Gravel Routes Around Burlington?

[ridethecliche]

I'm going to be in BTV over labor day weekend for a wedding. I'll be staying at smuggs with a friend and we're bringing our bikes to get some riding in during the day saturday, sunday, and before checkout and our ride home on monday.

Does anyone have any suggestion for gravel rides in the area? I think we're hoping for 2-4ish hour ride options. We're probably going to be more in 'enjoy the view mode' vs 'ride like hell mode'. I don't think we're going to be trying to get too crazy with the underbiking.

Would love to see what folks recommend.

[tellyho]

Bikepacking.com has a good list of trips in VT that could be a reference when building rides:

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

[smontanaro]

Komoot might have some routes. You can filter by road surface, distance, expertise, etc.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by tellyho

Bikepacking.com has a good list of trips in VT that could be a reference when building rides:

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

Two years ago I rode the Green Mountain Gravel Growler route, and Angry joined me on Day 2 from Burlington to Morrisville. Good riding! And Lost Nation Brewing in Morrisville got two thumbs up!

[morrisericd]

I'd stop at Bootlegger Bikes in Jeffersonville and get some local info. They have a bunch of rides on their site. Great shop!

https://bootleggerbikes.com/pages/local-routes

Here's the local Stowe Gravel World's route we do. If you start at Trapps, you can go into their Biergarten at the end of your ride for a well deserved beer.

https://www.strava.com/routes/3263112548673364854

Tons of great gravel and road on either side of the Notch!

[ridethecliche]

So much awesome info here!

Thank you.

[verticaldoug]

https://gravelmap.com/map#_=9.24/44.3907/-73.0117

knock yourself out.

I might drop down to Sugarbush forLincoln and App Gap. (two of the 6 gap)
Lincoln descent is gravel. Two really nice climbs in my opinion.

[.RJ]

Having spent a little bit of time in Vermont - you may want to be mindful of elevation as you plot your route, and the only flat(ish) land seems to be west of the green mountains or along a river and there are 500-1000ft climbs pretty much any direction.

Most of the roads are really good but there are plenty that are basically rocky jeep track, singletrack or "closed" - I'm not sure if those are well indicated on the gravel maps, but the last time I tried using the strava routing tool there it had a real knack for picking up every single one of them which wasnt great on 38mm tires.

The gravel riding and scenery is absolutely world class though.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Having spent a little bit of time in Vermont - you may want to be mindful of elevation as you plot your route, and the only flat(ish) land seems to be west of the green mountains or along a river and there are 500-1000ft climbs pretty much any direction.

Most of the roads are really good but there are plenty that are basically rocky jeep track, singletrack or "closed" - I'm not sure if those are well indicated on the gravel maps, but the last time I tried using the strava routing tool there it had a real knack for picking up every single one of them which wasnt great on 38mm tires.

The gravel riding and scenery is absolutely world class though.

Good point about the jeep roads!
The town-maintained dirt roads (not gravel in New England) are often better than pavement in a lot of places. I rode the Growler with 650Bx38 slicks, and heck, much of these roads could have been ridden with 25s!

[ridethecliche]

I'm going to be there for a friend's wedding where I was lucky enough that one of my best friend's invited to be her plus one. I'm friend's with the groom but I've been limited-ish in my Boston friend group a fair bit since 2015 when I moved to central MA, then NJ, then philly.

I'm stoked to be there for the wedding, but part of it is that we're planning on riding sat, sun, and mon AM around the festivities. I'm really excited to get out for some of these rides. I haven't been able to put in a ton of hours recently since I'm prepping for an exam in two weeks, but I'm so stoked for some of these routes... even though they're going to destroy me.

I'll be on my giant TCX SX with 46/30 11-36 gearing. Tires are Tirreno Dry 35's which measure at 38. I think I should be okay-ish for the most part. I have some kenda flintridge 40's I could put in but I think there's something wrong with one of the casings because the tire didn't look centered which is a bummer.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by NHAero

The town-maintained dirt roads (not gravel in New England) are often better than pavement in a lot of places. I rode the Growler with 650Bx38 slicks, and heck, much of these roads could have been ridden with 25s!

Yep. I took my wife who really hates any sort of gravel or off road on a few rides on 30mm tires and she was totally fine.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by ridethecliche

I'll be on my giant TCX SX with 46/30 11-36 gearing. Tires are Tirreno Dry 35's which measure at 38. I think I should be okay-ish for the most part. I have some kenda flintridge 40's I could put in but I think there's something wrong with one of the casings because the tire didn't look centered which is a bummer.

You'll be fine. Every time I've visited I've taken my Crux on 38mm tires with 40/11-42 gearing.

[morrisericd]

The gravel roads around here - unless freshly graded - are like pavement. You could seriously ride 28mm slicks on almost everything I ride. Of course, there are tons of class 4 roads (jeep trails basically) that require lower gearing and bigger tires, but you should be fine almost everywhere. Check out the Overland Race's route for such class 4 roads!

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47842816

I'd stay away from App Gap as the road is not in great shape after the last rain event and the GMSR will be on the West side on Sunday as the finish of stage 3. We used to ride to the top early and cheer on the racers, but this year might not be the best year to do that as the road really isn't great.

Probably too far to drive (40 minutes), but if you want some routes around Shelburne and Charlotte, along with creemee recommendations, PM me and I'll send you some Strava routes.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by morrisericd

The gravel roads around here - unless freshly graded - are like pavement. You could seriously ride 28mm slicks on almost everything I ride. Of course, there are tons of class 4 roads (jeep trails basically) that require lower gearing and bigger tires, but you should be fine almost everywhere. Check out the Overland Race's route for such class 4 roads!

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47842816

I'd stay away from App Gap as the road is not in great shape after the last rain event and the GMSR will be on the West side on Sunday as the finish of stage 3. We used to ride to the top early and cheer on the racers, but this year might not be the best year to do that as the road really isn't great.

Probably too far to drive (40 minutes), but if you want some routes around Shelburne and Charlotte, along with creemee recommendations, PM me and I'll send you some Strava routes.

Please start a separate post with maple creemee locations and ratings.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by NHAero

Good point about the jeep roads!
The town-maintained dirt roads (not gravel in New England) are often better than pavement in a lot of places. I rode the Growler with 650Bx38 slicks, and heck, much of these roads could have been ridden with 25s!

Damn that bottom pic is frame worthy!