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