, coffee roasting. VMBA is currently doing a search for a new executive director. The organization, which now counts 28 chapters around the state, is looking for someone with “nonprofit leadership experience and the skills, attributes, and energy necessary to inspire statewide collaboration towards preserving the root character of Vermont riding, particularly the people that make it so special.” For more, see vmba.org

TIP OF THE HAT TO…

In early November, Ted King set a new record for the Arkansas High Country Bikepacking Race. The Richmond, Vt. pro rider completed the grueling, 1,017-mile course that features 80,000 feet of climbs in just 4 days, 20 hours and 51 minutes, beating Ernie and Scotti Lechuga’s previous record (the pair of cyclists rode as a team.) Only three other riders have finished the race in under 5 days. Another impressive finish: fourth place went to Seth Wood, a local Arkansas rider who did the grueling route on a single speed and finished in 7 days, 12 hours, 18 minutes.

In October, former St. Albans Messenger publisher Emerson Lynn set a world record for bench press in

his age group at the 100% Raw World Championships (a drug-free circuit) in Virginia Beach. Lynn, 70, bench pressed 286.5 lbs., handily winning his age/ weight group (148–165 lbs.). Earlier in the month he also set two national records in bench press and one in dead lift.

This summer and fall were a dream season for paragliding and for pilot and instructor Calef LeTorney. On September 20, LeTorney took off from East Burke and flew 120.9 kilometers to land in Hartland, narrowly beating the 116 km Vermont record set by Paraglide New England's Andrey Kuznetsov earlier in the season. LeTorney, who lives in Westford, also teaches at Paraglide New England. He has had sights on setting this record for six years.

Middlebury Snow Bowl joins a growing list of ski areas where reservations are required.

If you want to ski this winter, check in with the ski area well ahead of time.

All Vail Resorts (Mount Snow, Okemo, Stowe) are requiring that passholders make online reservations ahead of time for the days they want to ski. Magic Mountain and the Middlebury Snow Bowl are also requiring reservations but will be selling day tickets online. Killington and Pico are requiring parking reservations and Bolton Valley is setting up a reservation system for its baselodge and dining. In late October, the State of Vermont issued new strict guidelines for resorts limiting access to any lodge to 50 percent capacity and at no times more than 75 people. Some resorts, including Mad River Glen and Bolton Valley, have halted season pass sales while they wait to see how the traffic will play out. Ski schools are also operating with smaller group numbers and require advance reservations.

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GEAR

10 INNOVATIONS MADE IN VERMONT

WHETHER IT WAS 40 YEARS OF CONSTANT INNOVATION FROM COMPANIES SUCH AS CONCEPT2, BURTON OR INNTOPIA OR RECENT GEAR FROM SKIDA, DODGE AND RENOUN, VERMONT HAS BEEN THE PLACE WHERE NEW IDEAS HAVE FLOURISHED.

Burton's Step-On bindings meant no more sitting in the snow to strap in. Photo by Gabe L'Heureux/Burton

I

f you look back at a timeline of when some of the most innovative outdoor companies started in Vermont, it’s easy to see why Vermont Sports was launched in 1990. The 1980s saw a wave of new outdoor gear companies and over the next decade they took off. In the span of five years, Jog-Bra was launched in Burlington, Jake Burton Carpenter founded Burton in Londonderry, Concept2 set up shop in Morrisville, building oars and then launching rowing ergs.

Most of these innovations were born not from a business plan but out of an athlete’s need for a better tool for the sport. Rowers Dick Dreissigacker, his brother Peter and wife Judy Geer wanted to be able to train year-round, Stowe skier Millie Merrill developed a fleece neckwarmer to keep her warm while skiing. Bennington Snowshoe racer Bob Dion wanted an adjustable, lightweight snowshoe. Corinne Prevot,

a Burke Mountain Academy ski racer, was looking for a hat that would be both warm and wicking.

Other brands and innovations have come and gone but the following companies have stuck around, making gear that’s more in demand than ever.

1976 - CONCEPT2: LEADERS IN FITNESS Olympic rower Dick Dreissigacker and his brother Peter were already building composite oars in their Concept2 barn in the late 1970s,when the two engineers began to look for a way to train through the winter. As the story goes, Peter nailed an old bike to the barn floor and attached pulls to the free end of the chain.

The crude device led to the creation of the Concept2 Model A Indoor rower or erg and, in 1982, the first indoor rowing competition was held in Boston.

Judy Geer, an Olympic rower who joined the company in 1983 married Dick and has served as the company’s

marketing director.

Since 2018 (and through 2024) Concept2 has sponsored the World Indoor Rowing Championships and there is hardly a gym that doesn’t carry its ergs, the bestsellling rowing machines in the world.

Along with the rowing machine, the company now has Ski Ergs and a Bike Erg, as well as software that allows users to compete with others around the world. As Covid-19 has closed many gyms, the demand for these machines, still primarily manufactured in Vermont, has skyrocketed.

1977 - BURTON: INNOVATING BY DESIGN Perhaps the most innovative thing that Jake Burton Carpenter did wasn’t to build and market snowboards (he never claimed to have invented the product) but to build a lifestyle brand around this emerging sport and a brand that has made continual innovation one of its operating values. For many years,

the only constant at the company was that boards and gear would change with each season, many emanating from the R&D facility at the company’s Burlington headquarters. “If you told Jake he couldn’t do something, he’d go do it,” Donna Carpenter has said repeatedly.

Using feedback from their pro riders, Burton has constantly changed the game, developing new shapes, new mounting systems, new materials (ever more eco-friendly). One of the biggest recent innovations, the Step-On binding, (launched in 2017) was a challenge Jake gave to engineers to make snowboarding a sport where you didn’t have to sit in the snow to strap in.

1982 - TURTLE FUR: FLEECE FOR ALL Back in the day, if you were riding a chairlift the two ways to keep your neck and chin warm were to tuck a long scarf in or pull a turtleneck up. Millie Merrill, a Stowe skier who owned the Yellow

NOV./DEC. 2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 9

Concept2 ergs

Jason Levinthal Line/Full/Tilt/ J Skis

Turtle Fur

Dion Snowshoes

Turtle children’s shop in town at the time, noticed a kid at a ski race who had a homemade fleece neck gaiter. She started making them in the basement of her store and calling them “Turtle Fur” neckwarmers. Next came hats, and headbands and balaclavas. Today, there are knit pom-pom hats lined with fleece and fleece shirts and shells for adults and kids in colors that range from camo to rainbow. Millie and her husband John retired from Turtle Fur in 2000 but the company is still running strong in Morrisville. Its latest innovation: a line of face masks designed for outdoor use made with Polypropelene, Spandex and Nylon as well as a line of Cotton Casual face masks that come with a pocket for single-use disposable carbon filters.

1990 - INNTOPIA ONLINE RESERVATIONS You may not know it but if you have made a reservation for a lift ticket, ski school or hotel at any Vail Resort, or even

10 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV./DEC. 2020

attended the 2020 Sturges Motorcycle Rally, you used Inntopia’s software.

In the early 1990s in a small secondfloor office in Stowe, snowboarder Trevor Crist and a few friends started creating software to help book and market small inns. At the time, Vermont was riddled with mom-andpop B&Bs and the internet and digital marketing were new. Crist’s company, OnlineReservations.com handled booking for inns and more.

After being bought once during the dot.com boom, Crist bought the company back in 2001, named it Inntopia and set his sights on ski resorts. In 2004, Crested Butte and Breckenridge signed on to use Inntopia’s new central reservation software. In 2016, Inntopia acquired two strategic partners, DestiMetrics and Ryan Solutions. In 2018, they signed on Vail Resorts. In March, 2020 as Covid-19 spread, Inntopia

partnered with Jon Schaefer, GM of Berkshire East and Catamount ski areas, to launch a tracking and distribution system for Goggles for Docs. As of late October, more than 50,000 goggles had been donated.

1995- JASON LEVINTHAL: LINE/FULL TILT/ J SKIS At 21, Jason Levinthal designed his first pair of skis and started building them in his parents’ garage in Albany, N.Y. “I looked at all the fun that snowboarders were having and wondered why skiers couldn’t do the same and why everyone was making, essentially, the same boring skis,” he said in an interview last year.

He started making short, wider twintip skis that could do some of the same park tricks snowboards could do, under the name Line. As soon as skiers started showing up with Line skis in parks, they began to be taken seriously. In 1998, ski slopestyle became an event at the X

Games and Levinthal took bronze. Line took off. It was acquired in 2006 and Levinthal moved onto his next venture, Full Tilt Boots—designed to be used by park skiers—and then to his current company, J Skis, based in Burlington.

Once again, Levinthal is innovating. J Skis only makes limited edition models with some of the most creative graphics in the business and sells them directly to the consumers. New this year, touring skis made in colllab with Giray Dadali (aka Ahmet’s Brother).

2000 - DION: THE MODULAR SNOWSHOES What happens when a mechanical engineer becomes an inveterate ultra runner and then a snowshoer? Bob Dion, 65, has been running ultra trail races since the 1980s, regularly logging 50ks, 50-milers and 100 milers year after year. To train in winter near his home in Readsboro in Southern Vermont, Dion started snowshoeing.

Skida

Dodge Ski Boots Renoun Skis

Darn Tough Socks

Pretty soon, he was racking up medals at the National Championships (including two gold, two silver and a bronze) and organizing his own series of snowshoe races in Vermont. But in the early 2000s, Dion became frustrated with the snowshoes he found on the market and decided to make his own. He quickly realized there was a market for modular snowshoes that could fit a variety of feet, body weights, terrain and uses. He made frames from lightweight aircraft-grade aluminum (his lightest racing frames weigh 1 lb. 4 oz.) and then offered a variety of interchangeable bindings and cleats designed to hold in different conditions–ranging from ice to deep, dry powder. Most of Dion’s snowshoes are still made in Vermont, hand-sewn in his shop near Bennington where his wife Denise, herself a top snowshoe racer with national medals to her name, works alongside him.

2004 - DARN TOUGH: GUARANTEED SOCKS Cabot Hosiery launched its mill in Northfield in 1978, building on the region's history as a sheep farming and milling town. For years, it made private-label socks for some of the largest retail brands in the country. As companies such as The Gap began to buy socks manufactured offshore, Cabot saw its numbers drop. But in 2004 Ric Cabot, son of the founder, Marc

Cabot, had an idea for a sock brand of his own. Ric was an avid snowboarder, hiker and outdoorsman. The sock he wanted to create would be so durable, so comfortable and fit so well it would have a lifetime guarantee. It would be made in Northfield, knit using small needles from fine-gauge premium Merino wool and would be “Vermont tough,” he said at the time. So Darn Tough, the unofficial sock of Vermont hikers, runners, skiers, and snowboarders was born.

2008 - SKIDA: THE ATHLETE'S HEADWEAR When you see a Skida hat you know it: it’s stretchy, usually made of brightly colored fabric and the person wearing it, more often than not, is an athlete.

Corinne Prevot was a ski racer at Burke Mountain Academy when she began looking around for a hat that would be both warm and wick and that she could tuck into a pocket while Nordic skiing.

She couldn’t find it. So in 2008, at age 16, she got some fabric and sewed her own. Her friends, fellow ski racers, loved it and pretty soon you could tell a Burkie by their colorful hats.

Prevot continued making Skida hats while at Middlebury College and, after graduation moved to Burlington. The company grew, using local Vermont seamstresses and in 2018 Prevot was named to Forbes Magazine's 30 under 30 list of “best young makers and

industrial innovators.” Prevot, a strong mountain biker (she was featured on the cover of the last issue) as well as skier, also mountain biked in the highlands of Nepal to meet some of the shepherds providing the cashmere that goes into her new line of hats. She shared that story with Vermont Sports in 2018.

2008 - DODGE BOOTS: THE END OF PLASTICS “The End of Plastic Ski Boots?” was the title of a story that Vermonter Kirk Kirdashian wrote for SKI Magazine in 2010. The story was about an emerging ski boot company founded by mechanical engineer and ski boot veteran David Dodge.

Dodge had spent years working for Rossignol, Burton and Lange before going off on this own to perfect his dream; a lightweight, stiff carbon fiber boot that wouldn’t soften up in warm weather or be too cold, and could be fit to any skier's feet.

With partner and former ski racer Dave Doble, he opened Dodge Boots in 2009, selling only direct to customers.

The carbon fiber boot is innovative on its own (weighing in at 1700 grams—the standard boot weighs, Dodge claims, 2500) and so was their fit system. Using a phone app, customers can scan their feet and send measurements and photos to the Essex Junction company. Each boot has a 30-day fit guarantee.

2011 - RENOUN SKIS: NEW MATERIALS Cyrus Schenk was an intern at GE when he designed his first ski press.

An engineering student at Clarkson University and like a lot of kids, had a dream of building his own skis. The difference? Schenk began to look into new materials and settled on the nonNewtonian polymer Hyper Damping Technology or HDT. HDT, Schenk explained, stiffens on impact, but can flex when gently pressured allowing for a light stiff ski that reduces chatter on hard snow.

In 2015 at ISPO, the largest ski trade show in Europe, Renoun won the ISPO gold award. Based in Burlington, the company makes its skis in Canada.

Recently, Schenk rebranded his polymer formula as VibeStop and is marketing it for use in other industries. In the meantime, the Renoun line has grown to encompass five skis, with waists from 80 to 106 and an all-mountain woman’s ski, the Earhart.

The latest innovation? In 2020, Renoun pledged to become the first ski company to offset its entire carbon footprint and go carbon neutral and is offering an “upcycling” program where you can recycle old skis and get a $100 credit on new ones.

NOV./DEC. 2020 VTSPORTS.COM 11

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RUNNING/HIKING/ SNOWSHOEING NOVEMBER 8 | Field House Fall 5K/10K and Half Marathon, Shelburne Run scenic loop courses past Shelburne Farms, out Shelburne Point and back along the Shelburne Bay Path into the village. racevermont.com 22 | Middlebury Turkey Trot, Middlebury Run an out-and-back 5K or 10K race at this food drive for the Addison County Food Shelf. middleburyfitness.com 26 | EdgarMay Thanksgiving Day 5K, Springfield Wear a costume and run or walk this 5K route from Springfield Hospital on the Toonerville Trail. myreccenter.org 28 | Zack’s Place Virtual Turkey Trot, Woodstock Run or walk this fundraiser race on your own throuhg the village of Woodstock or any place you might be. zacksplacevt.org 26 | Gobble Gobble Wobble 5K, Stratton FE Bring your funny costume and jump start your Thanksgiving with a run through the resort, with masks mandatory and staggered starts from 8 a.m. stratton.com/ things-to-do/events/gobble-gobble-wobble 26 | Gobble Wobble 2020, Barre The race will bee held this year, with COVID-19 precautions in place, from 8am10am. Runners must register in advance and will be placed into socially-distanced groups with staggered starts at the Barre Town School. barrecongregational.org/ gobblewobble

RACE & EVENT GUIDE 26 | Virtual Running of the Turkeys, Arlington Run the course starting at Fisher Elementary School or run on your own any time the week of Thanksgiving. Upload photos od your costumes to win prizes. runningoftheturkeys.itsyourrace.com/ 26 | Jarred Williams Virtual Turkey Trot, Richmond A 5K and 10K walk or run on your own this year. Proceeds benefit the Never Give Up Ever organization. nevergiveupever.org 27 | 10h Annual 5K Turkey Trot Trail Run/Walk, Strafford This annual trail race goes up hills, across valleys and through the woods on ski trails.

Enjoy Strafford Organic Creamery Milk and home-made cookies at the finish line. straffordnordicskiing.com

DECEMBER 1-31 | Rir Ra Santa Virtual 5K, Burlington Do your run anywhere this year using the Race Joy app but you can still wear a Santa suit. All participants receive a Santa suit to wear during the event. Race benfefits Camp Ta-Kum-Ta. santa5k.ca 31 | Central Vermont Runners’ New Year’s Eve 5K, Montpelier Run for fun or for competition through the streets of Montpelier, starting at 2 pm cvrunners.org

FEBRUARY 13 | Cupid 5K, Shelburne Celebrate the love of your life, or your love of running. Running single this year? No worries! Our bib numbers will have "single" on those who have indicated that they are, so if you see a hottie, just look at his/her bib number and strike up a conversation (socially distanced of course). You may find yourself a new running buddy!. racevermont.com

MARCH 13 | 4thAnnual Leprechaun Dash 5K/10K, Shelburne Race to the pot of gold! Each of our first place overall finishers (all 4 of them), plus one lucky post-race raffle winner will each receive free entries fo teh 2021 RaceVermont series. racevermont.com

BIKING/FATBIKING

racevermont.com

NOVEMBER 14 | Turkey Ride, Camden, Me. Bring your bike and panniers or a backpack because to enter, you will need to ride from the Maine Sports store, purchase a frozen turkey at Hannafords and then deliver it to the Camden Food Pantry. No entry fee but you need to buy the turkey. mainesport. com/turkey-ride/

JANUARY 1 | Resolve to Evolve, East Burke Kick off the new year on two wheels and demo fat tires bike. East Burke Sports and the The Village Sport shop will be bring fatbikes for demo-ing. he fun starts at 9am in the yard behind The Orange Rind, right in the heart of East Burke. kingdomtrail.org

FEBRUARY 20 | Winterbike 2021, East Burke Demo fatbikes, participate in group rides at all levels of experience, attend clinics and more at this epic wintertime celebration of all things fatbiking on the trails of Kingdom Trails. kingdomtrails.org

NORDIC SKIING DECEMBER 6 | Craftsbury Season Opener, Craftsbury Join in a fun citizens race --a 5k or 10k with interval starts, a U16 division and Covid-19 precautions in place. craftsbury.com 13 | Craftsbury Fun Race, Craftsbury Join in another fun citizens race --a 15k or 5k with interval starts and a U16 division. craftsbury.com

ALPINE SKIING NOVEMBER 12 | VTSSM Red Bench Series, Virtual Join a virtual discussion on the state of backcountry skiing with the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, hosted by Adam Howard of Backcountry. Suggested $10 donation. vtssm.com

DECEMBER 2 | VTSSM Red Bench Series, Virtual Join a virtual book talk with David Goodman, author of Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast with the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum. Suggested $10 donation. vtssm.com SKI AREA OPENING DAYS (projected) Nov. 14 | Killington, Killington Nov. 14 | Mount Snow, Wilmington Nov. 20 | Stowe, Stowe Novl 21 | Sugarbush, Warren Novl 21 | Okemo, Ludlow Nov 25 | Stratton, Stratton Nov. 22 | Jay Peak, Jay Nov. 30| Bolton Valley, Bolton Dec. 2 | Middlebury Snow Bowl, Ripton Dec. 5 | Magic Mountain, Londonderry Dec. 12 | Mad River Glen, Waitsfield Dec. 19 | Pico, Mendon

JANUARY 3 | Craftsbury Fun Race, Craftsbury The third the e citizens races --a 20k or 7k with interval starts. craftsbury.com 31 | Craftsbury Fun Race, Craftsbury Part of the popular race series --a 15k or 7.5 k with interval starts. craftsbury.com 24 | Women's Ski Day, Woodstock Come to the Woodstock Nordic Center for a day of clinics and demos for women.

Capped at 50 participants so register ahead of time.. nensa.net

NOV./DEC. 2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 13

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The New

Basecamps SURE, YOU KNOW THE USUAL SPOTS. BUT THIS WINTER, GET OUT, EXPLORE AND SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THESE 8 EMERGING HUBS AROUND THE STATE.

RASTA's Zac Freeman breaks trail near Randolph. Photo courtesy RASTA.

T

his will be the winter to explore Vermont and find new places to play outdoors. Thanks to a RESTART grant, the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance (VOBA)—a statewide nonprofit dedicated to strengthening, expanding, attracting and retaining outdoor recreation

businesses in Vermont—teamed up with Vermont Sports to profile emerging recreation regions.

In the last two years, the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC) has given out Community Grants, totaling $300,000, to help nine communities fully leverage their outdoor recreation assets. (For more on VOREC and the grant program, see fpr.vermont.gov/ VOREC). Here's what's going on in these regions and what the grants will do.

Now it’s your turn to play around Vermont and gear up at a local business. Find one of the hidden log coasters and you can redeem it for $65 in value at one of the local businesses (see Vtsports.com/treasure/ for details). Check Vermont Sports' and VOBA’s Facebook pages for hints on the hidden locations or visit vermontoutdoorbusinessalliance.org.

NOV./DEC. 2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 15

NEWPORT, VT WHERE THE LAKE COMES TO LIFE As the ice starts to glaze over Lake Memphremagog, Newport puts away its kayaks and bikes and rolls up its sleeves for its second season: winter. The Orleans County city has a population of just over 4,000 and it feels like everyone turns out when the lake hardens.

Pond hockey tournaments pop up.

Folks gather around small bonfires.

Parents pull their kids on sleds. Skaters follow a path that connects outdoor rinks in Gardner’s Park. As soon as the snow falls, cross country skiers glide along the 25 kilometers of groomed routes at Memphremagog Trails.

The last weekend of February the town will bustle as folks from around the state turn up for Winter Festival (still on the schedule). “We have chuck-a-puck, horse-drawn sleigh rides, sledding on the hill near Prouty Beach, bonfires along the shoreline and fireworks,” says Jessica Booth, Newport Parks & Recreation Director.

That weekend is also typically the time when Kingdom Games hosts its famous Winter Swim competition with top swimmers racing laps in a “pool” that’s cut out of the ice on Lake Memphremagog.

All winter long you can hear the hum of snowmobiles buzzing on the network of VAST (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) trails that crisscross the region. “I think we are the only city that has groomed trails that go right into town,” says Booth. “You can literally ride your snowmachines right to one of our restaurants and on nice days in the winter you’ll see dozens of snowmobiles parked outside The East Side where they have outdoor dining and an ice bar.”

Shop: The Great Outdoors which rents kayaks and bikes in the summer switches over to skis, snowboards and ice skates in the winter. Wright’s Sports Shop has been serving local anglers and hunters for 30 years. Pick and Shovel has everything from Muck Boots and Carhartts to apparel . To find bargains on quality bike gear, head to Louis Garneau’s factory outlet and U.S. headquarters on Route 5 in Derby.

Eat/Drink: Watch all the action on the lake from your table at The East Side, a shore-side restaurant and pub that serves up dinner specials such as a Fried Fisherman’s Platter and Roast Duck. It also has an antiques and gift shop.

After a day out on the trails or lake, stop in for a pizza, sub or pasta at Hoagies—a Newport staple since 1966.

Lagos has fine dining and don’t miss the Northeast Kingdom Tasting Center where you can sample local cheeses,

16 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC. 2020

Newport's Winter Carnival has typically involved a winter swim competition in Lake Memphremagog, ice skating, horse-drawn sleigh rides and fireworks.

Photo top

courtesy Kingdom Games, bottoms courtesy Newport Dept. of Parks & Recereation.

bakery treats, brews, jams and more or try farm-fresh fare at the Warehouse Restaurant.

Stay: Downtown, the Newport Inn & Suites is a comfortable motel with an indoor pool and small fitness center.

Newport has a number of cozy B&Bs that are steps to the lake such as the Little Gnesta, and if you want a bit of old-world elegance (think fireplaces and four-poster beds), head to the Derby Line Village Inn. What the VOREC Grant Will Do: In 2019, Newport received a $35,000 VOREC grant for a critical trail connection and boardwalk project between Prouty Beach and Bluffside Farm, a 129-acre dairy farm on the lake that was acquired by the Vermont Land Trust in 2015.

BRIGHTON/ISLAND POND THE WILD, WILD NORTHEAST The village of Island Pond was once a bustling railway stop with 16 tracks, the historic midway point between Portland, Me. and Montreal. Now, the hum of

engines you might hear in winter is from snowmobiles as the area bills itself as the snowmobiling and hunting capital of Vermont.

With more than 125 miles of groomed VAST trails, it’s a reputation that’s well deserved. The trails, maintained by the Brighton Snowmobile Club, fan across miles of undeveloped land in the most northeastern corner of the state, a place that has few roads and fewer towns.

But there is a lot more going on here in terms of outdoor recreation.

Brighton/Island Pond is also the jumping off point for exploring the Nulhegan Basin section of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge— more than 26,600 acres of forest interspersed with wetlands, peatlands and shrub swamps, lined by three of the four tributaries of the Nulhegan River. Hunting is permitted in several sections of the refuge and it’s not uncommon to come across moose, bear, deer, fisher, coyote, grouse and snowshoe hare. The refuge is also an

important stopover for migratory birds in the spring and fall.

From the Silvio O. Conte visitor contact station in Brunswick, you can head out on a number of short interpretative trails. This section of the refuge also has 40 miles of gravel roads that are open until mid-December.

After that, many become part of the VAST trail network for snow travelers.

In the warmer months, this area has scenic sections of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, connecting from the Clyde to the Connecticut River. In 2017, the Vermont Huts Association built the 14- by 18-foot Nulhegan Confluence Hut on the river, a short walk or ski in from Route 105. The cabin is open yearround, by reservation, and has access to miles of VAST trails for snowmobiling or skiing Nature lovers should also stop off at the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in East Charleston, just west of Island Pond. A non-profit devoted to conservation and education, the center hosts classes in everything from mountain bike skills to leadership

Sean Shelby of Morgan leads a goup of North Country Union High School students on a snowmobile ride in Island Pond.

Photo by Judy Valente

programs to wilderness survival workshops – including one billed as the “Yeti Challenge.”

The Center owns more than 1,500 acres where it does sustainable forestry and habitat management and also hosts a number of “challenges.” The NEK Peak Bagging Challenge is one you can do on your own, scaling the Center’s list of more than 20 peaks in the Kingdom.

And each fall, the Westmore Mountain Challenge sends hikers and runners to the summits of five peaks in a day – including Mt. Hor and Mt. Pisgah – near Lake Willoughby.

If you do all five and finish the route at the NorthWoods center, it’s a full 26.2-mile marathon —and undoubtedly Vermont’s toughest. For something with a little less elevation, the NEK Marathon and Half Marathon are scheduled for May 1, 2021.

From Brighton/Island Pond you can also explore the backcountry ski glades and Nordic trails on Mt. Hor and Bartlett Mountain in Willoughby State Forest. For advanced climbers, Black Mountain, northeast of Brighton/ Island Pond has become something of a hot spot and the cliffs on Mt. Hor and Mt. Pisgah have rock and ice climbs with views across Lake Willoughby.

Shop: Simon the Tanner in Island Pond and Gervais Ace Hardware carry all the rugged outdoor apparel you need to stay warm. For holiday gifts, try The Hearth and Home Country Store.

Eat/Drink: Kingdom Grille opened in the summer of 2020 with a lake view, pub fare and live music on weekends.

For something more upscale, try the Maple Bourbon Scallops at Essex House and Tavern.

Stay: Locally owned and recently restored, the Essex House and Tavern harkens back to the town’s railway boom with simple, country-chic rooms and a bustling tavern. The Lakefront Motel is right off the VAST trail and right on the water. It has efficiency suites and, in summer, dock space. For an adventure, book the Nulhegan Confluence Hut ($80 for the entire hut, via Vermonthuts.org) which has a wood stove.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Thanks to a $62,500 grant from VOREC in 2019, and grants from The Northern Forest Center and the NEK Collaborative, Brighton has been improving the Bluff Mountain Trailhead and creating maps to area recreational opportunities and assets, which will be available at the Welcome Center. The town is also installing a public bike repair facility and a dock in Lakeshore Park.

CRAFTSBURY A NORDIC WONDERLAND There are few places in the Northeast where you can find a higher concentration of world-class athletes per capita than Craftsbury. There are two reasons for this. For starters, Craftsbury (which comprises Craftsbury Village, Craftsbury Common, East Craftsbury, Collinsville and Mill Village) has a yearround population of under 1,200 that’s spread out over 36 square miles of rolling hills, fields and small villages.

On any given day there you might run into a former World Cup Nordic skier skating the trails at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center or, come spring, an Olympic oarsman sculling the length of Big Hosmer Pond.

You might also see families skiing trails that lead to Caspian Lake or snowshoeing on The Nature Conservancy’s Barr Hill Preserve.

Or you might find a crew of Sterling College students fatbiking or bucking up firewood as part their community projects or sustainable agriculture classes. The college, based right in Craftsbury, is known for its focus on ecology, sustainability and outdoor education.

Just north of Craftsbury Village on the shores of Big Hosmer Pond, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center has been welcoming top athletes, as well as recreational skiers, cyclists, runners and rowers to its campus and trails since 1976.

In 2008, former Olympic rowers and co-founders of Morrisville’s Concept2, Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer helped purchase the center and turned it into a non-profit with the mission of promoting excellence in lifelong sports such as rowing, Nordic skiing, biathlon, cycling and running.

What draws so many elite athletes to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center is, of course, the training opportunities, toptier coaches and a state-of-the-art gym.

However, the 105 kilometers of carefully groomed trails are a draw for beginners and experts alike. The trails cross open meadows with big views, wind up and down the forested hillsides and connect to Greensboro and to Caspian Lake.

Keith Woodward, himself a multitime age group world champion in duathlon, has been grooming Craftsbury’s trails since 1976 and in 2019 he and the grooming team worked with University of Vermont geology professor Paul Bierman and students on a study on how to save snow. Craftsbury

stockpiled snow (preserving spring snow under an insulated blanket covered with wood chips) to get it ready for an early winter start.

Between the reserved snow and snowmaking, the Center has been able to kick off the season reliably in midNovember.

By early February, when Craftsbury usually hosts its famous marathon and 50K races, the snowpack is thick. Note that this year the event won't be held but Craftsbury has planned a series of Sunday citizens' races (see Calendar).

You don’t have to be a top athlete to stay at Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The Center has cabins, cottages and a dormstyle building with rooms for singles or doubles and serves up three meals a day featuring fresh local produce (some of it grown on premises) to its guests.

Craftsbury Outdoor Center isn’t the only skiing in the area. You can ski the Craftsbury-groomed trails all the way to Greensboro and connect to trails on 136 acres owned by The Highland Lodge, a classic 1860s inn that Wallace Stegner featured in his book Crossing to Safety, written after he spent time in Greensboro.

Shop: The Craftsbury General Store has gifts made by local artisans such as pottery, candles, wooden bowls, yarn, paintings, and jewelry.

Eat/Drink: In Craftsbury, the Black Bird Bistro has over-the-top grilled cheese sandwiches such as a Veggie Hipster, made with Jasper Hill CaveAged Cheddar, broccoli rabe pesto, avocado and green onion aioli. In addition to regular deli fare such as pizza and sandwiches, The Craftsbury General Store has been offering international specials for weekly Wednesday takeout dinners such as Swedish Meatballs, Hawaiian Huli Huli or Vietnamese Pho. If you prefer traditional deli sandwiches and chips head to the C-Village store.

Don’t miss a stop to Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, where visitors line up to buy the small-batch brews that are consistently rated among the top beers in the world.

Stay: Craftsbury Outdoor Center has cabins, cottages and dorm rooms in clean, minimal rooms on the trails.

Lodging comes with three farm-totable meals using locally sourced food.

Highland Lodge is offering its cabin rentals and pre-packaged meals for Friday and Saturday nights, as well as its lodge rooms.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: As part of a town-wide effort to build on Craftsbury’s reputation as a winter-trails destination, a 2020 VOREC grant of

NOV./DEC. /2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 17

More than 105 kilometers of groomed Nordic trails circle around Craftsbury and connect to Greensboro, too. Photo by John Lazenby

$26,750 will be used to create an official Craftsbury Trails brand, maps, kiosks, and wayfinding signs.

ST. ALBANS A Town With a Ski Hill You might think of St. Albans as a summer destination—a jumping off point to head out to the state park campgrounds on Burton, Knight or Woods islands. Or a place to learn to kiteboard, a launch pad for the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail or as the site of The Great Race, a run-bike-paddle triathlon and a family-friendly tradition, usually held in conjunction with Bay Day over July 4 weekend.

Come winter, this Franklin County hub doesn’t slow down. Ten years ago, The St. Albans Messenger launched The Running of the Bells, a mile run where participants attach jingle bells to their hats, shoes, gloves, coats, strollers, and wherever as they move through the town and Taylor Park, lit up with holiday lights and decorations. This year, the event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on November 27, in conjunction with the town’s Holiday Extravaganza but has been moved down to St. Albans Bay. It benefits local families in need.

The community spirit here is alive

18 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC. 2020

and well, as a trip to Hard’Ack Recreation Area, one of the few town-owned ski hills in Vermont, will demonstrate. The tiny ski area has been around since the 1950s but was recently purchased by the town, which opened the new Greg Brown Lodge last winter. On Friday and Saturday nights lights beam out across two trails for 700 vertical feet of skiing, sledding and tubing off a rope tow.

Thanks to donations from neighbors Jay Peak and Smugglers’ Notch, Hard’Ack also has a terrain park that features a rotating cast of rails and boxes and jumps. “We get folks who come up from Burlington to play around because it’s such a unique setting,” says Kelly Viens, St. Albans’ Parks and Recreation Director.

It’s a family-friendly scene with some

serious shredders of all ages and an annual Duct Tape Derby, often held during St. Albans February Winter Carnival.

With 4k of groomed Nordic ski trails, the ski area also sits adjacent to about six miles of snowshoe trails which move through birch and maple glades on the back side of Aldis Hill.

Of course, you can still head out

St. Alban's little hill with a big heart, Hard'Ack's terrain park can draw riders and skiers from Burlington and beyond. Photo courtesy St. Albans Parks & Recreation.

Mountain bike racer Aidan Casner and Onion River Outdoors owner Kip Roberts roll through winter on Montpelier's North Branch trails.

Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

onto Lake Champlain. St. Albans Bay and Missisquoi Bay are hot spots for ice fisherman after Northern Pike, according to the Agency of Natural Resources. In February 2020, St. Albans Mill River Brewing BBQ and Smokehouse launched the Clean Water Derby, a day of fishing for yellow perch for families on Missisquoi Bay. And you can still ride the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail – on a fat bike, by foot or on skis—some 26 miles from St. Albans to Richford, near the Canadian border, traveling across open farmland with stunning views of the Green Mountains.

Shop: Back Country Sports’ motto, “Where fishing is in our blood and hunting is in our soul,” says it all.

Lenny’s Shoe and Apparel carries Skida, Darn Tough and a variety of other outdoor apparel and footwear brands.

Eat/Drink: St. Albans has no shortage of watering holes. One of Vermont’s most recognized breweries and brewpubs, 14th Star Brewing Company is based here. But there are plenty of others with every type of food imaginable. Try 84 Main Bar & Grill, Catalyst Coffee Bar, The Drake Bar & Kitchen, Evelyne’s On Center, Feldman’s Bagels, Grazer’s, The

or Grind Café. There's also Jeff’s Maine Seafood, La Casa Bar & Grill, The Main Squeeze, Mimmo’s Pizzeria, Nelly’s Pub & Grill, Red House Sweets, Tim’s Place Diner, The Traveled Cup or Twigg’s American Gastropub.

Stay: Back Inn Time is a B&B in a classic, tastefully restored Victorian manor house right downtown. St. Albans also has a number of chain hotels such as the Hampton Inn, in the downtown, and La Quinta Inn and Econolodge on the outskirts.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Using a $64,417 VOREC grant, St. Albans City is partnering with the Northwest Vermont Rail Trail Council, Northwest Regional Planning Commission, and communities along the trail to install wayfinding signage along the 26.4-mile Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail.

MONTPELIER A City of Trails One of the reasons Montpelier was chosen to be Vermont’s state capital back in 1805 was its central location.

Nestled between the mountains, roughly in the east/west middle of the state with the Winooski River running through it,

Montpelier was relatively easy to get to.

Today, that’s still true and good news if you want to base out of there to recreate. From Montpelier, it’s a 40-minute drive to the base areas of Sugarbush, Mad River Glen or Stowe.

The Millstone Trails (which circle around the deep Barre granite quarries) are a 20-minute drive. It’s another 45 minutes to Groton State Forest.

It’s no wonder that when ultrarunner and social media influencer Mirna Valerio came to visit Vermont, she chose to live here. Or that other ultra-runners such as Alex Jinks (twotime winner of the Ghost Train 100Mile trail race in New Hampshire) call Montpelier home.

You don’t need to go far out of town if you want to just get out and burn some calories. As soon as the weather is cold enough, a lighted outdoor skating rink appears on the State House lawn.

Just steps from the State House, Hubbard Park has more than 7 miles of hiking and skiing trails running through its nearly 200 acres, as well as a sledding hill and a cool 54-foot stone observation tower built in the 1920s. This past summer, the Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association worked with North Branch Nature Center to add a pump track and four-miles of machine-carved

flow trails to the network.

Those trails have been the site for the Frozen Onion, a mid-winter fat bike event put on by the town’s outdoor gear shop, Onion River Outdoors which also hosts weekly fat bike rides and a January candle-lit snowshoe romp with hot chocolate and bonfire.

ORO also has avalanche awareness workshops and provides skate rentals and free snowshoe rentals to anyone headed over to North Branch trails. “We really want folks out there packing the trails, not postholing,” says Jen Roberts, Onion River Outdoors’ owner.

Shop: Run by outdoor experts with years of experience in paddling, running, cycling and skiing, Onion River Outdoors has been the hub of the region’s outdoor community for years and has an extensive selection of the latest gear as well as advice on where and how to use it. Next door ROAM offers apparel that’s good for trail wear and a night out. SlopeStyle Ski & Ride also has a great selection of alpine gear.

With dozens of specialty shops and boutiques featuring local artists and craftsmen (and free parking over the holiday season) Montpelier is a great spot to shop for presents.

NOV/DEC. 2020 | VTSPORTS.COM 19

Eat/Drink: The Three Penny Taproom is Montpelier’s legendary bar serving up a wide variety of local brews. Sarducci’s offers finer dining with views of the river and Kismet offers take-out only for its eclectic specials, which range from beef tartare to noodle soup bowls. Caledonia Spirits, makers of Barr Hill gin, also has its distillery and tap room on the outskirts of town on Gin Lane.

A wintry day in downtown Randolph where a tubing hill is just on the outskirts of town.

Photo by Lisa Lynn, bottom courtesy RASTA.

Stay: The Capitol Plaza Hotel is within a stone’s throw of the Capitol building and is a favorite of lawmakers during the legislative session. An elegant hotel, The Inn at Montpelier, which dates back to the early 1800s, has 19 rooms right off Main Street.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Working with private landowners, the town is using a VOREC grant of $25,400 to create and market a 5-mile universally accessible loop connecting downtown Montpelier, U32 High School, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Caledonia Spirits, East Montpelier Trails, and the Cross Vermont Trail.

RANDOLPH The Backcountry Hub If you haven’t been to Randolph recently you need to go. Start by visiting the Outdoor Hub, a literal trail hub and source for maps and beta, located in The Gear House (a new bike shop) near the entrance to town. There, you can walk into a room with a large 3D topo map of the area showing all the new trails (and some old ones) that have been carved out of the surrounding mountains and hills of the central Greens.

There are trails up and down Braintree Mountain where the Rochester/Randolph Area Sports Trail Alliance (RASTA) helped cut backcountry ski glades. There are also maps of the cut and named ski glades in Brandon Gap (just over the hill), trails in the Sayward Town Forest, trails up and down Abel Mountain, leading out and around Vermont Technical College and soon, out toward Silloway Maple’s vast sugarbush…in short, trails everywhere. Randolph now has more than 240 miles of mapped trails for hiking, biking, cross-country and backcountry skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing Some of the trails are left over from when Randolph was a burgeoning mountain bike town in the 1990s and early 2000s. But many are the work of volunteers with RASTA. Led by Zac Freeman and Rochester’s Angus McCusker, RASTA volunteers have cut and mapped routes with an eye toward making the area a center for backcountry skiing, mountain biking and gravel riding, supported with one

20 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC. 2020

the Chandler Center for the Arts, all that Vermont Technical College offers, and the prospect of a new hotel slated to be built just off I89, and Randolph is putting itself back on the map.

Shop: The Gear House has bikes and gear for fat biking, gravel riding mountain biking, snowshoeing, camping and backpacking—and consignment gear.

of the first two VOREC grants.

The trail work is building on other efforts around the town. In the 1950s, Harold Farr put up a rope tow on his farm near Elm Street so local kids could ski and toboggan for free. After many bustling winters, the rope tow and area shut down in 1966. Recently, local businessman Perry Armstrong and his wife Lynn purchased the 12-acre property, reinstated a tubing hill and

are considering adding a rope tow.

Two 20-something former mountain bike racers Robin Crandall and Robert Leeson, founded The Gear House bike shop in 2020. Sam Hooper (whose mother, Alison Hooper started Vermont Creamery) bought Vermont Glove, maker of goatskin hand stitched work gloves, in 2018 and, overall, there’s a new energy in town focused on outdoor recreation. Couple that with

Eat/Drink: Black Krim Tavern, which recently moved down the street to a new larger location, serves up mouthwatering weekly specials such as venison-stuffed poblanos. Chefs Market, located in the old train station, has locally sourced fare for breakfast and lunch and features crafts by area artists. One Main Tap & Grill also serves up meats, poultry and eggs from local farmers and Tacocat Cantina, the bricks-and-mortar version of the popular roving Taco Truck All Stars opened this fall serving local Vermont Chevon goat meat, among other things, in its tacos and burritos. The brew of choice is Bent Hill, brewed in Braintree.

Stay: A plan for a new hotel right off exit 4 on I89 has been in the works for many years but for now, options for places to stay in Randolph are limited to Airbnbs and the like. Or, head over the hill to stay in Rochester at the working farm, Liberty Hill Farm, or at Huntington House, a B&B.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: In 2019, Randolph (in partnership with RASTA) received a $65,000 VOREC grant for marketing and events, trail design and construction projects and trailhead amenities.

POULTNEY The Southwest Kingdom Over the past few years the area around Poultney that was once the source of slate for much of Vermont has seen so much trail building some folks have started calling Slate Valley the “Southwest Kingdom.”

With Morrisville trail builder Hardy Avery and his partner, Caitrin Maloney (former executive director of Stowe Land Trust) moving into town recently, an off-the-grid bike shop named Analog and an ambitious plan to build and map more than 20 new miles of trails in 2020 (adding to the 40 existing miles) “Southwest Kingdom” may well be building a reputation that follows in the footsteps of Kingdom Trails.

Some of the multi-use Slate Valley Trails, many cut and groomed by Avery, look through the forested hills above Lake St. Catherine, offering stunning views to the west.

There are three major networks that spiderweb out from parking hubs at the Fairgrounds, Endless Brook and Delaney Woods and work is being done to connect them. You can also ride the D&H Rail Trail from Castleton to the New York border (about 10 miles) and plans have been in the works to connect the northern portion of the trail with the southern portion, which runs from West Pawlet south to West Rupert, another nearly 10-mile ride.

If that’s not enough, Slate Valley Trails has also mapped an extensive network of gravel rides.

Events are still going strong here.

The September 2020 Slate Valley Scramble sent runners on a halfmarathon scramble on the trails. In October, Analog Cycles, wove many of the Slate Valley routes into an ATB (All-Terrain-Bicycle) race that involved taking selfies at various checkpoints – including one on an island in a pond (accessible by paddleboat). The shop has also hosts a variety of other events.

In winter, some of these trails firm up for fat biking, but snowshoeing and ski touring (when the snow is thick enough), can be just as fun. The area is also popular with snowmobiles and the Poultney Fish & Game Club’s “The Frosty” tournament usually draws ice fishermen from around the state to Lake St. Catherine.

Poultney has also been the home of Green Mountain College, which closed in 2019. In the fall of 2020, Raj Bhakta,

Poultney Taco Experiment has eat-in and take-out and smokes their own meats.

Stay: Bentley House is a classic Victorian B&B right in town. In Wells, Pond Mountain Inn offers a loft apartment and garden cottage off a renovated farmhouse and has winter specials. In Fair Haven, the Maplewood Inn, Marble Mansion Inn and Haven Guest House are also B&Bs located in historic homes.

Snowshoers head out on a hike on the new Slate Vallley Trails (top) while two ice fishermen show off their catch on Poultney's Lake St. Catherine. Photo by

the founder of Whistle Pig distillery in Shoreham, Vt., purchased the campus’s 22 buildings (many red brick classics built in the 1800s) and 155 acres.

Bhakta has moved his family there and intends to revive the college as an educational institution with a focus on sustainable agriculture.

Shop: Analog Bike Shop is an offthe-grid bike shop in East Poultney that carries All-City, Surly, Rivendell and more and also does custom builds

and fitting. Mart’s Sporting Goods on Main Street has everything hunters and anglers need. Rabidbaits.com, maker of acclaimed fishing lures, is located in Poultney and owned by two of the area’s prominent fishermen, Bob Scott and his son, Bob Jr. It does online sales only.

Eat/Drink: A sign of the evolution in Poultney is evident with a glance at the menu at Taps Tavern, a gastro-pub with specials such as Maple Bacon Poutine or Pumpkin Cauliflower Mac n’ Cheese.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Poultney is using the VOREC grant of $20,874 to help attract visitors to the area and let them know about the growing trail system. It is creating maps and brochures as well as a website portal for its trails. The town will also conduct an economic assessment of area trails.

SPRINGFIELD / ROCKINGHAM / BELLOWS FALLS The Valley Revival Once a manufacturing hub, the Connecticut River valley towns of Springfield, Rockingham and Bellows Falls are finding new life. Springfield is home to Black River Produce and Meats, the Black River Innovation Campus and has the fastest internet speeds in the country (10 gigabits). Rockingham sees thousands of visitors pass through, making stops at the Vermont Country

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Store to shop for everything imaginable.

Bellows Falls, a former mill town right on the Connecticut, is seeing its downtown classic buildings given face lifts as antique shops and small restaurants move in.

When it comes to outdoor recreation, this is an area that has hidden gems that many Vermonters are not even aware of.

In Springfield, Hartness Park walking trails pass by the hill that was the former Springfield ski jump. You can also run, bike or cross-country ski on the Toonerville Trail – a 3-mile former railway corridor along the Black River that connects to Charlestown, N.H. The trail is the site of the town’s EdgarMay 5K Turkey Trot each year (this year too.)

For nature-lovers there’s the 10,000-year-old North Springfield Bog, and Springweather Nature Area, 1,300 acres with trails used by cross-country skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers in the winter. For a fun afternoon with kids, try one of the Springfield Valley “quests” —a treasure hunt of sorts—that let you discover places along the trails throughout the area (quests are listed in the Springfield Valley Trail Guide).

The city is also just 11 miles from Mt. Ascutney. A monadnock rising above the Connecticut River Valley, Mt. Ascutney, was once a full-fledged ski resort with lifts, lodging and a ski school.

After several changes in ownership and a bankruptcy it shut down. In recent years, locals have been reviving it via the non-profit Ascutney Trails Association.

There are now mountain bike trails, more than 50 acres of hardwood and spruce glades for backcountry skiing, a T-bar and new base area lodge. Last season the ski area launched Thursday night citizen races on the lit hill. Okemo is also less than a 40-minute drive away.

From Rockingham and Bellows Falls, there are several major trail networks that are worth a visit from anywhere in the state—or beyond.

In the historic town of Grafton, Grafton Trails and Outdoor Center, affiliated with the Grafton Inn, has a network of trails groomed for crosscountry skiing, fat biking and tubing and you can rent gear right there.

Not far from there, the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association has conserved more 2,000 acres in Rockingham, Athens, Grafton, Brookline, and Westminster with a 26-mile hiking trail system with stunning ridgeline views as far south as Mount Snow, a wildlife sanctuary and even a summit hut you can stay at (temporarily closed due to Covid-19).

The Oak Hill trails, just outside Bellows Falls, also feature 2 miles of trails.

Shop: Two legendary shops support athletes in this area. The West Hill Shop, just south of Bellows Falls in Putney, has

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Thursday night racing at Mt. Ascutney.

Fat biking at Grafton Trails.

long been a leader in cycling and crosscountry ski gear.

In fall of 2020, the West Hill shop was bought by Zach and Amy Caldwell whose Caldwell Sport has helped some of the top Nordic racers in the world prepare for competitions. In 2018, Frank Wadelton, better known as Frank the Welder, moved his custom bike frame and R&D shop to a 12,000 square-foot facility in Bellows Falls.

Eat/Drink: If you are craving a hearty steak, it’s hard to beat the filet mignon at Springfield’s Black Rock Steakhouse.

Wash it down with a local brew such as a Harpoon or Trout River ale. Brownsville Butcher & Pantry, near Ascutney, is the locals' place to pick up a breakfast or lunch sandwich. In Rockingham, Wunderbar is doing take-out only but

Courtesty photo.

existing kiosks and build new ones at trail heads on the Toonerville Trail and Hartness Park. It will also build community engagement and stewardship of the Toonerville Trail and Connecticut River Byway through development of an inventory and action plan to track and control invasive (especially noxious) plant species Rockingham, in partnership with local trail non-profits and the Village of Bellows Falls, will use its $19,000 VOREC grant to plan connectivity in its trail systems, create maps and signage, build trail stewardship programs, and create a pump track.

it’s worth calling ahead for dishes like Pumpkin Bolognese or Bourbon Apple Ribs.

Stay: For a step back in time to a town that has hardly changed in the last two centuries, treat yourself to a night at the historic Grafton Inn, home of Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center and Grafton cheddar. Near Springfield, the Hartness House Inn is a beautiful, updated B&B on the National Historic Register with 38 rooms set on 35 acres. At Mt. Ascutney, Holiday Inn Club Vacations operates villas with one to three bedrooms.

What the Grants Will Do: Springfield and its team of volunteers will use its $19,250 VOREC grant to develop improved up-to-date marketing materials and trail signage, rehabilitate

JOIN THE TREASURE HUNT Each of the regions profiled here has hidden log coasters with the VOBA logo.

Find the log coaster marked with the logo and you can redeem it for goods or services at one of the businesses mentioned in this section. To find out how to redeem and for hints on the hiding spots, visit Vtsports.com/treasure and VOBA's Facebook pages.

THE

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OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS, THESE PEOPLE HELPED SHAPE THE LANDSCAPE OF OUTDOOR RECREATION IN VERMONT.

I

n honor of Vermont Sports’ 30th anniversary we wanted to profile just 30 people. Thirty people who had a significant impact in the last 30 years on outdoor recreation in Vermont. Thirty people who had shaped our

landscape. Thirty people who are still living in Vermont today. Those were the parameters. We couldn’t do it: there are far more than that. In many instances, it was not just one person but a team, a couple, business partners or a family who had equal impact. Instead, we have made 30 entries: 20 people who have impacted outdoor recreation, three legislators who shaped the landscape, five families with lasting legacies and then, a section unto itself, the trailblazers who have made mountain biking what it is here. The math doesn’t quite add up but one thing is clear: Vermont’s outdoor recreation scene would not be what it is today without their contributions. We hope this list will be just the start of an honor roll we can add to in years ahead.

Lilias Ide, communications director for Kingdom Trails and her brother, trail builder Knight Ide; two locals who helped grow Kingdom Trails into the network that it is today. Courtesy photo.

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The Community Sailing Center that founder and architect Marcel Beaudin designed is a gateway to Lake Champlain for many. Courtesy photo.

MARCEL BEAUDIN: A BRIDGE TO THE LAKE Marcel Beaudin, now 91, didn’t need a sailing center.

The Barre-born architect was a sailboat racer who took home trophies at the Lake Champlain Yacht Club in Shelburne. His modernist buildings have been written up in Dwell. He could sail his own boats, or borrow one when he needed.

But Beaudin was well aware how much of a privilege this was. Two decades ago, Beaudin envisioned a sailing center at the heart of the Burlington

waterfront that would provide access to all, regardless of their income or sailing background. He helped spearhead the Community Sailing Center, which operated out of a scrappy warehouse for many years. Beaudin did everything from helping to launch the center to designing the new waterfront building that opened in 2017. Early on, he even modified a Sonar so it could be used by Vermont Adaptive. “I was a yachtie and grew up crewing on boats in Long Island Sound and realized how expensive and exclusive sailing could be,” Beaudin told Vermont Sports in 2017. “It was my vision to make the lake and boats accessible to everyone and this has gone beyond my wildest dreams.” Today, the center gets more than 8,000 out on the lake annually, regardless of their age, gender, race, physical abilities or the means to pay.

DONNA CARPENTER: BURTON’S CHANGE AGENT Donna Gaston Carpenter was just 19 when she married Jake Burton Carpenter in 1983, a year after they met at the Mill Tavern in Londonderry. She worked closely alongside him until his death in 2019. While Jake was snowsports'

3 LEGISLATORS WHO CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE

disrupter and the face of Burton, Donna was often the behind-the-scenes change agent for the company and for the sport. In the early years, that meant lobbying ski areas to even allow boards and establishing Burton’s distribution in Europe. At 25, she became company CFO in 1989 and served as CEO from 2016 to 2020. Donna helped ensure the values she and Jake shared ricocheted though the sport. In 1995 they founded the CHILL Foundation,

Donna Carpenter: a change agent for Burton and force of good for snowsports.

Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Park in 1998, and 26,000 acres of the Nulhegan section of the Silvio O. Conte Wildlife Refuge.

Leahy was also instrumental in passing the Vermont would not look like it does were it not for bipartisan Vermont Wilderness Act and the New the efforts if its congressional delegation. These Hampshire Wilderness Act in 2006 along with Sen. three have not only protected land around the state Jim Jeffords (I), and New Hampshire’s two senators. but around the country.

The legislation added two wilderness areas in the Glastenbury and Romance/Monastery Mountain PATRICK LEAHY areas and established the Moosalamoo National Few have had more influence on Vermont’s outdoor Recreation Area, a 15,857-acre district within the recreation landscape than Senator Patrick Leahy, (D- northern end of the Green Mountain National Forest.

Vt.). First elected in 1974 (now the Senate’s longestThe GMNF now encompasses about 400,000 serving legislator), Sen. Leahy has been instrumental acres in Vermont, of which about 110,000 acres in setting aside forest service land for recreation were added since the Wilderness Act of 1984, which since his earliest years in office and Leahy helped sponsor. directed federal resources to Lake More recently, in 2017, Leahy helped Champlain — as a sport fishery, ensure Burlington was one of 22 cities historical site, and environmental nationwide to get federal Land and Water treasure.

Conservation funding for an urban park.

In his role as Chairman of the The $500,000 helped the city acquire 12 Senate Agriculture Committee from acres on the shores of Lake Champlain to 1987-95, Leahy helped create the develop a new city park and eventually Forest Legacy Program, which was Sen. Patrick Leahy Photo by REUTERS develop a trail connecting two other park part of the 1990 Farm Bill. properties. Over the past three years, The FLP has conserved 2.75 million acres across the LWCF funded a new Burlington waterfront city the country and nearly 90,000 acres of Vermont park, the Potato Hill Park Playground at Lincoln forestland including 1,800 acres of the Hunger Community School, and the purchase and of Mountain Headwaters in 2018. It also created the community recreation fields at the Mad River Park

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since then it has helped more than 25,000 disadvantaged kids participate in action boardsports. An advocate for women, Donna has worked hard for gender equality, ensuring that The Burton Open paid equal prize money for women from its first year. In 2017, Burton also sponsored the travel costs for employees who wanted to travel to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. Today, more than half of the leadership team are women. Donna has

Photo courtesy Burton

in Waitsfield.

Championed by Sen. Leahy ever since it was first introduced as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, the Northern Borders Regional Commission has, per its website, awarded “over $30 million and leveraged $87 million for 155 projects across the four states.”

In Vermont, it has funded 58 projects totaling $10.6 million, including helping to build and market rail trails and support co-working spaces in towns like Lyndonville.

That’s just a sampling and Sen. Leahy is far from done. This fall, after years of work to secure the funding, construction began on a new Green Mountain National Forest Headquarters. The 11,550-square-foot federal building is on National Forest Service land, on Route 4 in Mendon. It will serve as a gateway to what Leahy has called ““a tremendous natural resource that is part of the legacy of every Vermonter.”

BERNIE SANDERS

This past year, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) to fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and address long overdue maintenance backlogs on our public lands and waters. Senator Bernie Sanders (DVt.) has been a senior member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee which helped shepherd the GAOA through the Senate, and co-sponsored the act

also been an activist and leader in the push to make the company and sport more sustainable. The Burton Open has been carbon neutral since 2017 and the company aimed for a “20% reduction in carbon emissions and to divert 75% of waste from the landfill by 2020.” It also set a dashboard to track progress toward a number of other sustainability goals. In October 2019, Burton became a B Corporation, legally binding it to balance purpose with profit. Lastly, while so many companies of the size and growth trajectory of Burton could have either sold to a larger company or moved out of state, Donna and Jake worked hard to keep Burton in Vermont and to make the Vermont brand part of its DNA. ANDREA & STEVE CHAREST: COMMUNITY CLIMBERS Andrea and Steve Charest could have easily pursued their passion for climbing out West, but they too chose to stay in Vermont. Andrea started climbing in high school in Pennsylvania. While at the University of Vermont she worked at Petra Cliffs where she met Steve, a Johnson State College grad with a degree in outdoor education and some impressive climbs and backcountry ski descents to his name.

The couple married and bought

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Petra Cliffs in 2012. Since then, they have not only built the gym into a destination but have helped grow the climbing community as a whole, hosting events such as the Smuggs Ice Bash and the Reel Rock Film Tour. Petra Cliffs guides are now AMGA certified and Steve’s work teaching climbing, avalanche protocol and mountaineering skills has inspired students such as Aaron Rice (the first to ski 2.5 million human-powered feet in a year).

In December 2018, Steve was ice climbing in Smuggler’s Notch when a rope failed and he plunged 60 feet. Steve

PetraCliffs owners Steve and Andrea Charest have helped thousands of Vermonters and others learn climbing and mountaineering skills. Courtesy photo.

with Senator Leahy.

In a joint statement the two senators said: “Passage of the Great American Outdoors Act would deliver tremendous value to current and future generations of Vermonters. It would allow Vermont to create conservation jobs, greatly expand opportunities for hiking and recreation in our beautiful state, benefit our local economy through outdoor tourism, and help us combat climate change. As original cosponsors of this bill, we look forward to seeing it quickly enacted into law.”

Since its passage in 1965, the LWCF has provided over $140 million for Vermont parks, athletic facilities, recreational areas, and other public projects, conserving more than 275,000 acres.

Passage of this bill will bring an additional $7.6 million to Vermont next year alone, and will double Vermont’s average annual LWCF funding going forward.

Sen. Bernie Sanders The Burlington waterfront, home to the Community Sailing Center is one of the projects that has benefited from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. As Burlington’s mayor from 1981-89, Sanders is also credited with helping to preserve much of the waterfront for public recreation

Lea Davison, an Olympian inspiring new generations of Little Bellas. Photo by M. Cervantes

was hospitalized for 7 weeks. Through his recovery, the Charests persevered and on 2019 closed on a new building in Burlington’s South End, allowing the gym to nearly double in size.

It now hosts more than 500 kids in its summer camps and works closely with Vermont Adaptive and has hosted climbing events for the LGBTQ community.

Both Steve and Andrea have also been key board members in CRAG-VT, helping the non-profit in its efforts to conserve land and reopen climbing at Bolton Dome, Lone Rock Point, Upper West Bolton and many other spots around the state.

LEA DAVISON: ROLE MODEL ON A ROLL It takes a single-minded focus to pursue any sport at the Olympic level and while Lea Davison has dedicated much of her last 15 years to mountain biking, she’s done way more than race results alone can tell. Davison, who grew up in Jericho and later Nordic ski raced for Middlebury College, competed in crosscountry mountain biking in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and has two World Championship medals (silver and bronze). She was on track to compete in the 2020 Olympics when Covid-19 hit and at 37, with a bevy of sponsors including L.L. Bean, is training hard.

In 2007, Lea and her sister Sabra

at a time when it could have been privately developed.

During his presidential campaign, Sanders was also an advocate for The Green New Deal proposing, among other measures, to spend $171 billion in reauthorizing and expanding the Civilian Conservation Corps to do both conservation work and trail maintenance and expanding and ending the backlog of maintenance projects in National Parks.

The industry provides $1.5 billion in wages annually and $505 million in state and local tax revenue. That act has helped dozens of states justify investment in outdoor recreation.

As co-chair of the House Outdoor Recreation Caucus, Rep. Welch has made expanding outdoor recreation a top priority throughout his time in Congress. In 2014 he led legislation to designate 46 miles of the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers as “Wild and PETER WELCH Scenic,” a designation that will help with conservation On Nov. 14, 2016 the U.S. House of Representatives and funding for their protection. unanimously passed the Outdoor Recreation’s Most recently, Welch has introduced the Economic Contributions (REC) Act. Recreational Trails Fund Act looking to more than Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) authored the bi- double the funding that goes to states for recreational partisan legislation calling for the trails. Legislation that Welch Department of Commerce to championed last year extended quantify how outdoor recreation the North Country National Scenic contributes to jobs and consumer Trail through Addison County to spending, effectively making it link up with the Appalachian Trail the outdoor recreation industry and Long Trail. Planning work on one that could be measured and this extension through Vermont counted as part of the overall GDP, has already begun and the 40-mile for the first time. extension should be completed Rep. Peter Welch Photo by REUTERS Two years later, the Outdoor within a few years.

Recreation Economy report for Vermont, the first “Outdoor recreation is a safe way to enjoy scenic report of its kind, found that at least 128 outdoor Vermont and is great for our health, economic companies call the Green Mountains home, Vermont’s development, and attracts visitors to Vermont,” Welch outdoor recreation economy generates $5.5 billion in has said. “This has remained one of my priorities in annual consumer spending and supports 51,000 jobs. Congress.”

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Kelly Brush Davisson (below, center) at the start of the Kelly Brush Ride in Middlebury, a fundraiser for her foundation that raised $755,000 in 2019 to help those with spinal cord injuries. Courtesy photo.

founded Little Bellas, with the mission of creating a community to empower women through cycling. Little Bellas started with mountain bike camps for young girls at the Catamount Outdoor Center in Williston and in 2022, it aims to have 60 programs nationwide.

Lea has also served on the board of directors of USA Cycling and the advisory board for Women’s Cycling Association. One of the first openly gay pro riders, she now lives with her wife, Orvis vice-president Frazier Blair, in Arlington.

KELLY BRUSH DAVISSON: A RIDER WITH A CAUSE When Kelly Brush lost an edge during a ski race and crashed into a lift stanchion in 2006, it was the end of what could have been a promising career as a ski racer. She had been racing for Middlebury College at the time, teeing up to follow in the tracks of her mother, Olympic ski racer Mary Seaton and her father, Charlie Brush, a Middlebury ski racer and coach.

Kelly was left facing life in a wheelchair. But it was the start of something: with her then-boyfriend and now-husband Zeke, and her family she started the Kelly Brush Foundation “to empower people with spinal cord injuries to lead active and engaged lives.” In the last 15 years, the foundation has raised millions to help buy adaptive equipment for athletes, to provide protective netting for ski races (including the Killington World Cup) and to offer grants to those with spinal cord injuries so they can get back into sports.

The 2019 Kelly Brush Ride alone drew 855 cyclists to Addison County and raised $755,000. Brush-Davisson, now a mother and pediatric nurse practitioner in Burlington, still does many of the sports she once did. She rides a handcycle, surfs, plays tennis and has

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even skied Tuckerman Ravine. “I honestly don’t think my life is much different than before I had the accident,” she told VT Ski + Ride on the 10th anniversary of her crash. “I would not have started the foundation but everything else, I just do.”

JOE DE SENA: THE SPARTAN MAN When Joe De Sena left Wall Street and bought Riverside Farm in Pittsfield, few people could have predicted what would happen next. Joe not only bought the farm, but he bought the Pittsfield general store, and an inn.

De Sena credits his move to Vermont for fostering his passion for ultra and endurance events. He soon began building trails behind his house (now the Green Mountain Trails) and, in 2007 hosted his first Death Race there.

Middlebury native and former Olympic downhill racer Doug Lewis won that beyond-grueling event.

Since then, De Sena has founded an empire built around testing your physical and mental limits with the Spartan brand, Peak events, and Agoge.

More than 7 million have competed in his events (which have numbered 260 in 40 countries, annually). The Spartan events alone have brought as many as 10,000 to Killington each year (this year’s events were cancelled due to Covid-19) and established a new level of endurance competitions. His mission?

“To get 100 million people off the couch and healthy.”

MIKE DONOHUE & MARC SHERMAN: OUTDOOR GEAR EXCHANGE’S INSTIGATORS Mike Donohue and Marc Sherman had big plans for celebrating Outdoor Gear Exchange’s 25th anniversary this year.

The co-owners of the now-legendary gear shop had hoped to thru-hike the Long Trail, bringing along employees and guest celebrities and celebrating at

While other Church Street retailers have come and gone, Outdoor Gear Exchange has expanded to become one of the go-to spots in Burlington for new and used equipment Courtesy photo.

stops along the way. Covid-19 stopped those plans but it didn’t stop OGE, as it is known, or its online business, GearX. com from continuing to innovate.

Neither partner had prior retail experience when they started working at OGE but both were avid consumers of outdoor gear. They built the shop up from a place to find or sell used gear to one of the most robust brick-andmortar outdoor retailers in the country, with a 44,000-square-foot retail shop on Burlington’s Church Street.

More than just a gear shop, OGE has been active in promoting and supporting outdoor recreation around the state—and making it accessible for all.

In 2013 it launched annual OGE's Charitable Grants, funded by customer donations through its consignment program. The 2020 summer/fall grants of up to $2000 went to six organizations, including the Catamount Trail Association, the Waterbury Trails Alliance and Green Mountain Conservancy.

Last spring OGE started hosting LGBTQ shopping nights and in fall 2020 named Miguel Reda, who had already been helping to shape the company’s approach to minorities, as its first fulltime manager for diversity, equity and inclusion.

LAURA FARRELL: 100 MILES FOR VERMONT ADAPTIVE “My first running race ever was a 100-miler and I had to work pretty hard to persuade the race organizers to let me in,” Laura Farrell told Vermont Sports in a 2018 interview. If that doesn’t give you a clue as to her determination, nothing will. Farrell, an accomplished equestrian, had competed in the Old Dominion 100-mile endurance ride on her mule Tulip in 1980 in West Virginia.

She decided to return two years later and enter the race as a runner. She not only won the race but became the first

woman to have done the event as both an equestrian and a runner.

That race gave her the idea to start a similar event in 1989. That event has become the Vermont 100, a 100-mile trail race (one of five comprising the Grand Slam of Ultra Running) with divisions for runners and equestrians and a separate Vermont 50, a 50-mile trail race for runners or mountain bikers.

But, as Farrell tells it, the real impetus for the race was to start a fundraiser for her fledgling organization, Vermont Adaptive. She had been teaching skiing at Mt. Ascutney to a family who had a daughter with Down Syndrome. She started Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sport as an organization to reduce some of the barriers to entry to sports and enable people of all abilities to participate Since then, Vermont Adaptive has grown to include more than 400 volunteers, with adaptive facilities at Pico and on the Burlington waterfront and a new permanent home at Sugarbush. Farrell is no longer directly

Race founder Laura Farrell, racing the Vermont 50 with her son Brad. Courtesy photo.

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Zac Freeman, left, and Angus McCusker, right, plying the tools of the trade to glade. The two founder of the Rochester / Randolph Sports Trail Alliance are responsible for the first sanctioned glade skiing in the U.S. on National Forest Land —the glades at Brandon Gap— as well as trails for summer and winter all around Central Vermont. Photo by Marius Decker. .

involved with Vermont Adaptive. But she's still active. In 2017, at age 65 she was back riding the Vermont 100, and enjoying the trails near her home in Windsor.

ZAC FREEMAN AND ANGUS MCCUSKER: THE RASTA-FARIANS How many of us have looked at topo maps and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could put a ski trail there?”

Maybe we did a little cutting. Maybe it was legal—or not.

Zac Freeman and Angus McCuscker have done so legally and on the grandest scale, creating the first sanctioned ski glades on National Forest land at Brandon Gap, envisioning a mountain bike trail–Velomont–that would connect the Killington area trails to the Waitsfield Valley and using trail building as a way to attract more people the towns where they live and play in Rochester and Randolph.

The two friends and backcountry ski buddies started the Rochester/ Randolph Sports Trail Alliance in 2013. McCusker, a former ski racer, mapmaker and GIS specialist by trade, has done maps for VMBA, the Green Mountain Club and many other organizations. He lives off the grid on

the Rochester side of Bethel. Freeman, an artist who had worked in his family’s jewelry design business, lives atop Braintree Mountain near where he grew up.

To see what they’ve accomplished and mapped, stop by The Hub in Randolph (one of the "The New Basecamps" we cover on p. 20 of this issue.)

BILL KOCH: THE SKIER WHO CHANGED THE SPORT Southern Vermont has been a hotbed for Nordic ski racers ever since John Caldwell began coaching at the Putney School. One of his students was a kid from Brattleboro named Bill Koch.

Koch was fast, becoming the first American to medal in the Junior World Championships and later, the first U.S. Nordic skier to earn an Olympic medal –silver in Innsbruck in 1978, and the overall World Cup title (1981-82).

But Koch is perhaps best known for popularizing skate skiing. As early as 1971 Koch was skate skiing, along with several other Caldwell proteges, in competitions. The winter of 1981, he worked hard to perfect the technique, which led to his domination on the World Cup. After 1982, skate skiing was

Heidi Myers and Tony Moccia, (both far right), dreamed up Rasputitsa as a way to bring riders to the Northeast Kingdom and to raise money for Lea Davison (left)'s Little Bellas. Courtesy hoto.

given its own division by FIS, the sports governing body.

Koch’s passion for skiing and his ability to negotiate just about any terrain on skinny skis–be it in the backyard woods or buffed Nordic trails —led to the Bill Koch Youth Ski League being named for him. As Koch said in a 1976 promotional film for Rossignol, “The world would be a better place if

more people cross-country skied.”

Today, Bill and his wife Kate live in Peru, skiing the woods behind their home and at Wild Wings. Last January in Lausanne, Switzerland their son William won bronze at the Winter Youth Olympic Games, another next-generation Nordic skier making southern Vermont proud.

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ANTHONY MOCCIA: & HEIDI MYERS: GRAVEL RACING’S GODPARENTS Ten years ago, who would have predicted that the largest bike race in Vermont would draw nearly 1500 cyclists from around the country to the icy, muddy dirt roads of the Northeast Kingdom in… April? In 2013, Heidi Myers and Anthony Moccia were both working at cycling apparel company Louis Garneau and thinking about what they could do to bring more riders to the Northeast Kingdom in a season when tourism is virtually nonexistent. And so Rasputitsa—a race,

a ride, a sufferfest and a community celebration—was born. With parts of the course covered in snow, costumed yetis jumping out of the woods, maple syrup shots and a section of the gravel and dirt course called Cyberia, it became a fixture drawing top gravel riders and cylclocross racers from around the country.

“We’ve had people move here after riding in Rasputitsa,” says Myers proudly. Though she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2016, and Covid-19 shut down the 2020 event, the work Myers and Moccia have put

5 FAMILIES WITH LASTING LEGACIES In Vermont, blood runs way thicker than water. The Green Mountain state has been blessed with families who have passed on an outdoor ethic from one generation to the next. Each of these families has multiple members who, on their own, would be in the top 30 but their collective contributions are even greater.

Legendary Nordic skier, author and coach John Caldwell, center, raises a glass with his son Sverre, left, and nephew Zach, right. Photo courtesy the Caldwell family.

CALDWELLS: Nordic's First Family

It is hard to overstate the impact the Caldwell clan has had on Nordic skiing in Vermont and, truth be told, worldwide. Patriarch John Caldwell turned 92 this November. The former Olympic Nordic combined skier and coach still calls Putney home, the town he moved to with his parents in 1941 when his dad took a job at the Putney School.

John would go on to teach and coach at the boarding school after graduating from Dartmouth and in 1964 published, The Cross-Country Ski Book.

It remains one of the most widely-distributed ski books and helped generations learn to ski. Three of Caldwell’s four children with his wife Hep became Nordic ski legends on their own, benefitting from the wisdom John shared as a coach of the U.S. Olympic teams from 1960 to 1972 and then again in 1984.

Daughter Jennifer was the 1983 American Birkebiener champion and raced canoes until she passed away from cancer in 2012.

Son Tim competed in four Olympics. Tim’s son Patrick competed in the 2018 Olympics and his daughter Heidi, who coaches running at Craftsbury

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Outdoor Center, has won the Mt. Washington Hill Climb and run a 2:42 marathon. Sverre Caldwell skied at Dartmouth and went on to coach at the Putney School then at the Stratton Mountain School in 1980 before retiring in 2019.

Sverre was a three-time USSA Coach of the Year and coached five of the athletes on the 2019-20, U.S. Ski Team, including Olympian Andy Newell and Sverre's daughter, Sophie Caldwell. Sverre also founded the Stratton T2 Elite Team which drew skiers such as Olympic Gold Medalist Jessie Diggins and teammate Simi Hamilton (now Sophie Caldwell’s husband) to Vermont to train. In that training group too was Patrick Caldwell, Sverre’s nephew. John's other son, Peter, was an equally accomplished skier but chose not to continue in competition.

Today, down the road from John Caldwell's home in Putney, John’s nephew, Zach Caldwell has been picking, tuning and waxing skis for the top crosscountry ski racers in the world. Zach and his wife Amy, a two-time amateur World Champion in triathlon, recently bought the West Hill Shop, the well-loved bike shop, and are combining it with Caldwell Sport.

While not every Caldwell has been a winner in a sport, just about every one of them has played a key role in helping another skier to win – and usually to win big—as a coach, ski tech or teammate.

COCHRANS: A Family of Medalists

On any given winter Friday night, the frozen dirt parking lot at tiny Cochran’s Ski Hill in Richmond is jammed. Up on the lit slopes, new generations of ski racers might be watching Tim and Robby Kelley carving through gates as Marilyn Cochran Brown shepherds her young grandson, Charlie Brown – who many say is the next Olympian in the family. Jimmy Cochran and his father, Bob, might be busy working on a grooming machine. You might see Barbara Ann Cochran serving up lasagna –and a side of inspirational coaching—to a posse of hungry young skiers. Lindy Cochran (Tim and Robby’s mom) could be talking with a parent and brother Bob Cochran stoking one of the small bonfires at the base. Missing is Ryan CochranSiegle, but that’s because he’s off racing World Cup in Europe.

If you combined the Olympic, World Cup, NCAA and other medals this family has collected, you could sink a battleship.

Win Smith helped resurrect Sugarbush, then ensured it stayed in good hands. Photo by Angelo Lynn

in (along with what former Vermonter Peter Vollers did with the Overland Grand Prix and new Vermonter Ted King and others are doing) has made Vermont a gravel riding destination.

WIN SMITH: SUGARBUSH’S SAVIOR Thirty years ago, Stowe’s Spruce Peak didn’t exist. Jay Peak had no waterpark, no Tram Haus Lodge. Killington had no bike park and many of Vermont’s ski areas looked quite a bit different than they do now. But it is hard to imagine any single person who has been able to make the impact Win Smith has on a

U.S Ski Team's Ryan Cochran-Siegle with his mother, Olympic gold medal slalom skier, Barbara Ann Cochran Photo courtesy USSA.

To spell things out: Marilyn Cochran Brown was the 1969 World Cup giant slalom champion and the 1970 World Championship bronze. Her son Roger Brown won the NCAA slalom championships and was a U.S. Ski Team member from 2004-06.

Barbara Ann Cochran won the slalom gold at the 1972 Olympics and silver at the 1970 World Championships. She was also the U.S. slalom and giant slalom champion. Her son, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, is a current member of the U.S. Ski Team and defending champion of the Nor-Am Overall Title. He was a fivetime junior national champion and gold medalist in downhill and combined at the World Alpine Junior Championships in 2012. His sister Caitlin Brown also coached ski racing.

Lindy Cochran Kelley won both the U.S. National slalom and giant slalom titles and was a NCAA AllAmerican while at the University of Vermont. Her oldest son, Tim Kelley, is a former NCAA slalom champion. Lindy’s daughter, Jessica Kelley, skied with the U.S. Ski Team from 2001-10. She has been a threetime NorAm champion and was the giant slalom silver medalist at the 2002 World Junior Championships.

The youngest, Robby Kelley, was on the U.S. Ski Team from 2011-14. In 2012, he was the U.S. National Champion in giant slalom and North American Cup Champion in giant slalom. In 2015, he had six international slalom wins.

Robert “Bob” Cochran was the first American to ever take the gold in the legendary Hahnenkamm combined event in Kitzbuhel, Austria. That same year, 1973, he became the first American man to win a

Vermont ski area in the past 30 years.

Smith, whose father helped found the investment bank Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, bought Sugarbush as a passion project in 2001 with his then-partner in Summit Ventures, Joe Riemer. Smith and his family had been skiing there since he was in college and he had watched the resort deteriorate under previous owner, the American Skiing Company.

At the time, Smith planned to turn Sugarbush around, manage it as a sidegig and maybe sell it. But the ski area

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became much more than just real estate to him.

In 2004, Smith moved to Vermont and mapped out a new future for the resort with a new base area and lodges at Lincoln Peak with a stunning hotel and restaurant, improved snowmaking, and seven new lifts along with a number of other improvements at both mountains.

Smith also made “community” a keyword in Sugarbush’s brand. After selling to Alterra and retiring this past year, Smith wrote in his outgoing

World Cup giant slalom. Bob Cochran was also a twotime U.S. national champion in slalom, giant slalom, and downhill. His son Jimmy Cochran was on the U.S. Ski Team from 2005-09 and on the U.S. Olympic Team in 2006 and 2010. He raced in three World Championships (2005, 2007, and 2009) and is a fourtime U.S. national champion. Daughter Amy raced for the University of Vermont.

The biggest lasting legacy is the program patriarch Mickey and Ginny Cochran started when they put up a rope tow on their Richmond hill. Since then, thousands of young kids have learned to ski “the Cochran way:” competing on a shoestring budget, training their hearts out and never giving up.

Ralph, Adam, Evan and Lindsay DesLauriers Courtesy photo.

DESLAURIERS: Keeping it in the Family

It’s remarkable that Vermont has two families that not only founded ski areas, but are still running them. In 1966 Ralph DesLauriers, now 85, and his father took a tract of timber land high in the Greens and began carving trails and putting in lifts. Bolton Valley became the place his five kids learned to ski, hucking off rocks and small cliffs, and snaking through the tight trees.

His two oldest, Eric and Rob, went on to become pioneers in extreme skiing, appearing in Warren Miller films and for movies filmed and produced by their brother Adam.

And it was not just Ralph's kids who learned to ski there. “When I built Bolton Valley back in the ’60s, I made it my mission to give every Vermont child the opportunity to ski,” Ralph said. “We established afterschool programs where kids could take the bus up after school and learn to ski — and tens of thousands of kids all over Chittenden and Washington counties have learned to love skiing at Bolton Valley. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of, and it’s that same family centered mission and love of Vermont that’s driving me and my kids back into this business.”

Under president Mike Solimano, Killington has added a huge bike park, built the East's largest ski lodge and hosted the Women's World Cup . Photo

letter: “I am proud to have partnered with the likes of GMVS, VASS, the Kelly Brush Foundation, High Fives, Protect Our Winters, and other philanthropic organizations and to have been a responsible member of this great Mad River Valley community." Smith’s parting gift was appointing Middlebury native and veteran Sugarbush employee John Hammond to take over his role.

by Chandler Burgess/Killington

MIKE SOLIMANO: THE KING OF KILLINGTON During his 10 years as Killington’s VP of finance, Mike Solimano earned himself

Ralph sold the resort in 1997 but 20 years later, in 2017, he and his daughter Lindsay and sons Evan and Adam, bought it back. Since then, Lindsay has taken over as CEO with Adam pioneering the resort as a backcountry basecamp, with a backcountry rental center, season-long rentals (new this year), guided skiing and a heated yurt – as well as two backcountry cabins.

And it’s still a Mecca for kids, with an indoor skatepark, kids remote learning programs, night skiing and, new this season, Mad Taco tacos at the base.

DREISSIGACKERS: Making Fitness Fun

In 1976, Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer were two rowers training for the Olympics. Dick had just earned his M.S. from Stanford and, with his brother Peter, was designing and building oars using a new material at the time, carbon fiber. That November, after combing the country to find a place to start their oar company, Concept2, the brothers settled on an abandoned dairy farm in Morrisville. Dick and Judy, a Dartmouth grad ,married and the family built Concept2 into a leader in the rowing and fitness world.

They trained and tested their oars just up the road, on Big Hosmer Pond at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, where owners Russell and Janet Spring had built winter ski programs and summer tennis and soccer camps. Nordic director John Brodhead had already made a name for Craftsbury as a cross-country destination and started the 50K Craftsbury Marathon in 1981.

In 2008, the Dreissigackers set up a non-profit

foundation to purchase the center. Since then, they have extended the trail system, upgraded the lodging, built a new state-of-the-art fitness center and founded the Green Racing Project which lets athletes work at the center (coaching, or helping with chores focused around sustainable practices) to earn their keep while they live and train there. Among those athletes are World Cup biathlon champion Susan Dunklee, Olympic biathletes Hannah and Emily Dreissigacker (Dick and Judy's daughters), and cross-country ski Olympians Ida Sargent and Kaitlynn Miller and World Cup oarsmen Peter Graves and Steve Whelpley, who now coaches at Craftsbury.

VON TRAPPS: Building a Lasting Playground

It is hard to imagine 2,500 acres of open space in Stowe today. But that’s the footprint of the Trapp Family Lodge property with more than 100 kilometers of trails, a 96-room lodge and villas and chalets hidden in the woods and hillsides.

The von Trapp story is now legend: after fleeing Austria, Baron Georg von Trapp and his wife Maria bought the Gale Farm in Stowe in 1942 and set up what became first a music camp and then an inn.

When son Johannes took it over he opened a crosscountry center in 1968, the first of its kind in America.

Johannes, who had a forestry degree from Yale, first skied to get to the woodlot. “It was a much faster way to get out into the backcountry, out to timber or to the old hill farms than snowshoeing,” he says.

Over the years, he bought and annexed many neighboring farms to the original 660-acre von Trapp property, naming trails after the families that owned them. The outdoor center and ski rentals were initially a way to keep guests happy in the winter. A charismatic ski instructor named Per Sorlie was recruited from Norway and soon the Trapp Family Lodge was America’s first destination cross-country ski center.

Johannes children, Kristina and Sam, became accomplished ski racers and ski instructors and allaround athletes and have helped grow the trail network into a mountain biking and trail running heaven. Snowmaking keeps the trails covered late in the season and the cabin at the top of the network, Slayton Pasture Cabin, a place to refuel with hot soup in front of a roaring fire.

Judy Geer and Dick Dreissigacker, the power behind Concept2.

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a long leash from parent company, POWDR Corp. “I think being a numbers guy, and after seeing that the numbers were going the right direction, they had more faith in me,” Solimano said in 2017, after the first Killington World Cup. Solimano joined the company in 2002 and moved into the president and general manager role in 2012.

Since then, the “Beast of the East” has been roaring. Killington has hosted the largest women’s World Cup event in history (three years in a row), built 35 miles of downhill mountain bike trails— the largest lift-served bike park in the East—and is finishing up what may well be the largest base lodge in America.

The new lodge at K1 is expected to open in 2021.

Throughout, Solimano has been mindful of the resort’s role in the community. Killington’s on-mountain restaurants still serve up locally-sourced fare whenever possible. Since Covid-19 hit, the resort has had regular “Farm to Trunk” food giveaways, purchasing

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everything from cheeses and meats to vegetables and grains from small farms and giving them away to locals in need.

“By supporting our local farms and

West Hill Shop's Jim Sweitzer, wearing the jersey that's become an icon in cycling.

out bags of food or brushing the snow off cars in the parking lots, Solimano is the type of leader who rolls up his sleeves and is out on the front lines with his employees.

those experiencing food insecurities, we hope to strengthen our community and inspire others,” Solimano said in a press release. And whether it's doling

JIM & DINY SWEITZER: WEST HILL’S SHEPHERDS Jim and Diny Sweitzer had big shoes to fill when they took over the West Hill Shop in Poultney in 2004. The shopwas founded by four families in the Brattleboro area, including Neil Quinn and Olympic Nordic ski racer Bob Gray. It quickly made a name in the cycling and Nordic skiing worlds. West Hill hosted the Tour de Valley and an annual cyclocross race. It hired employees such as Jim Langley and Don Cuerdon who went on to be editors at Bicycling Magazine and attracted clients that ranged from top racers to author John Irving.

The Sweitzers maintained that pedigree and grew the annual West Hill Cyclocross Race (which would have celebrated its 30th year in 2020) into an event that drew riders from around the country. They added new races, such as

THE MTB TRAIL BLAZERS

Tom Stuessy, VMBA's leader for the past 12 years.

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It’s hard to credit any one person with the trail networks that have spiderwebbed across the state.

Take John Worth, the owner of East Burke Sports.

He and a few others started secretly cutting trails in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the land around Darling Hill in East Burke. One of his goals was to sell more bikes in the summer to keep his ski shop open year-round.

“I remember coming home to Vermont one year after having moved out west to climb and suddenly there were all these bike trails,” another NEK native, Lilias Ide recalled recently. Lil introduced her brother Knight Ide, 27 at the time, to mountain biking.

Knight began to pitch in, helping to create banked turns on Kitchel, named for Doug Kitchel, a local businessman and former owner of Burke Mountain who helped gather support for trail building among local landowners—the start of Kingdom Trails.

Some 30 years later, Lil Ide serves as the communications director for Kingdom Trails. Knight Ide, also an artist in stone masonry and owner of a construction company, has gone on to become a professional trail builder whose work is in demand across the country. In addition to the work he’s done on Kingdom Trails and his backyard jump park, Knight has worked on trails in Waterbury at Little River State Park, Victory, East Haven and as far away as Knoxville, TN. Just as importantly, he’s helped coach a new generation of riders in the East Burke and beyond. “I want to make mountain biking part of the average Vermonter’s life, like soccer or

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the four-gap West Hill Grinder. While the Sweitzers respected the history of the old shop, they upgraded the plumbing and added a new building that, thanks to a solar array, is net negative In 2020, when it came time for the couple to retire, they shepherded the shop to new owners they knew would carry on its legacy: Nordic ski experts Zach and Amy Caldwell.

RJ THOMPSON & DEVIN LITTLEFIELD: THE HUT CREW For years people have talked about creating a hut to hut system in Vermont similar to what Colorado and Maine have.

In 2016, R.J. Thompson, an ultra runner and promoter of endurance events and Devin Littlefield, a digital marketer who had worked at Maine Huts & Trails set about making it happen. Vermont Huts now books eight cabin locations, from the Nulhegan Confluence Hut in the Northeast Kingdom to the Merck Forest cabins in southwestern Vermont, including the purpose-built Chittenden Brook Cabin, near Brandon Gap. And there's more to come.

NEIL VAN DYKE: THE MAN FOR THE RESCUE For 35 years Neil Van Dyke’s day job was serving as president/owner/ innkeeper of the Golden Eagle Resort in Stowe. But like a modern-day Clark Kent, his second job involved

basketball, a sport offered in school,” he told Bike Magazine in 2016.

While Knight Ide was building up in the Northeast Kingdom, Hardy Avery was organically cutting trails near his family home and nursery in Cady’s Falls, near Morrisville.

Avery, who had worked in Stowe’s mountain bike shop, IRide, dropped out of high school and helped found the Stowe Mountain Bike Club. As the trail manager, he helped build or develop more than 50 miles of trails in the area, working on Cady Hill and the Trapp Family Lodge trails. Avery formed his company Sustainable Trail Works and has also helped build out the Blueberry Lake network in Warren, and the Oak Ridge and Chandler Ridge trails in the Moosamaloo National Recreation Area, near Middlebury. He and partner Caitrin Maloney recently bought a farmhouse in Poultney and have helped build out much of the Slate Valley Trails network.

Though Avery and Ide have their own trail building businesses, they have also collaborated with Sinuousity, a trail building company run by Brooke Scatchard and Mariah Keagy. With a degree in geology from University of Vermont and an impressive resume as a mountain bike racer, Scatchard first volunteered to build trails at the Fellowship of the Wheel system. In 2013, Mariah Keagy, the former trails supervisor for the Appalachian Mountain Club with an M.S. in environmental studies, joined Sinuousity. The

Ultra runner R.J. Thompson not only envisioned a hut system that you could hike, bike or ski along, he made it happen. Courtesy photo.

responding instantly when a call came in for help: to locate a missing hiker, to search for skiers lost after dark, or to retrieve a body from a cliff base.

As Deputy Chief of Stowe Mountain Rescue, Van Dyke has helped save

more lives than he can probably count.

Stowe’s team, considered among the best in the country, has been called in to help with searches in the Adirondacks and beyond. In 2013, after state police failed to do a timely and thorough

team have since designed and built five miles of the Stratton Mountain trail system, Suicide Six’s downhill park, the new North Branch Park trails near Montpelier, Evolution in Waitsfield and numerous other projects including, most recently, work on trails in St. Albans Town Forest and Gifford Woods, near Killington.

Lastly, while chapters and trail builders have been on the front lines, the Vermont Mountain Bike Association has played a key role in coordinating growth around the state.

In 2012 when Tom Stuessy took over from Patrick Kell as executive director, VMBA was already, pardon the pun, on a roll. Kell, the organizations founding director, had worked to get access to the Green Mountain National Forest (thank him for Chandler Ridge in the Moosamaloo) and helped launch the Vermont Mountain Bike Festival.

Kell left VMBA in 2012 to join the International Mountain Bike Association and Stuessy, a former professor at Green Mountain College, stepped in.

Since then, Stuessy has helped to grow VMBA to 28 chapters and 7500 members.

Working with the chapters, he’s counted more than 200 miles of trails built and 1400 miles maintained. He’s worked to unite the chapters and to protect trails in the Act 250 legislative process. In 2021, Stuessy is stepping down and the organization is looking for a new executive director – some big shoes to fill.

Trailbuilder Hardy Avery, on the job.

Photo by Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

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Neil Van Dyke, coordinating a search and rescue in the Adirondacks.

Courtesy photo

search for a missing trail runner in Addison County (who was later found dead from hypothermia) Van Dyke

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stepped into a new role as Search and Rescue Coordinator for the state of Vermont. We are all the safer for him.

ZANDY WHEELER & KAREN GEORGE: SKIRACK'S PARENTS For the last 51 years, Skirack has helped shape the landscape of outdoor recreation in Vermont. It has been named Snowsports Retailer of the Year and Nordic Retailer of the Year by Ski Industries of America, one of the 20 Best Running Shops in America by Gear Patrol and has repeatedly made the list of America’s Best Bike Shops compiled by the National Bike Dealer’s Association.

It has put on clinics on everything from bike maintenance to running technique with top pros. And each year it fits and outfits kids from the King Street Center with running shoes free of charge so they can participate in the Junior Milers program.

Though it now has close to 100 employees and 22,000 sq. feet of retail space, Skirack is still very much a family-run business, fulfilling the vision

that Zandy Wheeler, his brother John, Spike Clayton and Zandy’s wife Karen George nourished for many years. Zandy’s brother John, who died in 1988 of a rare blood disease, was the force behind the Burlington Triathlon. Spike Clayton, who died last year, helped make the shop a go-to for Nordic skiing. And Zandy and Karen’s son John-George has been managing Burlington’s Patagonia store (the family also own Trailwear in Waterbury).

The shop continues to be the place athletes go for the right fit for a bike, skis or running shoes. ““What Skirack always did so well was hire experts who would help educate you. They didn’t just want to sell you something, they wanted to sell you the right something, something that would make you better, or faster or would let you have more fun in a sport” Burlington bike advocate Phil Hammerslough told Vermont Sports in 2019.

CRAIG WHIPPLE: VERMONT’S STATE PARK STEWARD Vermont has 55 state parks and during his 14-year tenure as Director of State Parks, Craig Whipple did his best to preserve and enhance them and get as many people out enjoying the parks as possible. Whipple was the mastermind behind the First Day Hikes—free, guided New Year’s Day hikes at parks across the state—and got doctors to

Skirack's Karen George and Zandy Wheeler and their kids, testing out the latest gear sometime in the 1990s.

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Courtesy Skirack.

Craig Whipple, Vermont's long-time park steward.

Court esy photo

hand out prescriptions for (and free passes to) a day in a park.

He helped to start the Venture Vermont outdoor challenge that encourages families to explore the outdoors and receive a free state parks pass. He spearheaded the founding of Vermont Parks Forever, the statewide non-profit friends group supporting the parks, and helped found the national State Parks Leadership School.

In 2016, he became one of only three Vermonters ever to be designated a “Legend” by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration.

Whipple, along with Commissioner Michael Snyder, was also responsible for creating and securing funding for the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative.

After nearly 40 years in state government Whipple retired in August,.

If you’re lucky, you might find him sitting around a campfire next summer, strumming bluegrass tunes on a guitar and telling stories to his grandkids.

PHIL WHITE: MASTER OF THE KINGDOM’S GAMES In October 2020, The Marathon Swimmers Federation recognized Phil White for a decade of work in developing open water swims in the Northeast Kingdom. It’s not the first such honor. In 2014, White was one of 12 runners up for World Open Water Swimming Association's (WOWSA) Man of the Year.

Though White might be recognized for having built up distance swimming events such as the 25-mile Search for Memphre, Kingdom Swim Week (where swimmers cross many of the NEK’s larger lakes) and the icy Winter Swim, he’s also the instigator of such beloved races such as the Dandelion Run – a half marathon with fiddlers stationed along the route, Fly to Pie – a point-to-point run to Parker Pie in Glover and The Moose—a bike tour of the less-traveled roads of the NEK. White's Kingdom Games started creating events in 20017 and by 2014, was attracting nearly 1,400 athletes from around the country and the world, including such budding stars as 16-year-old English Channel swimmer Vera Rivard.

A lawyer with degrees from Columbia and Georgetown, White once told Vermont Sports “The trial work helped me visualize the whole and be patient in working with the individual pieces as I was building an event.”

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Pro skater Chris "Cookie" Colbourn started skating at Talent when he was 9 years old. Photo courtesy Talent.

Phil White, Kingdom Games' champion (left) and Hannah Deene Smith (right), the force behind Talent.

DAVID WOOD & HANNAH DEENE WOOD: THE TALENT BEHIND TALENT Sometimes you don’t realize how much something means until it’s gone. That was the case with Talent Skatepark. The skatepark which David and Hannah Deene Wood opened in Williston in 2001 was a fixture in the community— the only indoor skatepark in Burlington

and the largest in New England.

As Joe Healy told the story in Vermont Sports. “After UVM, Hannah had been managing a skateboard shop in Burlington and customers kept telling her that the city needed an indoor skate park. One night, she met David Wood manager of a skate shop from Massachusetts and they started talking;

he designed and built skate parks professionally. Drawn together by their similar life interests, they ultimately decided to team up on a skateboard business in South Burlington, which they called Talent Skatepark & Shop.”

Before the skatepark even opened though, Hannah fell from a ladder and suffered a traumatic brain injury. She recovered and has become an advocate for TBI survivors. She also became a den mother of sorts to the thousands of kids who cycled through Talent, including such future stars as pro skater Chris “Cookie” Colbourn, who started at Talent when he was 9.

In 2018, the shop was facing stiff competition from online retailers and the couple had to shut Talent down.

That’s when the community stepped in.

Parents got together, local chefs held a fundraiser and Burton stepped in and offered to house Talent in 7,400 square feet of space in one of its warehouses in South Burlington.

A year ago, Talent reopened as a nonprofit skatepark and brought Hannah, who had been working at the Howard Center, back as executive director– and den mother to a new generation of skaters.

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ENDGAME

FROZEN IN PLACE

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE WITH BELOVED WINTER THAT MUST, ULTIMATELY, LIKE ALL THINGS, DEPART? BY LEATH TONINO The last light on a winter day, in a season that may itself be fleeting.

L

ast winter, I frostbit my big toes.

Not very badly, but the piggies still hurt now, they ache. Oh, my poor little piggies!

What brought about this abuse?

How did the season’s icy teeth find their way into my flesh, my nerves?

Was I dangling from a rope, climbing a frozen waterfall? Was I hucking a cliff on a snowboard, shredding the gnar?

Was I struggling through a survival scenario, the snowmobile broken, night fast approaching, my socks wet, my desperation crescendoing?

No, no, and no. Believe it or not, I was merely sitting outside, butt to a crystally drift, shivering, awaiting the alpenglow, that soft rise and fall of peachy light.

Basically, I was doing non-doing, trying my damnedest to quit trying, to just be, to go passive and thereby allow the place its, well, place—in my mind, in my senses, in my big toes.

Wait, you were frostbitten how?

Doing what? You more or less invited the season’s icy teeth into your body?

As a kid growing up in Vermont, alpine skiing was my favorite sport.

By the end of my teens, though, I had begun to lose interest in the scene, in the mountains scalped (trails) and plumbed (snowmaking infrastructure).

For a spell, I got interested in backcountry touring, but even that proved too sporty for my taste. An athletic approach to the local terrain can be great, very stimulating, yet it

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can also be distracting, just as a game with an abundance of moving pieces and fine print rules can be distracting.

Increasingly, my desire is elemental simplicity. I want to—pun alert—chill with landscapes.

These days the chilling looks something like this: On a wintry Sunday afternoon in, I click into my old scratched Nordic skis and aimlessly poke about the woods, tracing a crooked creek with pillowed banks. After three or four miles, tired of breaking trail, I plunk myself down and promptly commence spacing out. Seconds slide into minutes, minutes into the bottomless pool of an hour. Nothing happens, everything happens, and there I am, right there—at the center of both, center of the action.

Often, I bring a beer or two on these excursions. Always, I bring an intention to hang tight, hang on, go for the ride regardless of how uncomfortable a ride it may be, regardless of the uncertain destination. I nod at kingfishers: Stay warm dudes! I contemplate a leaning spruce, the elegant angle of its slant: Don’t topple, buddy! Eventually, the alpenglow rises, the alpenglow falls, and beneath early sparking stars I begin the homeward push. Teeth chattering.

Happyish.

What it amounts to is an obsession with making winter itself—the cold, the stillness, the sharp shadows, the

“We can't depend on winter. Can't expect it, are not entitled to its regular presence in our lives. The question then becomes: How do you engage with the beloved, the beloved that must ultimately depart?” nuthatch’s faint nasal call, the fox’s paw print, the killer storms, the uncountable shades of gray, the calm black water— my recreation.

Do the place. Let the place do you.

Admittedly, it can feel odd, slouching there in my creekside drift, to consider that literally thousands of people are hooting and hollering, chasing adrenaline, having tons of thrills at nearby ski resorts. Odd, but okay. I choose the edge of hypothermia as my hobby, at least for now.

In the climate-deranged 21st century, it’s hardly uncommon to hear talk of winter fleeing, a desperate heat chasing it to the Poles and beyond, out to the frigid recesses of the universe. We can’t depend on winter, in other words.

We can’t expect it, are not entitled to its regular presence in our lives. The

question thus becomes: How do you engage with the beloved, the beloved that must, ultimately, like all things, depart—that is departing?

Some rush, rush, rush, pursuing “the stoke” through moguls and fresh pow. Fair enough. As a kid, that was my fancy, too. I don’t judge this pastime of my past. Heck, I recognize that almost everybody I know is having more fun (in the conventional, smiley-giggly sense of “fun”) than I am on a given Sunday.

Again, this is odd, but okay. Fun is fun. Doing the place is doing the place.

All I really want is winter as a gateway to winter, the land as a gateway to the land. All I really want are those fleeting moments of alpenglow, the color rising, the color falling, here, here, here and then gone.

So yeah, I frostbit my big toes last winter—the place got inside of them, inside my flesh and nerves, and left its mark. And you know what they say about frostbite: Once your piggies have been nibbled, have been chomped, they remain sensitive for a number of years afterward.

This winter is going to be rough, no doubt. I’m going to relish every painful moment.

Ferrisburgh native Leath Tonino is the author of two essay collections, most recently The West Will Swallow You (Trinity University Press, 2019).

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