Vermont Sports 2023 June Edition

With our expert clinical evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment, recovery is faster than ever. You’ll get back to the activities you love as quickly— and painlessly—as possible.

u Advanced anesthesiology techniques mean patients are less groggy when they wake up.

u Immediate physical therapy consultation gets patients up and moving fast.

u Better pain control allows patients to return home the day of surgery.

and

VERMONT SPORTS

ON THE COVER: Summertime, and the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail is easy. Photo courtesy Yva Rose/Lamoille Valley Bike Tours

PUBLISHER

Angelo Lynn - publisher@vtsports.com

EDITOR/CO-PUBLISHER

Lisa Lynn - editor@vtsports.com

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Shawn Braley

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.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

David Goodman, Brian Mohr, Phyl Newbeck, Leath Tonino

CIRCULATION

Sadie Messenger | (802) 388-4944 frontdesk@addisonindependent.com

ADVERTISING

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

ADVERTISING SALES

Greg Meulemans | (802) 366-0689 greg@vtsports.com

Wilkie Bushby | (646) 831-5647 wilkie@vtskiandride.com

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

SUBSCRIPTIONS, PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION editor@vtsports.com

EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION OFFICE

Vermont Sports | 58 Maple Street Middlebury, Vt. 05753 | 802-388-4944

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

BE SOCIAL!

www.facebook.com/VermontSportsMagazine

Twitter: @Vermont_Sports www.instagram.com/vtsportsmag

VERMONT SPORTS IS A PROUD MEMBER OF

5 The Start

Fight FOMO. Stay Home. Why fight traffic or deal with TSA? There’s plenty to do here this summer.

7 News New Trailside Bike Inns

From Rochester to Johnson, these new lodgings have been built by cyclists for cyclists.

8 News

How Safe is It Out There?

An axe-wielding camper, a squatter and stalker on the Long Trail. What’s happening to our wild places?

11 Health

Should You Replace Meat?

New science on meat and meat substitutes says ‘not so fast.’

14 Feature

The Insiders’ Guide to The Lamoille Valley Rail Trail

The full 93-mile trail opened in May. Here’s how to ride from Swanton to St. Johnsbury and what to do along the way.

20 Feature Bikepacking Baja

The Baja Divide Trail runs nearly 1700 miles down the peninsula. Here’s how two Vermont mountain bikers rode it.

ADVERTISERS!

The

24 Locals’ Favorites

Hometown Favorites

We asked top riders what their favorite MTB trails are. Here are their picks.

28 Featured Athlete

The Mentor

Rachel Cohen is teaching a new generation to love two wheel transport.

30 Calendar Race & Event Guide

34 Endgame

My Life of First Ascents

Climbing mountains, real or imagined, captivates us.

“This is my ‘desert island trail,’ the one I would take with me if I could just bring one,” says Nick Bennette of VMBA. Where is it? See p. 24.

Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

THE START

BEAT FOMO. STAY HOME. WITH NEW TRAILS, NEW TRAILSIDE INNS, AND NEW EVENTS, IT GETS EASIER AND EASIER TO DO STAYCATIONS IN VERMONT.

as I try to get to places where everyone else seems to want to go. Instead, it’s discovering a new part of the state I live in.

As we put this issue together, I thought of more than a dozen places I’d like to plan to get to this summer. Yes, I’ve ridden parts of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail – but not the whole thing, as we write about on page 14.

“What are you up to this summer?” That’s a question I dread. For years, I felt like I had to plan out Every. Single. Precious. Summer Weekend.

FOMO (fear of missing out) prompted me to make plans from June to September to visit friends in New England and beyond, to fly to Colorado to hike, to accept every beach house invite, every chance to go sail a friend’s boat on the coast of Maine.

Then the pandemic hit. We stayed in Vermont. We didn’t plan. We didn’t visit friends. And it was glorious.

Suddenly, I rediscovered the reasons I moved here in the first place some 20 years ago: the long bike rides through farmland of Addison County, splashing in cold, hidden mountain cascades, weaving a fat-tired bike through a narrow forest trail, camping out under a million and nine stars.

Now, more and more, when I think of “traveling” in the summer, it’s not hopping on an airplane or sitting in traffic

I’ve been downhill mountain biking at a few ski areas, but not ones such as Stratton or Bolton which have new bike parks and trails. I’ve ridden a number of gravel rides or road rides but there are a slew of ones that are either new or I have yet to discover: Grateful Gravel out of Sugarbush (Grateful Dead + bike riding? Yes, please), Tunbridge’s The Ranger (why have I missed this one before?) ,and the new gravel routes at long-standing classics such as the Kelly Brush Ride and the VSECU Point to Point.

I also want to head to Outerbike and Flow State (the mountain bike festival) ride the new sections of the Velomont Trail on trails such Rochester’s Swan Dive. And I’m eager to check into Rochester’s new The Stable Inn, Waitsfield’s Rider’s Outpost or one of the tiny houses in Johnson’s Uncommon Accommodations.

The only problem is now there are so many things to do here in Vermont that I’ve started planning out Every. Single. Summer Weekend.

But at least they are all here in the Green Mountains. And I don’t have to deal with TSA.

—Lisa Lynn, Editor

Ethan Allen Biathlon Club 2023 Summer Race Series

DATES July 6, 13, 20, August 3,10, 17

TIMES WHERE

5:00 pm - Mandatory Safety Clinic 5:30 to 6:00 pm - Zeroing 6:10 pm - Race Start

Ethan Allen Biathlon Club

Ethan Allen Rd., Jericho, VT

What summer should look like, in the rearview mirror.

NEW TRAILSIDE INNS

DESIGNED BY CYCLISTS FOR RIDERS, THESE THREE NEW TRAILSIDE ACCOMMODATIONS MAY REDEFINE INN TO INN BIKE TOURS. BY LISA LYNN

Over the last few decades Doon Hinderyckx has watched Rochester grow as a bike town. What has been a popular stop for road bike tours, has quickly become a destination unto itself, thanks to the work done by the Ridgeline Outdoor Collective.

Now, with new sections of the proposed Velomont being built (Swan Dive was recently completed near Tunnel Ridge Road), the charming town of Rochester is becoming a mountain bike hub.

Hinderyckx owns and runs Green Mountain Bicycles in Rochester – with an increased focus on e-bikes – and his partner Anni Mackay has the Big Town Gallery next door. In May, the couple opened The Stable Inn in an 1840s timber-frame building that had once been, yes, a stable, right next to the bike shop.

With Mackay’s design sense and works from some of the artists she represents, this is a fresh take on what an inn can be. The 14 rooms have shared kitchens (and many share a bathroom) and reasonable rates. “The idea is we want this to be a meeting place where people mingle,” Mackay says. The inn is also sustainable and powered by solar and heated with wood pellets. Rooms start at $100.

Just up Route 100 in Warren, Jonny Adler (one of the founders of The Skinny Pancake) is bringing a new bike motel to life, with lodging, a restaurant and a 2,000 sq. ft. gear and bike shop run by the Burlington retail powerhouse, Outdoor Gear Exchange. Adler and his partners bought the former Egan’s Big

World/Madbush Lodge and its 20 acres off Route 100 for $1.5 million in 2022 and have been revamping it as Riders Outpost.

“What sold me was there’s this gorgeous waterfall right behind the lodge – Madbush Falls – and there’s easy connectivity to the Mad River Valley trails,” says Adler.

The plans call for 21 motel-style rooms with places to clean and store bikes and gear, as well as bunk rooms and proposed cabins and glamping tent sites.

"We also plan to have a gear lending library with all the things you need for a bike adventure, such as Yeti coolers, folding chairs, bike pumps, you name it,” says Adler. Opening dates are still

to be determined but Adler hopes to open the shop and restaurant this July, with rooms available by the end of the summer.

Travis Daniel, the former chef de cuisine at Juniper in Burlington’s Hotel Vermont, has signed on as executive chef. “The menu looks really good,” says Adler. “Almost too good for what we had imagined, but hey!”

During the pandemic, former Tour de France racer Tyler Wren had to pivot. His mainstay business running Farm to Fork Fondos and guided bike tours was put on hold during Covid.

Wren saw the surge in Airbnbs and bought property on the Lamoille River in Johnson, just across from the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

There, he has set up Uncommon Accommodations. The name fits: Accommodations range from basic tent sites with fire pits and river access to beautifully appointed tiny homes with hot tubs.

There’s even an Airstream trailer and a yurt. Each rents out on sites such as Airbnb and rates are reasonably priced. “We’ve been practically full ever since we opened,” says Wren, who can provide bike pumps for those riding the LVRT or nearby trails.

Rochester's The Stable Inn features 14 fresh, modern rooms and a community kitchen. Next door there's Green Mountain Bicycles and the Big Town Gallery. Photo courtesy The Stable Inn

This summer Riders Outpost opens with rooms, cabins, and campsites. It also has its own swimming hole, restaurant and Outdoor Gear Exhange outpost —and a lending outdoor gear library. Photo Wendell Anderson

In Johnson just on the Lamoille River and across from the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, cyclist Tyler Wren has built Uncommon Accommodations with tiny homes, yurts, campsites and Airsteam trailers. Photo Tyler Wren

HOW SAFE ARE OUR CAMPSITES?

A RECENT INCIDENT AT A STATE PARK AND AN ONGOING PROBLEM AT A LONG TRAIL SHELTER ARE NEW REASONS TO BE VIGILANT IF YOU ARE OUT IN THE WILD THIS SUMMER.

BY LISA LYNN

Su Mittra is an ultrarunner from Massachusetts who has competed in multiple events –most recently running 44 trail miles at Ripton's Infinitus -- but she wasn’t prepared for what she encountered on the Long Trail last July. “It was just really creepy,” she recalls.

Mittra, her wife and two friends had planned to spend a weekend hiking and camping in the Killington area and to spend a night at the Pico shelter on the Long Trail.

“The first sign someone was there was we found these bottles of juice that were half-empty near a water source. It looked like someone had just left them there but we didn’t see anyone around,” she says. They continued on and settled in at the shelter. The sun had set and it was getting dark when they heard a man singing outside.

“He didn’t try to come in or acknowledge we were there,” she recalls. Instead, he began breaking large branches right behind the shelter and spread a tarp out. They peered out the window. “We were pretty sure from what my wife had read online that he was “Salt,” Mittra says. “He had long gray hair and squinty eyes.” Then the man started singing “Burn, Pico Burn.” “That’s when we decided to get out of

there,” Mittra says.

The four packed up their gear and while Mittra kept an eye behind them on the trail, they left the shelter in the dark, hoping to eventually make their way back to Route 4 and then hitch a ride to Gifford Woods State Park and their car.

What they knew at the time was that “Salt” had been living in or around the Pico shelter for several years. On Sept. 4, 2021 he had allegedly stopped a woman on the Long Trail and began touching

her and talking about crimes he had committed. That same day, he came into the Pico shelter, straddled a female hiker from behind and began giving her an unwanted massage. Both incidents were reported to the police. Vermont Sports published a first-hand account online at the time by one of the women, who asked to remain anonymous.

What Mittra and her friends didn’t know was that in July of 2020 Scott Saltis of Poultney (who goes by the trail name “Salt” ) was accused of arson after a camp where he had been squatting on private property burned to the ground. Saltis is due in court in Rutland in June 2023.

“As far as we know, Salt has been living at the Pico shelter or near it for the last couple of years, but it’s been hard to do anything about it,” acknowledged Mike Debonis, the executive director of the Green Mountain Club. While the club manages The Long Trail, the shelter and the cabin are owned by POWDR Corp., which owns Killington and Pico ski areas.

“Our shelters are open to the public and hard to close off. We only very occasionally get squatters and they usually leave after we speak with them,” Debonis says. “In this instance, our only recourse has been to close the Pico

shelter and post it with ‘No Trespassing’ signs,” he says. The shelter will be closed as of Memorial Day.

On May 21, 2023 another man was arrested at Gifford State Park after hitting a vehicle with an axe and threatening to chop off heads. Three young campers from Pennsylvania were in their car when Ralph Schneider, 61, approached them with an axe and accused them of shining lights into his campsite. According to police reports, a fourth man, David Chandler, 42, was leaning against the car when Schneider pinned him there, then smashed the car with his axe and threatened to kill them.

Police took Schneider, who said he was homeless, into custody.

Since the pandemic, Vermont has had the second highest rate of homelessness in the country with 43 out of every 10,000 without a home. However, Vermont has also been able to find temporary shelters for most: only 2% of those who are unhoused live outdoors.

“Generally, we think of the Long Trail as just as safe, if not safer, than any other town or community you might come across. But you should trust your instincts when you are on it. If something or somebody doesn’t feel right, listen to your gut,” Debonis advises.

TREE DANCING, ANYONE?

In 2021, after touring with such companies as Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey, and winning awards for their inventive duo trapeze act, Serenity Smith Forchion and her twin sister Elsie Smith settled in to southern Vermont. Their father runs a sawmill and raises beef on Sunrise Farm in Guilford and the vaulted roof of the barn gave space to set up an indoor trapeze space for the sisters to rehearse. They co-founded Nimble Arts performing company as well as the non-profit education center the New England Center for Circus Arts, which has expanded to become the leading circus school in the U.S..

This summer, the sisters are offering a new course: Tree dancing. “The rope and harness make the experience of dancing and doing acrobatics with the trees lower impact on the body, so it’s something that most people can do once they learn how to use the rope assist to climb,” says Forchion

Workshops are open to any curious movers - aerialist, climber, researcher, dancer, arborist, acrobat, explorer – no prior experience necessary.  The harnesses and ropes allow participants to leap and fly without the impact of landing back on the earth making it achievable by non-dancers, while also expanding what dancers can do with trees as a performance element. Tree dancing workshops are being held in Brattleboro June 30 – July 2 and Weare, N.H. August 11 – 13.

Scott Saltis, who goes by the trail name "Salt" had his mug shot taken after an arson incident.

SHOULD YOU REPLACE MEAT?

BEFORE YOU CUT BACK, REPLACE OR ELIMINATE MEAT FROM YOUR DIET, CONSIDER WHAT THE LATEST SCIENCE SAYS ABOUT THE HEALTH OF MEAT AND THE NEW ALTERNATIVE MEAT PRODUCTS.

BY JAMIE SHEAHAN, M.S., M.D

It’s barbecue season. As an athlete with a focus on health should you opt for: a) a burger or steak, b) a Beyond Burger or tofu burger or c) go for chicken, fish or vegetables?

For many, the answer is: we should all eat less meat. Meat production takes a high toll on the environment. But even more so, numerous studies have shown that high intake of red meat can increase the risk of developing heart disease and cancer.

In fact, one observational study on more than 120,000 people found that just one additional serving of red meat per day increased risk of death by 13%, cardiovascular disease by 18% and of cancer mortality by 10%.

Another large study found that replacing just one serving of red meat per day with a plant-based protein cut the risk of developing heart disease by 47%.

Keep in mind these are observational studies; thus, we cannot conclude a cause-effect relationship, only correlation. Still, those numbers are hard to ignore even for those who love a juicy burger.

MISSING PROTEIN AND WHAT ELSE?

Athletes who focus on their nutrition are often aware of these concerns. A survey of competitive American female runners showed that over 40% avoid red meat for health reasons.

However, eliminating red meat from one’s diet can feel a bit at odds with what athletes are told our bodies need. In many ways red meat is an ideal food for those who put their bodies through the rigors of daily training.

Packed with protein, as well as iron, B vitamins and zinc, the case against red meat isn’t necessarily as clear-cut for athletes. To understand why these nutrients are so critical for athletes and therefore why meat is often seen as a dietary necessity, it’s helpful to examine the role each plays in performance.

Protein regularly gets top billing for athletes because of its role in muscle growth and recovery. During strenuous exercise, muscle experiences microtears which stimulate the body’s recovery response to build larger and stronger muscles. In order to do so, adequate protein is a must.

The amount of protein necessary to support muscle protein synthesis is dependent on age and the type

of exercise stimulus, with most recommendations falling in the range of 1.4 – 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. In addition to quantity of protein, quality is paramount.

Essential amino acids, in particular leucine, must be in high enough concentrations to maximize muscle protein synthesis. Considering that an average serving of red meat provides 20-24 grams of protein and one of the highest amounts of essential amino acids of any food source, it’s easy to see why athletes look to red meat to meet their needs.

There’s more to the merits of meat than just protein. Iron is an essential component of hemoglobin and myoglobin, oxygen-carrying proteins that are crucial for energy metabolism. Failure to consume enough iron can result in an iron deficiency, or in severe cases, anemia, which limits the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to muscles, thereby inhibiting athletic performance.

It may come as surprise that most beans and legumes provide just as much iron as red meat. However, only 2% to 20% of iron obtained from plant-based sources can be absorbed by the body. When compared to the 15% to 35% absorption of iron from animal sources, it is understandable why athletes are skeptical of meeting their iron needs from plant sources alone.

B vitamins are also cited as a key component of an athlete’s diet because

of their role in energy metabolism, red blood cell formation, and muscle protein synthesis.

Whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products are on par with or even superior to red meat in their B vitamin content with one notable exception; vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal sources like red meat, but is completely absent in plant foods other than those that have been enriched or in nutritional yeast.

Last, but not least, zinc is another micronutrient key for athletes to perform at their best. Required for energy metabolism, immune health, and injury recovery, zinc is lost in small amounts in sweat, which makes obtaining adequate amounts from diet all the more important for athletes. Unlike iron, the zinc content of plant-based foods pales in comparison to that of red meat. Compounded with the lower bioavailability of zinc in plant foods it’s clear why many athletes feel they won’t be able to meet their needs without meat in their diet.

MEAT’S BAD RAP

So how and why did eating red meat earn such a bad rap? Up until the mid20th century, meat comprised a very small portion of the human diet. Only the wealthy could slice into a steak with any regularity and, even then, it was reserved mostly for special occasions. That all changed with the dawn of commercialized farming and fast food. Suddenly meat was cheap and readily available.

As Americans’ meat consumption

skyrocketed so too did the incidence of heart disease. In the 1970’s the American Heart Association attributed this concerning trend to the intake of cholesterol and saturated fat; two things red meat happens to be particularly high in.

In 1977, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs created Dietary Goals, recommending Americans decrease their consumption of red meat. This was the first shot in what would turn out to be a long war.

One would think that more than a half-century later the debate over whether red meat is good or bad for us would be over. Far from it. Just ten months after the initial publication all but condemning red meat, a new edition provided a more watereddown version. The revised publication encouraged Americans to simply decrease consumption of animal fat and choose meats that would reduce their intake of saturated fat.

As the Dietary Goals evolved into what is now the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published every five years, subsequent recommendations have continued to avoid fully advising altogether eliminating red meat.

When it comes to human health, there is still a certain equivocation among scientists as to the merits and risks of red meat. As recently as 2019, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a study that found “low” evidence red meat poses a health risk. The researchers concluded that there is no medical basis for reducing intake of red meat.

Medical journals aren’t typically a hotbed for drama, but this declaration was as divisive as Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. The response from the medical community was indignant, with most medical professionals disputing the findings of the study and doubling down on the link between red meat and disease.

ARE FAUX BURGERS BETTER?

However, what’s also true is that it’s never been trendier or easier to go meat-less. Thanks to the plethora of meat alternative products like Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger, Meatless Monday no longer means resigning oneself to a dinner bereft of protein and flavor.

Cutting out, or simply cutting down, on red meat can be appealing even to

It's BBQ season. What protein should you throw on the grill? Photo Adobe Stock

the most diehard carnivore when the alternative is designed to taste and even “bleed” like the real deal. However, the benefits of making the switch aren’t quite that straightforward

Meat alternatives seem to have answered the prayers of those who want their proverbial cake and to eat it too. Of course, meat alternatives are nothing new. Veggie burgers, tofu dogs and the like have been a staple of many shunning meat for quite some time. However, new products have been designed to more closely resemble meat in taste, texture and — perhaps most importantly to athletes — nutritional value.

Two companies that have risen to the top of the ranks in the alternative meat market are Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Both provide an array of products from the classic burger to sausage and meatballs.

Are these meat substitutes better alternatives though, or more hype than help for athletes that want the benefits of red meat without the potential health consequences?

Take a look at the most popular product from each company; the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger.

As shown in the table, at first glance, it would seem that both measure up when compared to a traditional beef burger. Both provide similar amounts of calories, protein, zinc, and vitamin B12. Where they do differ from a regular burger is the level of processing. Both the Beyond Burger and Impossible are highly processed foods.

The ingredient list for the Beyond Burger includes water, pea protein, canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, dried yeast, cocoa butter, methylcellulose, potato starch, salt, potassium chloride, beet juice color, apple extract, pomegranate concentrate, sunflower lecithin,

vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, zinc sulfate, niacinamide [vitamin B3], pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12], calcium pantothenate).

The Impossible Burger includes a similarly lengthy list of ingredients with the primary difference being the use of soy protein concentrate instead of pea and rice as the protein sources. The ingredient list for a beef burger is simple; ground beef.

All of those ingredients also set the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger apart in another notable way; higher saturated fat content. Yes, you read that right. The very reason red meat was blacklisted in the first place.

Now, we get to the real meat of the issue (pun intended). Switching from red meat to a meat alternative can be, but isn’t always, healthier. It comes down to what that red meat is being substituted with. Studies show that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats cuts heart disease risk by 19%. Hence the oft-touted health benefits of switching to a more plantbased diet because, by and large, whole food sources of plant-based proteins contain heart healthy unsaturated fats and negligible amounts of saturated fat.

However, Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger may technically be plant-based, but perhaps they are too similar to the foods they are meant to replace. Couple that with the fact that the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger contain over four times the sodium of a traditional burger and suddenly the case for the merits for these meat alternatives is hard to argue.

This can leave athletes with a bit of a conundrum. Per calorie, whole food plant-based protein sources tend to be lower in protein than animal products leading many to believe that their performance will suffer if they forgo

THE LEAN FACTS

consuming animal products.

However, studies have found that vegans and vegetarians have equivalent or even higher levels of muscle strength, endurance, and cardiorespiratory fitness than those who consume meat. Athletes who are plant-based just have to be a bit more deliberate with their food choices to ensure they are meeting their needs. Tofu, tempeh, edamame, seitan, beans, lentils, quinoa, and peas are all good sources of protein and provide an array of other important nutrients for athletes.

A GREENER SOLUTION?

A concern for the animal welfare and the environment, not health, may be the biggest motivating factor for some athletes opting for a meat alternative.

Livestock comprises 15% of the global greenhouse emissions and the growing worldwide demand for meat is directly at odds with goals to slow down the effects of climate change.

In fact, a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that simply cutting carbon emissions from automobiles and factories won’t be enough to avert catastrophic effects from climate change and that shifting to a more plant-based diet is critical to do so. For those who enjoy consuming meat it can be hard to reconcile the desire to dig into a burger with the aspiration of reducing one’s carbon footprint.

Industrial chicken and fish farming have also been shown to have significant impacts on the environment. That’s where meat alternatives may come in. Impossible Foods claims that the Impossible Burger uses 87% less water, requires 96% less land, and has 89% lower greenhouse gas emissions than a beef burger. With those impressive stats it seems Impossible Foods may just might live up to its tagline of “Eat

Meat. Save the Planet.” Beyond Meat boasts similar eco-friendly numbers that offer promise for a world where a simple swap from meat to meat-like can save the planet.

As with the health benefits of meat alternatives, the claims of environmental superiority are not without controversy. Critics have been quick to point out that producing the ingredients for meat alternatives still relies on industrial farming practices.

Neither Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods disclose their total amount of greenhouse gas emissions, however experts overwhelmingly estimate it to be far less than that of meat production.

It is also widely recognized that switching from meat to whole food sources of plant-based protein has a much more significant positive impact on the environment than to more processed plant proteins.

But let’s be real, at least for right now a large portion of the population would turn up their noses at the very idea of dining on baked tofu over a burger. Thus, perhaps Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods offer a compromise of sorts or even a stepping stone away from reliance on red meat.

When it comes down to it, athletes considering a less meat-centric diet must evaluate what their motives for doing so are. Beyond Meat and Impossible Food products may not be the healthier meat alternative they purport to be, but it doesn’t have to be so black and white.

Ultimately, moderation is one of the cornerstones of a healthy diet. Whether it is a highly processed meat alternative or actual red meat, both can be a part of a healthy diet when consumed in moderation.

While alternative meat products such as Beyond Burger or Impossible Burger may seem like healthier choices, a side-by-side comparison with ground beef shows the facts.

Are meatless burgers better? The numbers tell the story. Photo Adobe Stock

The Insiders’ Guide to

THE LAMOILLE VALLEY

RAIL TRAIL

When Yva Rose was growing up in Wolcott 20 years ago, a bike was simply a mode of transportation for her. “I’d ride down to the store or over to a friend’s house. It wasn’t like I was a ‘cyclist’,” she recalls.

When she first heard about plans for turning the old railbed into a rail trail, her first thought was ‘transportation.

‘The rail bed was built between 1869 and 1877 as the Vermont portion of train service that connected Portland, Me. with Ogdensburg N.Y.

The railway had last operated in the 1990s. But in 2006, a group of locals and the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers submitted a proposal to the state to turn the entire railbed into a

bike path. “I figured people would use it to commute by bike from town to town along the trail,” Yva says.

Her husband Jim Rose, a mountain biker from New Hampshire who went to Johnson State College, thought of the rail trail in a different vein. For him, it could be a destination unto itself, 93 miles of double track.

“I remember the first time we rode a section of it as a family, it must have been in 2015,” Yva recalls. “After, we both looked at each other and said: we gotta do this.”

Eight years and more than 30 million federal and state grant dollars later, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail is now the longest rail trail in New England.

Gravel bikes, mountain bikes and e-bikes are all at home on the crushed gravel surfaces of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Photo by David Goodman

THE FINAL SECTIONS OF THE LONGEST RAIL TRAIL IN NEW ENGLAND OPENED OVER MEMORIAL DAY. HERE’S A LOCAL’S GUIDE TO HOW TO RIDE THE TRAIL, END-TO-END.

Already, sections have become popular with bike commuters, mountain bikers, touring cyclists on e-bikes, gravel riders, runners, and in winter, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. Sections of it will also form part of the proposed state-long Velomont Trail. Over Memorial Day weekend, the last two segments of the LVRT that had been

closed – a sinkhole in Walden between Bayley-Hazen Road and Keene Road and the historic Fisher Covered Bridge in Wolcott – opened.

This summer, for the first time, the entire 93-miles of trail will be open. It’s a moment the Roses have been planning for. The “this” Yva was referring to is the business the Roses now run out of

Johnson; Lamoille Valley Bike Tours.

“We have our rail trail shuttle schedule up on our website, we have a fleet of rental bikes – mainly e-bikes — and we are working on a guidebook to the rail trail,” Yva says.

The Lamoille Valley Bike Tours shuttle service will run three days a week with stops from St. Johnsbury to

Swanton on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “That means you can do the whole trail one way, or part of the trail, and then get the shuttle with your bike back to your car,” says Rose. The couple also offer guided tours and e-bike rentals out of their shop in Johnson and have partnered with Vermont Canoe and Kayak to offer an “E-bikes and Boats”

tour with upstream riding the LVRT and downstream paddling on the adjacent Lamoille River.

With other bike shops en route such as Bootlegger Bikes in Jeffersonville, Chuck’s and Power Play Sports in Morristown, there’s support for cyclists along most of the middle segment.

“I am sure we are going to start to see more businesses pop up along the trail –especially lodging,” Yva says. “And the rail trail still needs to have more options for overnight parking,” she admits.

The trail passes through 18 communities, many of which have been building additional trails to better connect the trail to their towns, creating opportunities for new businesses that cater to rail trail visitors. Trail hubs with signage and facilities are springing up, such as the renovated old train station in Danville or the new terminus hub in St. Johnsbury.

There’s no one way to ride the trail, but as Yva says, “We always recommend that folks ride the trail from west to east and, if they can, make it a three-day journey. It really breaks out nicely into three sections, each roughly 30 miles but it’s also fun to do it in more,” she notes.

Here’s why and some of her recommendations for stops along the way.

SWANTON TO JEFFERSONVILLE: FARMLAND AND MOUNTAINS

A few of the reasons why Yva Rose recommends riding the trail west to east? “For starters, the first 30 miles probably have the fewest places to stop and stock up. Also, the trail tends to be a bit rougher from Swanton to Cambridge so it’s good to bike that section while you are fresh,” she says.

But another reason? The views. Traveling west to east, the first section traverses open rolling farmland dotted with grazing cows, silos rising up from family dairy farms and come late summer, shoulder-high cornfields. Ahead, the Green Mountains rise up.

The trail starts off Swanton’s Robin Hood Drive, just 30 miles north of Burlington. The town is still the tribal headquarters of the Abenaki, known as the “People of the Dawn” and the region’s earliest known inhabitants.

In Swanton, make time to get a creemee at Maple City Candy and take the self-guided walking tour of the town for a good cultural history of the region. Or explore the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge. One of the Northeast’s most important stopovers for migratory birds, the refuge trails just northwest of town take you deep into the marsh. The Vermont section of the Northern Forest

Canoe Trail also starts here, sending paddlers up the Missisquoi.

From Swanton, the trail parallels Route 78 to Highgate. “Make a stop there to visit Highgate Falls,” Yva recommends. A historic truss bridge is one of the best viewing spots.

Soon after, the scenery becomes more rural—all rolling hills and open farm fields as the trail follows the Missisquoi to Sheldon. Here, the trail intersects with the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail, which runs from St. Albans all the way to Richford, near the Canadian border.

After Sheldon, it’s about 11 miles until the unincorporated town of East Fairfield, about 20 miles from Swanton. There are no shops there but a slight detour to Chester Arthur Road takes you to the Chester Arthur Historic Site. The home is a replica of the birthplace of the 21st president.

For another 10 miles the trail parallels Bakersfield Road before coming into Cambridge Junction, where giant concrete silos painted by artist Sarah Rutherford mark the junction of Routes 15 and 108

“Cambridge is a great place to end the first day,” says Yva. For those who want to camp, she recommends the Brewster River Campground, a few miles up Route 108, near the cold pools of the Brewster River Gorge. “Grab a burger at the Burger Barn or a more substantial dinner at The Village Tavern or Martells,” she suggests. The next morning, stop off at The Farm Store for a coffee and muffin or to get a sandwich to go.

Stay: At Highgate Springs near Swanton, Tyler Place has week-long waterfront cottage rentals. It’s a great place to base out of if you are riding sections of the Missisquoi and Lamoille

Wolcott native Yva Rose and her husband Jim (above right) were inspired to start Lamoille Valley BIke Tours after riding the trail as a family. Today, their Johnson-based business offers shuttle service the length of the trail — from Swanton to St. Johnsbury — three days a week. Photos courtesy Lamoille Valley Bike Tours.

Jeffersonville's silos, painted by artist Sarah Rutherford, are the largest murals in Vermont .

Valley Rail Trails. For shorter stays, other than the Swanton Motel, The Hampton Inn and La Quinta in St. Albans may be the next best bets. Right in downtown Jeffersonville, the Smuggler’s Notch Inn has 11 rooms as well as a tavern in a 1790s farmhouse. Nearby Smuggler’s Notch Resort has no shortage of great places to stay, but you may need to bike up Route 108 to get there. Sterling Ridge Resort has cabins that sleep two to ten. Pitch a tent at Brewster River Campground, across from the pools at Brewster River Gorge.

Eat/Drink: If you are ending the day in the Jeffersonville area, stop in at Smuggler’s Notch Distillery or Red Leaf Gluten-Free Brewing for a tasting. If you want a hearty breakfast to start the day, 158 Main serves brunch until 2:00 p.m., Thursdays-Sundays. The Brewster River Pub, Martell’s and the Village Tavern are

good dinner spots.

Bike shops: Bootlegger Bike Shop has full-service shops in both St. Albans and Cambridge and offers rentals and repairs as well as e-bikes.

CAMBRIDGE TO HARDWICK: SMALL TOWNS & BREWERIES

The busiest section of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail? The roughly 15 miles between Cambridge and Morristown. One of the earliest completed segments, the trail follows the Lamoille River for much of the way zig zagging through farm fields with views of Mt. Mansfield and the spine of the Greens.

If you’re an avid cyclist, prepare to be patient on a summer weekend: there may well be hikers or slower bike traffic on parts of this section. But there are also dozens of reasons not to rush it and to stop along the way. Don’t miss stepping off the trail in Johnson, whether it’s to take a dip

in the large swimming hole in the Gihon River off School Street or to shop for the classic Vermont woolen pants and other apparel at Johnson Woolen Mills.

A former mill town, many of Johnson’s historic buildings are now part of the Vermont Studio Center, which hosts writers and artists for creative retreats and the Center’s Red Mill Gallery often showcases their work. Fuel up with a locally-roasted brew that benefits people in recovery at Jenna’s Coffee Shop and then head back to the trail.

Just past the village, at Dog’s Head Falls the Lamoille River drops about 5 feet over a rock formation. Across the river are the tiny house and glamping sites of Uncommon Accommodations, another good resting place if you want to make this an overnight stop.

Another five miles takes you to the historic village of Hyde Park and past the cascades of Cady’s Falls. One of the more

elegant lodging opportunities along the trail is Hyde Park’s Governor’s House Inn. Built in 1893 by Governor Carroll Page, it’s a classic Vermont B&B with four poster beds that serves afternoon tea and scones on Thursdays and Sundays and hosts Jane Austen-themed weekends.

Hyde Park is also a good place to start beer touring. Ten Bends Brewery’s tasting room is based in Hyde Park and just a few miles ahead, in Morristown, the trail passes right by Lost Nation Brewery.

If you are continuing on, Hardwick is another 15 miles. There, lodging options (other than short term rentals) and dining options are limited. Get a slice at Hardwick’s Positive Pie or a burger at The Village Restaurant. In the morning, stop by Connie’s Kitchen for a cinnamon roll or a sandwich to go.

Stay: In Johnson, just across the river from the trail and with easy access,

The view from the Long Trail shows the bucolic farmland that borders the Lamoille RIver near Johnson. The railways old truss bridges still stand (above) including some historic covered ones like the Fisher Bridge in Wolcott. It's hard to bike right by Lost Nation Brewing in Morrisville without stopping in to sample the local brew of the day or to get a bite.

Uncommon Accommodations has a series of tiny homes, campsites and an Airstream trailer. In Hyde Park, the Governor’s House is a stately inn furnished with period antiques. The Morristown area is rife with short term rentals and the Sunset Motel and Mountain View Campground (up Route 15) offer budget accommodations. In Hardwick, lodging options (other than short term rentals) are limited to the Victorian Kimball House B&B or the Inn by the River, a basic motel.

Eat/Drink: Breweries abound near Morristown. Stop for a tasting at Ten Bends in Hyde Park. Lost Nation is literally right on the rail trail in Morristown and a few miles off the trail you can find Rock Art or, come July, the new Soulmate brewpub opens in the historic downtown. Morristown also has a wide variety of food options, from Siam Valley Thai to organic soups and salads at the Oasis Café (which also has Thursday night trivia contests, karaoke and live music some nights.) Moogs Place has good sandwiches, burgers and entrees and in the morning stop at Thompson’s Flour Shop for fresh baked goods.

Bike Shops: This segment has the best selection of bike shops. Lamoille Valley Bike Tours (which runs the shuttle service and does e-bike and gravel bike rentals) is based in Johnson. In Morristown, Chuck’s specializes in mountain bikes but has gear and repairs for all bikes. Power Play Sports in Morristown is also a good source for gear and apparel. Make sure you have what you need as Morristown may be the last bike shop accessible near the trail.

HARDWICK TO ST. JOHNSBURY: THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM

From Hardwick, the trail heads deeper into the Northeast Kingdom’s rolling rural landscape, following the Lamoille River to Greensboro Bend. You’ll cross the historic Fisher covered bridge in Wolcott.

It’s worth it to make a 5-mile (one-way) detour north to Caspian Lake for a swim and, if possible, spend some time at Highland Lodge, an 1860s farmhouse and series of rental cabins that sits on 32 acres. The lodge serves farm-fresh dinners on Thursdays through Sundays, too and while you are there, stop in at Hill Farmstead brewery and taproom (open Wednesday through Saturday) for some of their highly prized brews, which are increasingly hard to find at retail. On July 1, Circus Smirkus

performs at its Circus Barn just 4 miles north of the lodge, with performances on Aug. 18 and 19, too.

The ten or so miles between Greensboro Bend and Walden Station is a quiet rural stretch of trail with few towns and several (small) hills to climb so stock up on water before this section. You’ll cross BayleyHazen Road, a 48-mile dirt road that was started in 1776 by American militia to help bring supplies to the siege of Quebec. Just south of Walden Station, the trail passes near Lyford Pond and directly by Coles Pond, birding hotspots where you may hear loons calling. Both are part of the 10,826acre Steam Brook Wildlife Management Area. From there, it’s a just a few miles to Joe’s Pond in Danville.

Go for a swim in Joe’s Pond at the Community Beach (off Route 15). In town, the 1871 railway depot is being converted into a rail trail hub, thanks to a grant from the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative. The classic town green hosts an ice cream social and free bandstand concerts on June 19 and Aug. 20 and outdoor monthly Saturday movie nights on the green starting July 22 (see movienightonthegreen. com.)

Here, you can stay at the four-room Danville Restaurant & Inn in the village or a mile from town, at the three-bedroom Emergo Farm Bed & Breakfast, a sixthgeneration working dairy farm on 200 acres. Refuel with Vermont comfort food such as fried chicken and waffles and a spiked switchel at Three Ponds’ on the town green.

“From Danville to St. Johnsbury, the trail has a very different feel,” says Yva Rose. “Much of the trail is wooded and it feels like you are rolling through a tunnel of green.“ The trail parallels Route 2 before reaching its terminus in St. Johnsbury.

“St. J has tons of things to do so don’t feel a need to rush out of there,” Yva says. The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Catamount Arts and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium are all worth a visit. And if you are ready for more riding? Kingdom Trails is 15 miles (about a 20 minute drive) north.

Stay: In addition to the Highland Lodge in Greensboro, you can pitch a tent or stay in one of two cabins at Greensboro’s “gay-ish” adults-only Vermont Freedom Campground. In Danville, the Danville Inn or Emergo Farm offer a few rooms but book up early. There are plenty of places to stay in St. Johnsbury like the Comfort Inn or the Cherry St. B&B. Or splurge and head 10 miles east to the Rabbit Hill

Inn in Lower Waterford.

Eat/Drink:

In Danville, for pub fare and a Little Devil IPA head to Red Barn Brewing on Route 2. In St. Johnsbury, for an afterbike brew head to Whirligig Brewing and the Taco Poco taqueria. For drinks, try the St. Johnsbury Distillery and Kingdom Taproom’s craft beers. Table features farm-to-table fare.

Bike Shops: In St. Johnsbury, the LINK is a DIY bicycle repair space that offers the tools. linkvt.org

For more on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, interactive maps and trail updates visit vtrans.vermont.gov/lvrt.

To book a shuttle reservation (and yes, you need to reserve ahead), visit

Photo courtesy Lamoille Valley Bike Tours

Our team of specialists include: Nicholas Antell, MD; Brian Aros, MD; Ciara Hollister, DPM; John Macy, MD; Joseph McLaughlin, MD; Kevin McNamara, DPM and Bryan Monier, MD.

Orthopedic Surgeon Brian Aros, MD (center) with Copley Radiology Technologists Denny and Hannah at Copley’s Gravel Moxie.

As a lifelong Vermonter, I am familiar with being cold. Growing up in a drafty old farmhouse, I remember those -30F nights we’d get every few winters or so, and we’d feed the ravenous wood stove extra chunks of rock maple and monitor the vulnerable pipes in the stone basement. Vermonters know how to prepare for the cold—how to dress, when to go out, and when to not.

In preparing for spending 6 weeks in Mexico riding the Baja Divide, I knew I’d bring my trusty Patagonia Nano Puff jacket. I’d also bring quick-drying merino layers, and a double-sized sleeping bag that would allow my husband Hardy and I to share essential body heat. Many Vermonters might not think of being cold in Mexico, and while our Baja Divide trip would start at sea level in San Diego in mid-February, we’d soon climb into the

BIKEPACKING BAJA

HARDY AVERY AND CAITRIN MALONEY HAVE BUILT TRAIL NETWORKS AROUND THE STATE, FROM THE SLATE VALLEY TRAILS TO THE IMPENDING VELOMONT. FOR A WINTER VACATION THEY BIKEPACKED THE BAJA DIVIDE TRAIL.

mountains, ascending to nearly 4,700 ft. We’d ride a total of 1,600 miles, snaking our way back and forth across the skinny Baja peninsula and finish at the southern tip of the peninsula in a much warmer climate. Along the way, we would be riding mainly rough, remote double track roads through the Sonoran Desert, where temperatures drop quickly with the setting sun. At night, we would camp in sites we’d happen upon along the way, or stay in hostels, hotels or eco-tourism ranchos marked in the trip notes.

Fast forward to day three of our journey. We were on a bumpy dirt track in the mountains of northern Baja, having crossed the border in Tecate the day before. It was getting late, the sun about to dip behind the western mountains. We’d put in a big day, lots of climbing, the temperature had never

warmed to where we’d hoped (planned?) it to be. It was windy and I was cold. Chilled to the bone. I was wearing every

piece of clothing I had, and I was having a hard time imagining how I could possibly survive a night camping in the desert. In

PHOTOS AND STORY BY CAITRIN MALONEY.

Caitrin Maloney sets off just after breaking camp in the desert west of Ejido Nuevo Odisea.

The Mission at San Javier, Baja California Sur, built in 1799 n the mountains outside of Loreto.

my quest to keep my load light and my bike nimble – had I made a grave mistake by leaving behind that extra warm layer?

It was decision time – we’d either find a camp spot, or pivot and attempt to ride the 10 miles to Ojos Negros and find a room. Would there be a place to stay? No cell service to check, and nothing marked in our trip notes. Hardy was pretty sure he could warm me up if we got the tent set

up quickly and snuggled into that double bag. Despite the nagging fear in the back of my mind that I might freeze to death, I agreed.

Hardy did his best and I survived the night, and thankfully we were treated to increasingly warmer weather as we traveled south and the calendar advanced into summery weather. Upon reflection, I realized this was the first of many times

throughout the trip that tested our ability as a couple to make important decisions with limited info, and quickly.

We’d had a challenging fall, and stress levels in our marriage were at an all-time peak. In late January, we made a lastminute decision to do the trip, taking just two weeks to prepare before flying to San Diego and starting our journey on February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

The Baja Divide route is well documented, so the planning and readying was the easy part. Developed by Nicholas Carman and Lael Wilcox in 2016, there is tons of information online including a GPS track and resupply chart, and thousands of people have successfully completed it. The hard part would be to spend 6 weeks traveling through tough terrain in a foreign

The trail hits both the Pacific and Sea of Cortez coasts. Below, Hardy prepare dinner on the Pacific coast north of Ejido Erendiro— on Day 5, our first night camping on the beach. Below, camping on the beach on Punta Pescadero, north of Los Barriles on the Sea of Cortez, on Day 32. A huge pod of dolphins appeared off the beach that day.

country, just the two of us.

We agreed that spending this time together could be a great way to do a reset–sometimes the best way to reconnect is to disconnect. So we went into the trip with open minds, agreeing that if it wasn’t working we could always bail and come home. We didn’t bail, in fact we completed the entire route together. We worked through our challenges on the road, and we got good at making the many necessary daily decisions collaboratively.

We didn’t feel unsafe per se, however we were aware that there were inherent dangers in what we were doing. Much of the route is in the backcountry where there is no cell phone service, and there are a few sections of the route that took us into very remote areas where we’d at times be more than 50 miles away from potable water, food, communications, or any sort of assistance should something go wrong.

We did our best to mitigate the risks and accepted a certain level of risk as a matter of course. We heeded the locals’ advice and only traveled during daylight hours, we were careful about where we chose to camp, and we kept a close eye on our gear. We made sure our repair kits were topped up and dialed, we packed extra food and water, and we listened to our bodies and each other. We tried to set realistic expectations and we were ready to be flexible when conditions changed.

Now that I’ve established myself as a moderate risk-taker (and yes, I also love Type 2 fun), I’ll admit that one of the best parts of the trip for me was the challenge. While the route is well-documented and marked on GPS and it’s not exactly adventurous in a “I’m a world traveler

explorer doing this crazy thing for the first-time” sort of way - the Baja Divide is hard. It’s physically and mentally demanding. The “roads” are rough and the climbs often long or punchy. There were hours and hours of washboards, deep sand, intense sun, no shade. While

I have some bikepacking experience, this would be by far my longest trip. I wasn’t sure how my body would adapt to long days in the saddle and sleeping on the ground day after day. My body did adapt, my saddle sores abated after the first week, and I got progressively stronger. By the end

I was comfortably keeping pace with Hardy (who is ridiculously strong).

Other high points of the journey included the stunning and constantly changing scenery of the route, meeting rural people in small towns and on ranchos, and many nights spent camping on empty beaches on both the Pacific coast and the Sea of Cortez. The route travels through a diverse slice of the Sonoran Desert, and the variety of plants is outstanding. My favorite plants were the towering agave flowers and the alien-looking Cirios trees. The coastal section from San Jose Del Faro to El Rosarito on the Pacific side captured my heart – with more than 80 miles of undeveloped coastline. Through this whole section we only saw a few surfers. No people, no houses, just desert and ocean – such a stark contrast to what’s found in Alta California.

By far my favorite part of the journey was meeting and talking to people along the way. One morning about halfway into our trip stands out. We were searching for resupply (maybe even breakfast?) in a remote fishing village on the Pacific coast. We stopped at a tiny tienda, where our options seemed limited, but from what we could tell, this was our only choice. The elderly man at the counter noticed our loaded bikes and asked us where we’d come from, and where we were going (a common conversation starter). We chatted a bit and then he invited us back, into his home, for some coffee (Nescafe, a rural staple). We spent an hour talking and it became clear he was very lonely after losing his wife a few months ago, and his adult children had left to work in more economically productive areas of

Day 6 of the trip, heading towards Ejido Erendira. This was the first of several sections and many miles of undeveloped Pacific coast line.

An altar honoring Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, one of many we passed along the way. This one was at Punta Pescadero, on the Sea of Cortez, on Day 32.

Baja. I wished I could have stayed longer, I wished my Spanish was better so I could connect on a deeper level, and I wished I could call my grandmother right then to ask her how she was doing. Despite the age, gender, language, culture and other barriers, I felt a shared humanity that day - sharing in the pain of loneliness and the desire to connect.

Many ask us if we would go again. I don’t think we’ll tackle the Baja route again specifically, although we’d like to return there and help in some way. We thought a lot about the privilege we enjoyed just being there, and the desire to

packing FOR the Baja Divide Trail

This Baja Divide is not a casual ride. The 1,673-mile route, which is 95% dirt or gravel, was first mapped by adventure bikepackers Lael Wilcox, an ultra-endurance cyclist and Nicholas Carman in 2015. Their description of the route is at bikepacking.com/routes/bajadivide. In 2017 Wilcox rode the route on her own in 11 days, 13 hours. In 2022, Vermonter Miron Golfman set a new record, riding the route in 10 days, 13 hours, 24 minutes, taking more than a day off the record.

Caitrin Maloney and her husband Hardy Avery rode the trail in 36 days, over five weeks with stops along the way to camp and to take in some of the remote villages and historic sites they passed. They rode Moonshiner bikes from Tanglewood Cycles, based in Poultney, Vt. Avery used 3-inch tires while Maloney road with 2.8-inch ones.

Both are very experienced, fit riders. They consulted web sites and riders who knew the route before embarking. Here’s Maloney’s packing list:

SLEEPING: Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, foam sit mat.

COOKING: Trangia alcohol burner, stove screen, pot & cup, 300ml bottle of alcohol, GSI coffee filter, spork, Opinel no. 10 knife, small Bic lighter, small vials of sea salt, chili powder, pepper, silicone bags (2), stout zip-locks (3)., 1.5L Nalgene bottles (2), 650ml water bottle, water fliter, Ortlieb 2L bladder, small kitchen towel.

CLOTHES & GEAR: Riding shorts. merino T-shirt (2), merino baselayers (hooded sun top and bottoms), merino bra, merino tank, skirt (for camp and to layer over merino), merino socks (2 pair), gloves, Patagonia Houdini, Patagonia Nanopuff, helmet, brim hat, Bedrock sandals, MTB shoes, bathing suit, towel, buff.

ELECTRONICS: Wahoo & mount. phone & quad lock mount, external battery, USB cables, rear light, earbud headphones, Petzl USB-charged headlamp, light and helmet mount.

SUNDRIES: Basic gear repair kit (sewing/patches/glue, etc), passport, ID, wallet (paperwork backed up to the cloud), sunglasses, toiletries (toilet paper, paste, sunblock, lip block, ear plugs, washcloth, lotion, razor), bike toolkit & pump, medical kit, 1 x inner tube, Leatherman, lube and rag, utlralight stuff pack (Osprey), bike lock.

BIKEPACKING BAGS: Snack bags (2), gas tank bag, front roll, accessory bag/saddle bag, frame bag & 3L bladder, fork bags & everything cages (2).

give back in a meaningful way. And it won’t be our last bikepacking trip. For now, I am just spending a lot of time on bikepacking.com looking at routes and dreaming…

Caitrin Maloney and her husband Hardy Avery are co-owners of Sustainable Trailworks, a trail building company, and also co-own the Trailhouse, which offers cycling-focused camps and retreats for women. They live in Poultney right on the Slate Valley Trails network and host bikepackers at their glamping sites. Find them online at

Our last camp spot, Day 35, in the mountains southeast of El Pescadero. We stayed in a hostel in El Pescadro and in an Air BnB In Todos Santos for 10 days before heading home.

Even with 3-inch tires, Hardy had to walk some sections with deep, loose sand. This was Day 14, east of Rosarito. Other sections of the trail were rocky or muddy.

HOMETOWN FAVORITES

FROM STRATTON TO BURKE, HERE ARE SOME PROS' FAVORITE BACKYARD TRAILS.

With this issue, we’re launching a new feature: Locals’ Favorites where we ask a few local experts to share their favorite local spots – be it trails or places to grab a beer after riding. While these people have ridden and raced all over the country, some of their favorite places to session are near where they live here in Vermont. Here’s why.

ZEKE NEUBAUER - MANCHESTER

Zeke Neubauer, 30, grew up in California riding BMX and motocross, surfing and skating. He moved to Vermont in 2016 and transitioned to mountain bikes. For the past three years he’s been racing pro and men’s elite classes on a national level in both downhill and enduro disciplines.

He’s also become a trail builder, building on private land near the home he and his girlfriend Ali Kaukas built in Manchester.

Favorite local trail?

My favorite local trail is Garden Gnomes at Stratton Bike Park. What makes this trail unique is that it has a rollercoaster feel; it’s fast and also a bit tight so you feel like you’re flying through the woods. It really pulls your focus in. There are a couple funky rock gardens that take a bit of time to find the right line through and also a couple of sneaky gaps you can link in. It’s about high speed with flow and precision. The trail isn’t the longest (about 1,965 feet of trail total), but it is super engaging and always leaves me coming back for more.

Best post-ride swimming hole: The Stratton snowmaking pond has nice, deep, clear water to cool the body off and plenty of warm rocks where you can bake in the sun like a lizard, after.

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

Honey-Pie in Jamaica is locally-owned by some amazing people. It has delicious food you can enjoy while sitting out on the grass. The O.G. Burger, the Vietnamese Sausage and the Flash Fried Cauliflower are usually my go-tos.

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

Ghetty’s Berm at Raptor Lane in Dorset. The climb is long and really mellow with just enough challenge and the down trail is really fun for all skill levels. My girlfriend and I ride it together and she has a blast. It’s built for novice level riders with great flow and fun features but allows for riders who like higher speeds to piece rollers into doubles and there

Zeke Neubauer likes to play with Stratton's Garden Gnomes. Photos by Ali Kaukas

are some pretty sneaky gaps all along the trail. Great trail design that supplies the goods for all levels of riders. I have so much appreciation for all the builders who create these amazing trails we get to ride. If it wasn’t for all their hard work I don’t know what we’d do!

AMY

ALTON – PITTSFIELD

Amy Alton, 48, did her first mountain bike race in 2012 and went on to race pro at UCI World Cup and Maxxis Eastern Cup events. She and her partner Vince Micciche moved from the Washington D.C. area where she worked for the Dept. of Defense, to the Killington area in 2015 and she began hosting Killington’s Dirt Divas women’s rides. Alton now has her own recruiting firm, M.E.T. Consulting.

Favorite local trail?

Archie Baker segment (it’s about 1 mile) of Sherburne Trails in Killington has fantastic, fun features—both natural and built — scattered throughout. These include large boulder up-and-overs, ladders off boulders, rock spines into drops and built doubles. There’s great flow until you hit the next option line which makes for good clean fun and it’s great to session. Plus, there’s loads more to ride at Sherburne and all the trails are super accessible.

Best post-ride swimming hole: Our daily ritual is to splash down at the bend in the Tweed River near Pittsfield.

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

“The Clear” (the Clear River Tavern in Pittsfield, “When you’re here, you’re in The Clear”) has excellent outdoor and indoor seating and fantastic service and food. Go see Buffy for delicious beverages and tell her the Diva of Dirt sent you for a complimentary high five.

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

The trails behind the USFS Ranger Station in Rochester are great. Hit up the Old Gents descent by way of Sap Boiler.

It’s a flowy, machine-built trail that descends from Summit Knob.

ANSEL DICKEY – WOODSTOCK

As a junior racing for Killington Mountain School, Ansel Dickey was a Cat 1 contender. Dickey, now 28, has since switched to gravel riding and took over running the Vermont Overland Grand Prix and other Overland races devoted to mountain biking and running. Dickey runs Vermont Social, a media and advertising company out of the Woodstock area where he lives with his wife Gertrude Suokko.

as The Woodstock Inn was opening their eyes to the idea of mountain biking. It’s super flowy and fast at the top and then turns into something a bit more rough and grippy, as the name suggests. There are not many trails in Vermont of this nature and magnitude that are “hand built.” It’s about as flowy and big as any trail can get without using real machinery to build it. In my opinion, hand-built trails have a really unique quality to them and I much prefer them over the machine-built stuff. Cloud Drop does a really good job of bringing the speed, flow, and “send” that you’d get from a machine-built trail into a more unique and organic hand-built package. The soil on that slope of hill is top notch too.

Best post-ride swimming hole: That would have to be the Iron Bridge in Woodstock! The rope swing on River Road isn’t bad as well, just make sure you dodge the high schoolers.

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

Favorite MTB trail:

It’s Cloud Drop to lower Hard Style on the southern end of the Mount Peg network in Woodstock. I helped build this trail with Gavin Vaughn a long time ago right

Abracadabra Coffee Co. just opened their new facility on Route 12 on your way north out of Woodstock. It’s the perfect mid-ride spot, although it is a bit far out of town for those who don’t like pedaling. I like pedaling though.

Dirt Diva Amy Alton. Photo by Brooks Curran

Ansel Dickey shoots and bikes. Photo by Ansel DIckey

At left, Pittsfield's Amy Alton rocks a boulder during one of her Dirt Diva sessions. Right, Ansel Dickey captures Tyler Cohen dropping his favorite trail, Mount Peg's Cloud Drop. Photo courtesy Amy Alton, Ansel DIckey

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

Tough call! Honestly, I’d probably start them out on some mellow gravel roads around town, and then explore a Class 4 road or two. They are a nice way to test out a rougher surface on a mountain bike without being on a narrow and winding single track trail.

NICK BENNETTE — WATERBURY CENTER

Nick Bennette, 40, is the executive director of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA). He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, riding BMX and then raced road, mountain and cyclocross as a collegiate rider at Boston University. Bennette was living in Washington state (where he was the state cyclocross champion) when he accepted the job to lead the Vermont Mountain Bike Association in 2021. Bennette, his wife Carrie and son Theo live in Waterbury Center.

Favorite MTB trail near home?

Six Flags at Perry Hill is my ‘desert island’ trail (If you could bring one trail with you...). It is a true double-black diamond trail, of which Vermont does not have many. The lower half includes an olderschool, technical flow section and the upper half features newer-school berms and jumps built in 2021. The entirety of the 0.62-mile trail integrates existing rock features that provide both challenge and connection to the natural landscape. Six Flags is also one of the few purposebuilt mountain bike trails on state land in Vermont, which in total account for just about 45 miles of our 1,000+ miles of singletrack.

Best post-ride swimming hole: From the Perry Hill trailhead, you can walk right down to the Winooski River. It’s shallow and fast-moving, so not much for ‘swimming’ - but it’s hard to imagine a better feeling than splashing in after a long ride on a hot summer’s day!

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

Perry Hill is a short pedal from downtown Waterbury, which has a host of amazing places to eat and drink. It’s a tough call as to the best spot though I have never been disappointed with Prohibition Pig’s legendary BBQ and impressive list of house brews. The restaurant can often be packed, but tucked around the back is their more spacious brewery, which has a smaller but equally delicious pub menu. And for a stellar creemee look no further than Crossroads Beverage & Deli at the Route 100 / Route 2 roundabout.

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

In Waterbury, Little River State Park has a great loop for newer riders, with grades that are sufficiently mellow to make the climbing up Stonewall trail enjoyable while still providing a no-pedal descent down Highbridge or Hillfarmer. The only shortfall is the lack of mileage here - just under three miles of singletrack - but lapping a trail can be incredibly rewarding for beginners, allowing them to quickly build skills and confidence.

GREG DURSO – BURLINGTON

Greg Durso grew up in New York playing soccer, skiing and wakeboarding. In 2009, a sledding accident at Okemo severed his spinal cord. He took up handcycling and participated in the Kelly Brush Ride in Middlebury, a fundraiser for the KBF Foundation which supports people with spinal cord injuries pursue active lives. Since then, Durso, 38, has

been working as Program Director for the foundation and has helped tailor mountain bike trails for adaptive bikes around the state. Durso played a big role in developing The Driving Range in Bolton, the first network in the country to be purpose-built for adaptive cycles, which opens this month.

Favorite trail:

For now, it’s Sheep Thrills in the Hinesburg Town Forest. It’s fast, chunky and rooty and it goes on an adaptive bike —which is hard to come by. It runs down the fall line. But that is also why I am so excited for the Driving Range/ Bone Mountain project with its downhill trail being built by Richmond Mountain Trails and scheduled to open in Bolton this month. That network has been purposely built with adaptive riders in mind. I could not be more excited to try it out and get more adaptive riders in Vermont.

Greg Durso tests out a trail he dreamed up at The Driving Range, the first trail network designed and built for adaptive mountain bikes. Photo courtesy Richmond Trails

VMBA executive director Nick Bennette's favorite playground? Perry Hill's Six Flags. Photo by L. Lynn

Best post-ride swimming hole: Lake Champlain off my boat – the sunset never disappoints

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

I always pass through Richmond on my way back from riding so The Big Spruce or Hatchet for a meal and beer.

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

I would have to say Florence at Stowe’s Cady Hill network. It’s not a crazy climb but a real fun downhill and a great way to get people excited about bikes.

ELLA MCANDREW – EAST BURKE

Ella Skalwold McAndrew was living in California when she first started mountain biking. That was in 2010. Five years later, she moved to East Burke, Vt. and started racing, moving up from Cat 2 in downhill to pro. She’s now 38, married to another pro racer, Alex McAndrew, and the couple run Green Mountain Pro Tune and coach as part of Vermont Bike Tours when they are not racing.

Favorite mountain bike trail?

Burke Mountain’s Rude Awakening is my go-to. I like that this channel offers a good mix of challenging riding with

fast descending sections. I also like that subtle changes can really impact the overall ride. After so many years of riding there, I’m still learning new lines that make me have a better experience.

Best post-ride swimming hole: East branch of the Passumpsic.

Best local place for a post-ride beverage or meal:

I’m still partial to Mike’s Tiki Bar. Hazels ‘is pretty rad too!

Favorite local trail you’d take a novice MTBer on?

Many people know Kingdom Trails fairly well already, but I’d say the most underrated zone for new riders are the trails connected to Park Loop.

Rude Awakening at Burke Mountain is Ella McAndrew's go-to trail. Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Trails make Ella McAndrew smile. Courtesy photo

A CYCLING MENTOR

Name: Rachel Cohen Age: 35

Family: Husband, Tyler; 11-year-old border collie, Niva

Lives in: Jericho

Primary Sports: Cycling, mostly gravel and mountain biking with some cyclocross

Occupation: Humanities teacher at Colchester High School

Although Rachel Cohen only started racing after college, she’s made up for lost time and has developed a passion for endurance events. This summer, she’s heading to Italy’s Dolomites for a four-day, 720-kilometer race with her husband. She’s a mentor with Vermont Youth Cycling and one of the organizers of The Ranger gravel ride in Tunbridge.

When did you start cycling?

I grew up riding bikes recreationally near my home near Tunbridge. As a kid I can remember riding sections of the rail trail in Lamoille County and also, when I was ten, having my mom drop my dad and me off at the highest point of Route 110, just north of Chelsea Village, and letting us ride all the way down the hill and along the river into Tunbridge. I went to University of Vermont and when my roommate went abroad during my senior year, I asked if I could borrow the bike she’d left behind. I enjoyed it and when she got back, I asked my then-boyfriend, nowhusband if I could borrow his old bike until I got my own.

When did you start mountain biking?

In 2011, during my first year as a school teacher, my husband Tyler and I drove to North Carolina for a spring break trip of mountain biking in the Asheville area. I didn’t have a mountain bike, so I had to buy one for the trip, and I was hooked. I became part of the original Mountain Moxies that Kelly Ault started. I love being able to turn mountain biking into an endurance event. You can be creative by building on the trail networks. Tyler and I have designed a bunch of routes that put together different trails and Class 4 roads leaving from our house in Jericho.

How did you get involved with Vermont Youth Cycling?

I’m a lifelong Vermonter and in my 20s

and 30s, I found my place in the cycling world and felt that the sphere was missing for kids. I wanted to foster that community for others. Vermont Youth Cycling started in 2018 and I joined the board of directors. Their mission —to educate and empower young riders to improve their skills and health while building both a stewardship ethic for the trails and a caring community —is aligned to my personal values.

We started with 40 to 60 kids at each race, but it’s grown tremendously, and they needed an executive director, so I offered to fill that role.

We are approaching 200 riders at every race, which is thrilling and unbelievably rewarding. Working with young people in the classroom I’ve been often troubled by how few of my students have the opportunity to experience the place where they live. As someone with a lot of access to outdoor recreation, it’s my passion and duty to create opportunities and open doors for young Vermonters to experience the place where they live and riding a bike is a way to do that.

How does Vermont Youth Cycling help more kids get on bikes?

Cycling is expensive. We want to help kids whose parents aren’t interested or can’t afford to get them on bicycles. We’re holding four races this year in the fall and a group ride on June 3 with the Ridge Riders. The rides will have youth leaders but will be swept by adults. We’re also offering a clinic for women and non-binary youth in August and some coaches clinics so

students can have a more consistent and equitable experience around the state. At this point there are roughly 20 clubs affiliated with either schools or communities that are part of Vermont Youth Cycling.

That must dovetail with your teaching career.

I teach humanities to grades 9 through 12. I like that age because you can have high-level stimulating conversations with them. I think teenagers are really fun because they are figuring out the world in a way that leads to critical thinking. They’re forming their identities and have really strong views. By giving them new information, I’m helping them be able to wrestle with the complexities of the world.

For you, when did recreational riding turn to racing?

I raced the Leadville 100 in 2015 and then did a lot of local northeastern mountain bike races. In 2017, Tyler and I lived in Norway for a year. We weren’t sure what bikes to bring and could only bring one each. We learned that some people were putting knobbier tires on road bikes, so we did that and later discovered that we had created gravel bikes. The first weekend after we came home was the Vermont Overland. I hadn’t trained but we did so much riding in Norway that I entered and finished just off the podium. I discovered I really enjoyed that kind of racing and might even be good at it so I started taking it more seriously from there.

I’ve always considered myself

an endurance athlete but racing at Catamount was a lot of fun. I did my first UCI race last season. I came in dead last, but I loved it.

What race are you most proud of?

The Overland in 2022 is the race I am most proud of because of my emotional growth not only on the day of the event but in the weeks after the race as well. One of my goals for the day was related to my start. In order to race at the pointy end and have any hope of finishing in the top five I knew I would need a very strong start to stay with the lead group. Instead, I totally botched it. I was so mad at myself. I rubbed tires with someone and totally lost my composure. My heart rate skyrocketed, and what felt like hundreds of people passed me. Miraculously, my friend and training partner Kim Coleman found me and very sternly told me to get on her wheel and take deep breaths. With her help and tough love, I got my emotions under control and my head wrapped around a revised race strategy. I picked people off for the next several hours and ended in 11th place. I was elated with my comeback, but not long after that we learned there had been a fatal accident on course. Processing the tragedy as a fellow competitor, event organizer, close friend to the Overland event director, and just as a human being was a lot. I was lucky enough to exchange a few words with Suleiman Kangangi on the starting line, but I’ve learned so much more about him since then. The whole thing changed a lot for me, including one really practical thing: at every starting line since then, I have started conversations with the people around me and I will do it in every race for the rest of my life. I will encourage the participants of the events I direct to do the same. I want the starting line to be a place where people look around and smile, laugh a little, encourage each other and honor the bravery it takes to show up for a big challenge.

What

other races have you done?

In 2022 I was able to travel to two bigger gravel races: Midsouth in Stillwater Oklahoma and Big Sugar in Bentonville, Arkansas. At Midsouth, I was 16th overall among women. At Big Sugar I was 44th and found out I had Covid two days later. It wasn’t the Arkansas dust that had me coughing for days.

How did end you up running The Ranger?

The Ranger started in 2018 and it’s based in Tunbridge which is where both my parents are from. Tyler and I

Vermonter Rachel Cohen is finding ways to give back through cycling. Photo by Ansel Dickey

volunteered to lead the Junior Ranger which is the youth race. In 2021, we had dinner with the organizer who had just moved to Montana and found it challenging to put on a race from that distance. He asked if we could help, and our first thought was that we knew nothing about putting on events.

We’ve had a tremendous outpouring of assistance from friends and industry partners, and we have almost 100 volunteers. Our mission is to give back to the community. We’ve donated over $10,000 to organizations that advance our mission of sustaining strong communities, conserving rural and agricultural land, and promoting outdoor recreation including the First Branch School Club, the Tunbridge Library, and the White River Land Collaborative. That’s the heart and the mission of the event.

We’ve got multiple ride distances and a gravel enduro format. It’s not a race but those who want to compete can do so. There is a five-mile fun ride, an 18-mile no-drop community ride, a 42mile gravel enduro ride, and a gravel metric century.

Taking on The Ranger really has to do with my own sense of place as a Vermonter and desire to use my passion for cycling to make an impact in areas that align with my core values. My

uncle operates Howvale Farm on the border of the Tunbridge Fairgrounds and our riders pass through his land to start their day. The farm celebrates its 70th year as a small family dairy this summer. It’s pretty special.

What is the race you are doing in Italy this summer?

We’re doing a single-stage, self-

supported 720-kilometer race in Italy in the Dolomites in July. It’s a brandnew event called the Memory Bike Adventure which is designed to cover a lot of the territory that was important in World War I. It includes a bunch of single lane passages high in the mountains. I wanted to do an ultraendurance race, but I also like to use cycling to travel to areas of cultural

significance and as a life-long learner and a teacher of history, this combines my two passions.

It’s a four-day race for mountain bikes and Tyler and I are doing it together as a team. He’s generally stronger at the beginning of a ride and I’m stronger at the end but that’s when I need him to remind me to fuel up. The experience will be so much more than just the physical component of a four-day race but we’re a good team in marriage, as well as on the bike.

What do you love about racing?

I move through life at a pretty fast pace. I am at my best when I’m stimulated. Racing, putting on a number, lining up, and having a gun go off lets you clear your mind. I find it meditative. It’s a time when I’m alone with my mind and I’m forced to be self-sufficient. I have an opportunity to prove to myself how capable I am by my persistence, grit, and emotion. Being tolerant of adversity and uncertainty are skills that are transferable to everyday life. Racing illuminates what I can do and helps me prove I can do more than I think I can even if the outcome is not positive. It builds me into a more developed version of myself. —Phyl

Newbeck

Rachel and her husband Tyler Cohen setting the pace on a gravel ride. Photo by Ansel Dickey

RACE & EVENT GUIDE VERMONT SPORTS

LISTING YOUR EVENT IN THIS CALENDAR IS FREE AND EASY. VISIT VTSPORTS.COM/SUBMIT-AN-EVENT OR E-MAIL EDITOR@VTSPORTS. COM. ALL AREA CODES ARE 802. ALL LOCATIONS ARE IN VERMONT, UNLESS NOTED. FEATURED EVENTS, IN YELLOW, PAY A NOMINAL FEE.

RUNNING/HIKING

JUNE

5 | 30th Covered Bridges Half Marathon, Woodstock

Run 13.1 miles through scenic covered bridges, starting at Suicide Six Ski Area. Currently sold out unless you run for a participating charity team. cbhm.com

11 | 42nd Annual Capital City Stampede, Montpelier

Central Vermont Runners hosts this 10K road race out and back, half on paved roads and half on dirt. cvrunners.org

15-17 | Vermont 100, West Windsor

Limited to 450 runners, and 70 horses, this cross-country endurance race for runners and equestrians covers 17,000 vertical feet over 30 hours and benefits Vermont Adaptive. vermont100.com

17| Birdland 5K, Montpelier

Enjoy the beauty of Montpelier's North Branch Park as you run across rolling singletrack, lush forested hills, and babbling brooks. Two fully stocked aid stations and HOKA running shoe demos available before or after! In the spirit of conservation, this race will be cupless. Top three finishers in each category will receive ORO gift cards and top three overall will receive a unique prize.. onionriver.com/events/birdland-5k/

17 | 20th Annual Basin Harbor

5K & 10K A 5K and 10K at beautiful Basin Harbor – a spectacular seasonal resort on the shores of Lake Champlain. Racevermont.com

18| Solstice Trail Run, Charlotte

Try out new terrain in a fun yet challenging 5K or 10K trail run through fields on singletrack and old sugaring roads. gmaa.run

18 | Mt. Washington Auto Road Race, Pinkham Notch, N.H.

Elite runners and those who won their spots in the lottery compete on this sold-out 7.6 mile course up the Mt. Washington Auto Road sponsored by Northeast Delta Dental. mtwashington.com

25 | Catamount Ultra, Stowe

Run a 25K or 50K trail race on wide, hardpacked dirt trails that roll through highland pastures and hardwood forest at Trapp Family Lodge Outdoor Center. The 50K course is two laps on the 25K course. Run through highland pastures and hardwood forest. catamountultra.com

JULY

4 | 40th Clarence DeMar 5K Race, South Hero

A flat and fast 5K on paved roads of South Hero, starting at Folsom Elementary School. gmaa.run

4 | Harry Corrow Freedom Run, Derby

A 10-mile, 10K, 5K, and 1 mile run and walk on the Newport-Derby Bike Path and the Memphremagog Ski Touring Foundation Trails. kingdomgames.co

4 | July 4 5K, Rochester This 5k trail run/walk will start and finish at River Brook Park located at 211 VT Route 100 north. Free creemees for all kids, parade and BBQ takes place in the village following this event. ridgelineoutdoorcollective.com

9 | Mad Marathon, Waitsfield

A USATF-certified marathon and halfmarathon, this has been dubbed one of the most beautiful marathons in the U.S. Run it as a relay of up to 5 people or as a half marathon. New for 2023: a 5K and 10K too. madmarathon.com

14-16 | Vermont 100 Endurance Race, West Windsor

Featuring unrelenting rollers that add up to 17,000 feet of climbing, the VT100 trail race winds its way over country roads, through forested trails, and alongside breathtaking views of the southern Green Mountains. Part of the Grand Slam of ultrarunning, this event is open to horseback riders. It benefits Vermont Adaptive. Vermont100.com

15 |45th Goshen Gallop, Goshen

Tackle either the famous 10.2K— or the equally awesome, but more merciful 5K run. Runners looking for an exceptional backcountry course find it here… in the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area. From a natural obstacle course to a stunning surprise view from the south end of Hogback Mountain, the Gallop’s elevation profile and rugged terrain have earned the race the nickname “the toughest 10k in New England.” Proceeds go to the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center. blueberryhilltrails.com/ goshengalloptrailrace

29 | Barre Heritage Festival 5K Trail Race, Barre

A 5K trail race on primarily single track trails through the historic Barre Granite Quarries. Terrain is wooded, rocky and lots of roots. Walkers are encouraged to participate. cvrunners.or

29 | Moosalamoo Ultra, Goshen Long challenging climbs, black bear sightings, stinging nettles are (for better or worse) hallmarks of this race. Each race (14 or 36 miles) is loaded with tough, yet beautiful singletrack taking you to the top of Mount Moosalamoo with a view of Lake Dunmore. Starts and ends at Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center. ironwoodadventureworks.com

AUGUST

12 | Cate Farm Tomato Trot, Plainfield

A 5K trail run/walk through farm fields and on woods roads, around Cate Farm. The first kilometer snakes along the Winooski River and is relatively flat; the rest is over small rolling hills. Each finisher will receive a pound of Cate Farm tomatoes and anyone 65 or older who beats Farmer Richard’s time gets 2 pounds of tomatoes! (FYI, Richard is not that fast:). catefarm.com

12 | Slate Valley Scramble, Poultney

Run this fun 8K or half-marathon trail race starting from Slate Valley Trails' Fairgrounds. Awards for top finishers, VT themed finisher prizes, and an event raffle! slatevalleytrails.org

12 | Red Rocks 5K, Burlington

Run a 5k on the trails of Red Rocks Park. Trails are dirt and gravel, with moderate hills through woods. Start and finish are at the lower parking lot near the beach. This Benefits the GMAA Scholarship. gmaa.org

27 | Race to the Top of VT, Stowe Hikers, bikers, and runners from across the U.S. and Canada run or bike up Mt. Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak to benefit the Catamount Trail Association. The course ascends the historic Mansfield Toll Road. It is 4.3 miles in length, and has 2,564 feet of up. rttovt.com

SEPTEMBER

9 | Bacon & Brew 4-Miler, Dummerston This 4 mile walk/run starts at Kampfires Campground and tours some beautiful backroads complete with cornfields, hidden valleys, and maple sugar farms. It loops back to Kampfires where the hugely-popular Baconfest party will be underway with food trucks, Whetstone Station Beers and more. Enjoy the post-race party trifecta: bacon, brews, and blues music! bb4miler.com/

17 | Trapp Cabin Races, Stowe

Run a 5k, 10k, or half-marathon at the beautiful Trapp Family Outdoor Center. This perennial favorite is also an important fundraiser for Green Mountain Adaptive Sports. greenmountainadaptive.org

BIKING

JUNE

10 | Black River Grand Prix, Craftsbury Outdoor Center

A celebration of fast racing, big loops, varied terrain, and fun on bikes in the woods. The format is simple: Sunday is a mass start on one big lap. This ain’t XCO, this is VT mountain biking - flow, tech, jank, doubletrack, and even a dirt road or twothere’s something for everyone. craftsbury. com/events/2023-black-river-grand-prix

10 | The Moose, Derby

A 103 mile "timed event" on wide open, "car hungry" roads through Moose Country in Essex and Northern Caledonia Counties. We start with our hands on the bar and finish with our hands on the bar, Mike's Tiki Bar with 30 beers on tap. It's not a sanctioned race: you have to stop at all stop signs, but, hey, there are only three during the entire ride. We encourage teams of 3 to 10 riders to compete for the Moose Wheel. The fastest three times in each team determine the winner. kingdomgames.co

10-11 | The Ranger, Tunbridge

The Ranger offers multiple ride distances and a gravel-enduro format, so while it’s not a race, there’s competition available for those seeking it. Sunday’s ride options include a 5-mile family/Junior Ranger; an 18-mile course with a community no-drop group-ride option; a 42-mile gravel enduro; and a 62-mile gravel century. Camping available onsite. therangervt.com

13-14| Ascutney Trails Association

Jump Jam, Brownsville

Head to the new skills park at Ascutney for its first Jump Jam. Open to mountain bike riders of all levels with categories for Kids, Male, Female, Open, and Big Shot. Plus group rides and open ride time. ascutneytrails.com

17 | Bike for the Lake, North Hero

The 13th annual bicycle ride through the Champlain Islands and along the Vermont and New York shores of Lake Champlain with routes from 30- to 100- mile options. Proceeds support the Friends of Northern Lake Champlain. friendsofnorthernlakechamplain.org

17 | VT Monster, Stratton

A challenging ride on quiet gravel roads, with plenty of climbing, flowing descents and epic vistas. Monster is best attacked with a gravel bike (70% of the long course is gravel) and a good GPS, though road, mountain or fat bikes can handle the courses: 45, 78 or 100 miles. Vtmonster.com

17 | Vermont Adaptive Charity Challenge, Killington

Enjoy the beauty of Vermont through cycling, mountain biking, paddling, and hiking, all while raising funds for the state’s largest nonprofit organization committed to providing sports and recreation to people with disabilities. Multiple road bike ride routes loop through Central Vermont. The monies raised from this event support the adaptive programs and athletes of Vermont Adaptive year-round. charityride. vermontadaptive.org/

17 - 18 | VMBA Day Series, Killington

Group rides, after parties with Zero Gravity and timed runs down lower Rabbit Hole plus raffle prizes -- all to honor the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. vmba.org

17 | Onion River Outdoors Birdland

5K, Montpelier

Rain or shine, enjoy the beauty of Montpelier's North Branch Park as you travel across rolling singletrack, lush forested hills, and babbling brooks. The Birdland 5K will have two fully stocked aid stations and Altra running shoe demos available before or after. All ages and abilities welcome! onionriver. com/events/birdland5K

24 | 200 on 100, A Vermont Double Century, North Troy

First ridden in 1984, the 100/200 spans Vermont, north to south, following scenic Route 100. Dubbed “A Dump Truck of Awesome,” this ride presents an opportunity for experienced cyclists to sound the depths of their reserves. There are no fees, but registration is requested on our website. 100-200.org

24 | Coyote Hill Classic, Bradford

Race your mountain bike 6, 12 or 18 miles on this crosscountry course. coyotehillcamp.com/special-events

24 | Vermont Gran Fondo, Bristol Born from a famous bucket-list epic 4-gap ride known by the locals as the LAMB ride. LAMB comes from the names of 4 gaps (Lincoln, Appalachian, Middlebury and Brandon Gaps) which, when combined into a single ride, can easily top 100 miles and over 10,000 feet. Routes are 109, 80-plus or 42 miles. vermontgranfondo.com

JULY

5 | Raid Lamoille, Craftsbury This gravel riding classic offers a 50-mile route as well as a 25-miler, both deliver the legendary Raid Lamoille elevation gain! The Women's No Drop Group Ride also makes its return. grvl.net

5-7 | Outerbike, Killington

For three days, the world’s premier bike and gear manufacturers hold an expo at Killington. You can browse the latest innovations, and with a Full pass ($295) demo bikes and gear, get access to the lifts and bike park and enjoy lunches and post ride events and parties. killington.com

14-15 | The Prouty, Hanover, N.H. This fundraiser is back and in person. Ride 20, 30, 50, 77 or 100 miles on roads in the Upper Valley, or do the 50-mile gravel ride. Golf 18 holes, walk 3k to 10k, or even row 5-15 miles. The Prouty Ultimate consists of riding 75 or 100 miles on one day and then doing any of 6 activities (run, walk, bike, row, golf, etc.) the next day. getinvolved. dartmouth-hitchcock.org/site/TR?fr_ id=1931&pg=entry

15 | VMBA Day Series, Sugarbush

Group rides, downhill rides and shuttles, after parties with Zero Gravity and raffle prizes -- all to honor the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. vmba.org

23 | Maxxis Eastern States Cup, Sugarbush

Come try your hand at downhill racing along with the best in the East. Compete in Downhill, Enduro and Kask showdown. Camping will be available again this year. Seasternstatescup.com.

28-30| Flow State MTB Festival, Ascutney

Join us at Ascutney to celebrate all things mountain biking, for the third annual Flow State Mountain Biking Festival. We will once again have bike demos from the best brands in the industry, beer from Vermont’s legendary brewers, live music and fun for all. flowstatemtbfestival.com

29 | Grateful Gravel, Warren

The day begins with a 35 or 60 mile gravel ride starting from Sugarbush Resort's Mt Ellen that makes your legs scream louder than Donna Jean during a mid-70’s Playing in the Band. An epic after party at Mt Ellen follows the ride. Zach Nugent, one of the best to cover the Grateful Dead, will play. gratefulgravel.com

AUGUST

12 | Detoor, Westford Detoor was born when a group of riders asked how they might address common barriers to participation. This event aims to keep entry costs low, focus on riding, and support riders of all ages and abilities. Choose: ~35 or ~80 miles. Pedal the route or race the clock. Both courses feature lots of dirt and at least one aid station. bikereg.com/detoor

11 - 12 | VMBA Day Series, Stratton Group rides, after parties with Zero Gravity and a cross-country race and tours of local chapter trails - all to honor the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. vmba.org

19| VMBA Day Series, Bolton Valley

Group rides, downhill rides and shuttles, after parties with Zero Gravity and raffle prizes -- all to honor the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. vmba.org

26 | Overland Grand Prix, West Windsor. A 55-mile dirt road bicycle ride featuring close to 7,000 feet of climbing, eight sectors of Class 4 roads (unmaintained ancient public through-ways), two wellfortified sag stops, a magnificently scenic route and an awesome party afterwards. vermontoverland.com

SEPTEMBER

9 | Kelly Brush Ride, Middlebury

Ride one of the supported routes (10, 20, 50, or 100 miles), or the brand-new 32-mile gravel ride. Can't make it? Ride from anywhere with our virtual option. Participation helps to make active lifestyles possible for people with spinal cord injuries. kellybrushfoundation.org

9-10 | VMBA Day Series, Burke Group rides, after parties with Zero Gravity and tours of local chapter trails. vmba.org

23 | VSECU Point to Point, Montpelier

Ride your bike and raise money for the Vermont Foodbank, and help end hunger in Vermont. Rides are 10, 30, 60, and 110 miles, each with fully stocked aid stations, basic first aid, and support and gear drivers. After, join us on the State House lawn for music, local bites, local brews, and fun and games for the whole family. Put the fun in fundraising and help meet our $150,000 fundraising goal! thepointtopoint.org

WATERSPORTS & OTHER

JUNE

4 | Onion River Race & Ramble, Bolton

A 10.5 mile paddle from Bolton to Richmond on the Winooski River that attracts serious racers and recreational paddlers alike. New to paddling? Take a recreational paddling class that day. After, head to Richmond Town park for lunch and live music. winooskiriver.org

17 | Saturday Club Haus Distance Swim Series, Newport

Find friends to swim with and learn from. Group open water-swims go to, and around, the islands of Lake Memphremagog's Derby Bay in progressively longer distances on Saturdays at 9 am. June 17, 24; July 1, 8, 15, and 22; August 19 and 26; Distances are 2, 3.3, 4, 6.5, 10 & 12 miles. kingdomgames.co

17-19 | LCI Father's Day Fishing Derby, Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain International's flagship event and a New England tradition. mychamplain.net/fathers-day-derby

16 | Vermont Sun Triathlon & Branbury Classic, Salisbury

A 600-yard swim, 14-mile bike and a 3.1mile run in this USAT State Championship Race. Or do the Branbury Classic: a 1.5mile paddle, 14-mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Awards for top 3, age group & relay teams. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com.

24 | Hope Row, Vergennes

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum hosts a row to New York - about 2 miles roundtrip. The Museum will provide 4-oar and 6-oar pilot gigs and life jackets Each gig will be assigned an experienced rower as coxswain. Register individually or as a team. projecthoeppner.com/hope-row

25 | Brattle Paddle, Brattleboro

Paddle a canoe, kayak, SUP or surfski either 9 miles or 5 miles in a races from the base at the Marina on the Water in Brattleboro in this river race for all skill levels. facebook. com/brattlepaddle/

JULY

15 | NFCT Missiquoi Paddle and Pedal, Richford

This race combines 6.5 miles of paddling on a Wild and Scenic section of the Missisquoi and 5 miles of cycling on the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail. Start in Richford at Davis Park, paddle to East Berkshire, and pedal back. northernforestcanoetrail.org

16 | Vermont Sun Triathlon & Branbury Classic, Salisbury

A 600-yard swim, 14-mile bike and a 3.1mile run. Or do the Branbury Classic: a 1.5mile paddle, 14-mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Awards for top 3, age group & relay teams. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com.

AUGUST

5 | Dryway Downriver Race Mass start race. On the signal you turn and go, The finish is a marked rock at the standard take out. Boat classes for 10’ and under, 10’ and over.facebook.com/ events/1493556451415597/

5-13 |NEK Swim Week

Swim 8 gorgeous lakes, 46 miles in 9 days. Lakes are: Crystal, Seymour, Echo, Massawippi, Caspian, Willoughby, Memphremagog and Island Pond. Kayakers paddle alongside. kingdomgames.co

13 | Vermont Sun/Lake Dunmore

Triathlons, Salisbury The Vermont Sun Triathlon is a 600-yard swim, 14-mile bike, 3.1-mile run. The Lake Dunmore Triathlon is a .9-mile swim, 28-mile bike, 6.2-mile run. Both events have an aqua bike division, swim and bike only, no run. Race offers digital photos, food, music, awards, finisher medals, T-shirts, massage and more. vermontsuntriathlonseries.com

IKE SHOPS

AROUND THE REGION

advertising section

BATTENKILL BICYCLES 1

99 Bonnet St.,  Manchester Ctr, VT 802-362-2734 | battenkillbicycles.com

Manchester's bicycle shop since 1972, Battenkill Bicycles is a Trek and Specialized dealer offering advice and sales to meet all your cycling needs. The service department offers tune-ups and repairs for all brands. Come rent a bike or get information about local group rides. Battenkill Bicycles is the number one e-bike seller in southern Vermont and an authorized e-bike service center.

BERKSHIRE OUTFITTERS

RR 8, 169 Grove St., Adams, MA 413-743-5900 |

berkout@bcn.net

A full-service bike shop at the base of the Mt. Greylock State Reservation. We also border a beautiful 12-mile paved rail trail. We carry Jamis, Rocky Mountain and G.T. We offer sales, repairs and hybrid rentals for the rail trail.

BOOTLEGGER BIKES 3

60 Main St. Jeffersonville, VT 802-6448370 & at 82 Main St., St. Albans. 802.782.8747 bootleggerbikes.com

A full-service shop near Smugglers' Notch and a new shop in St. Albans. We offer new, used and custom bikes as well as custom-built wheels for mountain, road, gravel, fat bikes, bikepacking and touring. Rentals offered at our Cambridge Junction shop on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Bikes are a passion here.

4 THE BOOT PRO

44 Pond St. Ludlow, VT

802-228-2776

thebootpro.net

A full-service bike and ski shop staffed for sales & service of mountain bikes, gravel bikes, e-bikes, kids' bikes. Mountain bike & e-bike rentals and guided rides, too. Bike clothing and accessories. On the corner of the Okemo Access Rd.

BRADLEY’S PRO SHOP SKI & SPORT 5

2012 Depot St. Manchester Center, VT 05255 802-367-3118  | bradleysproshop.com

Bradley’s Pro Shop Ski & Bike is the premier bike shop in Southern Vermont! We are located in Manchester Center. Always known as your go-to ski shop we are now your go-to bike shop. We have one of the best bike mechanics in Vermont on staff, Dan Rhodes. Many of you know of his reputation as a master bike mechanic. Dan runs all aspects of our bicycle operations. We carry the full lineup of Cannondale and GT bikes—mountain bikes, gravel, e-bikes, BMX and hybrids. We are a full-service operation with sales, service, accessories and rentals including e-bikes. We offer a great bike tune-up price so be sure to bring your ride in. THINK DIRT!  6

CHUCK’S BIKES

45 Bridge St. Morrisville, VT 802-888-7642 | chucksbikes802.com

Putting smiles on peoples faces for over 40 years thru low cost and top tier professional service on all bikes. New bikes by Transition, Marin, Devinci, KHS, Jamis, iZip & Norco. Oh my the inventory! Mon.-Wed, & Fri 10-5, Sat & Thurs 10-2. Be well by being smart.

EARL’S CYCLERY & FITNESS

2069 Williston Rd., So. Burlington, VT 802-864-9197 | earlsbikes.com

Earl’s Cyclery has been serving Vermont’s cycling and fitness needs for more than 65 years. With over 12,000 square feet, Earl’s has the largest selection of bikes from Trek, Norco, Giant, Electra, Bianchi, and more. The service center at Earl’s has professionally trained technicians who are certified to work on all makes and models of bicycles. Whether you need a flat tire fix, or a suspension rebuild, the service staff is ready to help. Estimates are free! Stop on by or give us a call!

EAST BURKE SPORTS

439 Route 114 East Burke VT 802-626-3215 eastburkesports.com

The original home to Kingdom Trails. Located in the heart of town, we pride ourselves in expert knowledge and friendly customer service. A full-service shop awaits you and your repair needs. We have 100 rental bikes with an enormous selection of clothing, parts, and accessories. Hours: 9 - 6 daily.

EQUIPE SPORT

8749 VT RT 30, Rawsonville, VT 21 S Access Rd, West Dover, VT 802-297-2846 | equipesport.com

Sales, Service and Rentals of mountain and gravel bikes. Carrying brands from GT, Rocky Mountain, Santa Cruz and Jamis. Stop in to either of our locations near Stratton and Mount Snow. Open 7 days.

74 Main St., Middlebury, VT 802-388-6666 | froghollowbikes.com

Take advantage of the most advanced and courteous service in our region, with quick turn-around in our service shop downstairs. Upstairs, we offer the best in new and used road, mountain, lifestyle, and children’s bikes and new gear. We carry brands that offer superior products that balance innovation and performance with reliability and value.: Mon. - Sat. 9:30 - 5:30.

16 Pleasant St., Randolph gearhouseVT.com

shop located in the center of Vermont, we offer Rocky Mountain, Salsa, Bianchi, KHS, a rotating inventory of used outdoor gear, and full service repair shop. Randolph has newly revived mtb trails that combine classic oldschool singletrack with machine built zones. Start the 12/12a loop from the shop for 38 miles of well maintained pavement, or map countless gravel rides from town. The shop is also home to ROC's trail hub featuring topographical and printed maps. Stop by and plan your next adventure!

GREEN MOUNTAIN BIKES

105 N. Main Rochester VT 800-767-7882 | greenmountainbikes. com

Located in the heart of the Green Mountains, we are surrounded by terrain that calls to mountain and road bikers alike. Whether you ride twisting trails or back-to-back gaps, we service, sell, and rent all styles of bicycles, featuring Kona, Jamis, Juliana, Raleigh, Santa Cruz, Transition, and Hinderyckx bikeshand crafted by our own Rochester boy Zak Hinderyckx. So STOP READING and RIDE YOUR BIKE! Hours: 7 days a week, 10 – 6.

13 HANOVER ADVENTURE TOURS

713 US 5 N., Norwich, VT | 802-359-2921 hanoveradventuretours.com

THE GEAR HOUSE FROG HOLLOW BIKES

Electric and acoustic bike retailer selling and renting Magnum, Yamaha, Izip and Cannondale bikes. With an expertise in electric bicycles, we live and breathe outdoor exploration through our offering of e-bike rentals, sales, and tours including doorstep delivery and a full-service shop (all bikes welcome). Over 100 electric bicycle rentals, demos, and tours available for individuals and large groups, short and long-term.

HIGH PEAKS CYCLERY 14

2733 Main St., Lake Placid, NY

518-523-3764 | highpeakscyclery.com

The Adirondacks' source for cycling and outdoor gear and adventures since 1983.RIDE

THE ADIRONDACK RAIL TRAIL. Lake Placid to Tupper Lake and Beyond. Paddle. Bike. Hike. Fish. E-Bikes. Guides. Shuttles. Tours Adventure.

15

HITCHHIKER

394 Mountain Road

Ste. 6, Stowe, VT |

802-585-3344 hitchhikerbikes.com

We are Stowe's local bike shop. Located adjacent to the Cady Hill trails in the Baggy Knees shopping center. We are your source for all things MTB and gravel. We have you covered with everything from sales and service, to clothing, parts, and accessories! In store you'll find bikes from Rocky Mountain, Cervelo, Otso Forbidden, Chromag, and more!"

16

OLD SPOKES HOME 18

331 North Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT 802-863-4475 | oldspokeshome.com

Vermont’s best selection of professionally refurbished used bikes and new bikes for touring, bike packing, commuting, fat biking, and simply getting around town. A non-profit, Old Spokes Home uses 100% of its revenue to run programs creating access to bikes in the community.

OMER & BOB’S 19

20 Hanover St. Lebanon, NH 603-448-3522 | omerandbobs.com

The Upper Valley's bike shop since 1964. Offering mountain bikes, gravel and road bikes, hybrid bikes, e-bikes, and kids bikes from Norco, Specialized, Trek, and Electra. Featuring a full service department, bike fitting, mountain and e-bike demos, and a kids trade-in, trade-up program. Hours: Mon.-Friday, 9am5:30pm, Sat., 9am-5pm

LAMOILLE VALLEY BIKE TOURS

19 Creamery St., Johnson, VT | 802-730-0161 | lamoillevalleybiketours.com

Located trailside on the 93-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail! Lamoille Valley Bike Tours has been getting riders out on the rail trail with local knowledge and friendly service since 2016. We offer E-bike and Bike tours, rentals and sales and a new Rail Trail Bike Shuttle service.

We carry E-bikes, bikes and gravel bikes from Diamondback, Batch Bicycles, Cannondale, Izip and Surface 604 with a wide selection of used E-bikes available for sale. We offer private consultations and a try-before-youbuy customer experience. We service Bosch and Shimano E-bike systems. Come visit us at our fully stocked Trailside Bike Center at mile 55 on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail

17

MOUNTAINOPS

4081 Mountain Road, Stowe, VT

802-253-4531 mountainopsvt. com

We offer bikes along with fast, friendly service. Dealers of Niner, Scott, Devinci and Jamis, we carry a large assortment of mountain and gravel bikes including a 60bike demo fleet. Our techs have years of experience and our local trail knowledge is second to none. Our converted 1893 barnturned-bike-shop houses a huge selection of bike and lifestyle clothing and parts and accessories. Looking for a more mellow ride? Rent one of our cruisers for a trip down the Stowe Rec Path right from our parking lot!

20

ONION RIVER OUTDOORS

20 Langdon St. Montpelier, VT 802-225-6736 | onionriver.com

ORO is Central Vermont's premier bike, car rack and outdoor gear shop. Friendly and knowledgeable sales and service. We carry Specialized, Niner, Rocky Mountain, Salsa, Surly and Yuba, and a large variety of clothing and accessories including Giro, Smith, Club Ride, Patagonia, Terry and more. Visit our website to learn about our clinics, events and bike rental program!

OUTDOOR GEAR EXCHANGE 21

37 Church St., Burlington, VT 888-547-4327 |gearx.com

Voted Best Bike Shop 2021 by MTBVT, OGE is an award-winning, premier bike shop with knowledgeable, friendly, and honest staff. We offer a wide range of gravel grinders from Marin, BMC, and Niner. Our selection of mountain bikes from Marin, BMC, Niner, Pivot, Rocky Mountain, Transition, SCOR, and Yeti will blow you away. Plus, we offer super affordable kids' bikes, commuters from Batch Bicycles, and fat bikes. We also have consignment bikes as well as a demo fleet. Our efficient service department is capable of everything from tuning your vintage road bike to servicing your new mountain bike and offers full Fox shock service. Browse our gear shop to get fully outfitted for bike packing, touring, or fat biking to the slopes for a multi-sport day—indeed any conceivable adventure—while you're here. Come see us downtown on Church St!

POWERPLAY SPORTS 22

35 Portland St. Morrisville, VT 802-888-6557 powerplaysports.com

North Central Vermont's Trek and Giant Dealer nestled in the heart of bike country. Selling new and used bikes for every budget and every type of rider from beginner to expert. We service all manner of bike and sell tons of accessories and apparel. Bike rentals for the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail just 200 yards down the road.

RANCH CAMP 23

311 Mountain Road, Stowe, VT

802-253-2753 | ranchcampvt.com

Ranch Camp is Stowe’s mountain bike base lodge and your hub for bikes, gear, and culture! Ranch Camp offers a full-service mountain bike shop, tap room, and fresh-casual eatery, featuring sales and demo bike from Specialized, Ibis, Yeti, Evil, Revel, and Fatback. Looking for top of the line mountain bikes and components? Got ‘em. How about local brews from new England’s finest purveyors of craft libations? You bet. And if you need a thoughtfully crafted grab-and-go meal for your ride, or a place to sit down and refuel afterwards, Ranch Camp has you covered. Best of all, Ranch Camp is situation trailside with its very own public access entrance into Stowe’s iconic Cady Hill trail network.

SKIRACK 24

85 Main St. Burlington 802-658-3313 | skirack.com

Locally owned and operated since 1969, Skirack provides the best selection of outdoor gear for running, downhill & cross country skiing and snowboarding. We specialize in all things bike and e-bike: service, rentals, car racks, expert fitting and knowledge. Head to Skirack.com for updated hours and more information.

STARK MOUNTAIN 25

9 RTE 17, unit b   Waitsfield, VT 802-496-4800

Find us on Facebook

Located at the lowest spot in the Mad River Valley so you can coast in when you break your bike on a ride! 21 years of advice,directions and fixing anything that pedals. Thinking about a Yeti? Come ride one of ours,we have been selling Yeti since 2006! Hours: Tues-Fri 9-6*, Sat 9-4, and Sunday 10-2. *Closes at 5 on Thursdays for the Shop Ride.

TYGART

57 Pond St. STE 1, Ludlow, VT (802) 228-5440

Info@tygartmountainsports.com, Tygartmountainsports.com

We are a full service bicycle sales and service center offering a variety of bikes from Cannondale, Scott, and Kona. We also offer a full line of tools, clothing, and accessories. We have 4 Park Tool School Certified technicians with a combined 52 years of industry experience offering a full range of services including in-house suspension work and full build-outs.

VILLAGE SPORT SHOP 27

Trailside, 2099 Darling Hill Rd. East Burke, VT

802-626-8444|

villagesportshop.com

Established in 1978, we are a family-owned, passion-driven sporting goods store serving customers for four seasons of adventure. Strongly focused on bike and ski, we have highly skilled knowledgeable technicians and sales staff to assist in all needs of purchase, rental and service. With a location trailside on the world-renowned Kingdom Trails, we’re here to make your adventures happen!

WATERBURY SPORTS 28

46 South Main Street, Waterbury, VT 802-882-8595 | waterburysportsvt.com

A full service bike shop selling Trek and Giant bikes in one of Vermont's most convenient locations. Nestled in downtown Waterbury a short distance from the Perry Hill MTB trails, WBS services all bikes and can handle any repair you might have. We also have a fleet of demo bikes and an excellent selection of parts and accessories. Open 7 days a week!

WEST HILL SHOP 29

49 Brickyard Lane, Putney, VT

802-387-5718

westhillshop.com

Right off I-91 Northbound! Proud to be a tier-1 Specialized shop, and one of the longeststanding independent shops in the region, with bikes also from Banshee, Cannonade, Devinci, Evil, Transition, and Salsa. Our curated garment selection from Patagonia, POC, and Specialized is based on what we have chosen for our own use in all of Vermont’s glorious conditions. The WHS service department is widely recognized as one of the best in the region. Call about walkin service availability on Fridays and Saturdays. Ask us about custom wheels, suspension service, and set-up.

ENDGAME

Not to brag or anything, but I’ve put up approximately 100 new routes in China, all of them solo, all of them executed with impeccable style. Freestanding limestone spires: been there. Whole-horizon enchainments: done that. Because I’m a humble, selfeffacing Yankee, I haven’t formally documented these ascents, preferring to keep such intimate, arduous quests between me and the rugged mountains. I climb solely for the love of landscape, the love of envisioning elegant lines through complex terrain.

Pause. Let me make it perfectly clear that I’ve never set foot anywhere near the People’s Republic. And that I’m mildly acrophobic, a peeweeleague mountaineer at best. And that each of my bold, forwardthinking ascents was launched from a living room basecamp in Vermont: overstuffed armchair, mug of hot cocoa, reading lamp, glossy coffeetable book filled with ancient Chinese landscape paintings. As others are passionate about throwing themselves into the hardship and glory of real mountains, I am passionate about doing the same for representations of mountains.

Book in lap, I shrink down.

I scan for weaknesses, for offwidth cracks and linkable ledges.

I lean forward, reach high—and send.

This hobby of imaginatively projecting my body into the inky vertical of landscape paintings may seem idiosyncratic, but it’s not. Gary Snyder, a Pulitzer-winning author who kicked steps and glissaded on snowy volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest as a teenager, describes a similar brand of mental adventuring: “The mountains and rivers of the Sung dynasty paintings are numinous and remote. Yet they could be walked.

. . . Studying Fan K’uan’s “Travellers Among Streams and Mountains” (about 1000 AD)—a hanging scroll seven feet tall—one can discern a possible climbing route up the chimneys to the left of the waterfall. The travelers and their packstock are safe below on the trail. They could be coming into the Yosemite Valley in the 1870s.”

If you’re thinking of Bradford

MY LIFE OF FIRST ASCENTS

WHETHER YOU CLIMB BIG MOUNTAINS OR JUST DREAM OF DISCOVERING NEW ROUTES, THERE’S AN ALLURE TO PUTTING YOURSELF INTO A LANDSCAPE – REAL OR IMAGINED.

BY LEATH TONINO

that little has changed over three decades. In an alley between my local supermarket and my local liquor store, a pipe protruding from a brick building dribbles a weird, gross, yellowtinted fluid. During summer, this fluid creates only a dark stain, but during winter—damn! A hidden gem of an ice climb! An intricate, daunting, six-foot monster that no human has successfully surmounted! Friday afternoons, en route to a beer purchase, I find myself transfixed by frozen details. No, I don’t pull actual Lego knights from my pocket and strap crampons to their blocky boots (they’re already wearing helmets, duh), but something related does occur in my psyche. Five minutes will pass— focused minutes of front-pointing and crux-puzzling, intense minutes of burning lungs and dizzying exposure— before I recall the sixer still in need of buying.

Washburn right now, the famous Alaska Range photographer and mountaineer, good, because there’s definitely a parallel: Snyder scrutinizes Fan K’uan’s scroll for belay stations in the manner that eager, youthful alpinists scrutinize Washburn’s black-and-white prints prior to attempting untried ridges and faces. “Climbers take pleasure in gazing on ranges from a near distance and visualizing the ways to approach and ascend,” Snyder writes. Whether we’re dealing with the elemental range or the two-dimensional image, this gazing remains a constant. Likewise for the pleasure it engenders.

Okay, putting artsy stuff aside, I want to briefly mention another hobby of mine: Legos. Throughout my childhood in the Champlain Valley, I enjoyed nothing so much as taking plastic figurines into the micro-wilds of the backyard, and then leading them—or rather having them lead me—on multi-pitch epics. A low boulder becomes Half Dome. A flagstone retaining wall in winter

becomes the Eiger’s Nordwand. And the mailbox on its gargantuan post becomes K2, deadliest of Himalayan peaks.

I am unashamed to report

What all this amounts to is, as mentioned earlier, the love of landscape, the love of envisioning elegant lines through complex terrain. It’s a truism that we dinky humans engage giant mountains to feel small and—simultaneously, paradoxically—to feel huge with that smallness, as though insignificance itself were a kind of soulexpanding drug. A feeling, yes, that’s what this is all about: a feeling that can be felt in Patagonia and the Karakoram, but also in in the artsy armchair, the dribbly alley, and a million other underappreciated “Great Ranges” of the nearby, the everyday, the beneath-yournose.

Despite my dashing, heroic expeditions in China and beyond, I remain a humble, self-effacing Yankee. So please, don’t take it as braggadocio when I say that my life of first ascents is just beginning, just starting to crank. An unremitting fascination with the topographical world drives me onward, ever onward. Honestly, I can’t help but order books of landscape paintings via interlibrary loan, lean forward, reach high—and send.

Vermont writer and contributing editor Leath Tonino is the author of two essay collections, most recently The West Will Swallow You (Trinity University Press, 2019). A version of this essay appeared in Adventure Journal.

Lego Man, armed with compass and backpack, makes a first ascent of a backyard boulder. Adobe stock.

“We dinky humans engage giant mountains to feel small and— simultaneously, paradoxically—to feel huge with that smallness, as though insignificance itself were a kind of soulexpanding drug.”

HELP THE VERMONT FOODBANK FIGHT HUNGER!

Saturday, September 23, 2023, at the State House Lawn in Montpelier

Did you know that two in five people in Vermont have experienced hunger in the past year?

Register now for the Point to Point, powered by VSECU—an annual bike riding event and fundraiser for the Vermont Foodbank. There will be rides from 10 to 110 miles and music, food, fun, and games for everyone. We look forward to seeing you there.

Every dollar we raise provides a meal for a Vermont family, so sign up today to support a good cause and help us reach our $150,000 fundraising goal.

Get back to it. All of it.

A hip that works for gravel biking

A knee that works for logging miles

A shoulder that works for backstrokes

All of the above

Feeling better isn’t just about minimizing pain. It’s about getting back to the active life you love. Dartmouth Health’s experienced surgeons perform thousands of procedures each year. From simple injuries to complex ones, our sports specialists offer advanced, personalized treatment plans with both surgical and nonsurgical options.

Wherever you are, Dartmouth Health’s expert orthopaedic care is there for you.

Make an appointment and get back to it. go.d-h.org/sports-medicine

The best, where it matters most.