As we continued exploring the east coast, we were bound to make it to Vermont for some mountain biking. Late June and early July were quite wet and rainy for this time of year limiting our riding and experience. If it wasn’t rainy, it was smokey, with AQI in the 150s on up. We originally had a 2 week stay planned in Burlington which got cut in half. To keep the cost down we use Trusted house sitters instead of hotels or Airbnb. It is a good option if you are in for taking care of pets and other people’s homes while they are away.
We only got 2 days of mountain biking and 2 on our gravel bikes during our stay. Perry Hill and Bolton Valley Resort. Both are fantastic places. As we were riding at Perry Hill the rain came down and made for some slippery rock features that limited our time there.
With a few days off and lots of rain, we also were able to find good food, beer, and sights to see in the area. Vermont mountain biking was one of our favorite stops on the trip so far. There’s a reason it’s called the green mountain state. Lush trees, rolling hills, and a great culture all over the place. Tt was a dream come true.
Bolton Valley Resort
Bolton Valley is the true definition of tech flow. The trails have the old-school feeling with some modern twists to them. This place used to host downhill events years ago before the sport blew up. Now it is changing its style to offer all types of riding for everyone. Just last season they added the first green trail from the top a 3.3-mile flow trail that winds through the trees and makes for great warm-up laps for some riders. After that, you jump right in on either the tech or blue jump trail, and then it’s full send into some of the double black tech that just does not end. With lots of good trails, features, and fun we were not able to ride it all. Some of the best trails in my opinion were Double Down, Ledges, Enchanted Forest, and Broken Bridge are all worth hitting.
They are open Wednesday-Friday 12-8 with live music by the lift with beer, creemees, and food to enjoy. Saturday and Sunday they are from 9-5. They offer half-day tickets which I find sweet, especially on the weeknights when you could go up for after-work laps all summer long and get your money’s worth.
Perry Hill
A wet and wild adventure we had here. With a day off from the rain we scurried over to get some laps in before the next storm. I was planning on doing laps on every trail here but on our second climb up it started to dump. With no end in sight, we called it a day. This little trail system is slotted just south of Stowe VT, outside of Waterbury. With some cool slabs, rollers, and rock features this steep and rowdy trail system was everything we were looking for. Starting our first lap on Small Axe and our second on Disneyland. Oh how unfortunate we missed the most epic ones, Joe’s and Six Flags. With that, we still had a blast on the trails we could ride. Halfway down Disneyland there’s an optional roller, root section, or ride around giving all riders a choice of how much they wanna send as one would say. The trail finishes off with some really fast flow and nice bermed corners. It’s short enough you could hot lap this a few times if you wanted.
Killington Resort
Lifts, slides, food, and more. Killington gave me some good vibes of being back home in Park City Utah. With a well-built resort that has everything for families, fun, and bikes it’s a great place for everyone to enjoy. Here they offer three different lifts getting you to the top of different peaks, with the K1 gondola being the highest point. The gondola is only open Thursday-Sunday and holidays. This place was by far the most expensive at $75 a person. They also made us buy online instead of waiting in line to purchase. It’s fine but having the attendant walk me through it all was a waste of time when he could have just done it on the computer while he was helping me.
Anyway…with the lift options, it was hard to know where to start. We did some warm-up laps on the Snowshead Express. This area had some great jumpiness to warm up on before going to the other side of the hill to Blue and Black Magic where the big stuff is. We took 2 laps off K1, while it was fun to be up at the top I wasn’t a fan of screaming down fire roads before hitting the trails that start lower. While a pain, the trails are pretty demanding and technical but fun. This made for some longer laps that just wore us out faster. Steel Panther, Snakebite, and Jumpstart were some of our favorites that we will be lapping next time we stop here.
After the full day of riding we stopped at Long Trail Brewing for a beer and snacks. Long Trail is the number one beer sold in Vermont so I’m told, don’t quote me on that.
Eats, Drinks, and Filing Cabinets
Burlington VT Has great access to bike paths, lake views, unique cider drinks, and creemees. There was a really good vibe at all the places we went. Queen City offered my favorite selection of beers to date. With the lake close there is beach access that lines Lake Champlain, and west facing it makes for a good sunset over it. The weirdest thing we found was this filling cabinet art in the middle of town. It’s 36 cabinets tall. We should go to the thrift shop and build one taller in Utah.
Citizen Cider Unique mixed drinks using all house-made ciders.
Zero Gravity Brewing Great vegan and veggie selection.
Queen City Brewery Only 1 IPA here. lots of good choices.
Vermont Cookie Love Good Creemee, Which is like soft serve but 10x better. Maple is the flavor to get. Truth be told, most places had great ice cream so just find one close!
Rockers Pizza Pretzel and pizza offerings.
Vermont Skydiving Adventures We were interested in going but the weather didn’t pan out.
