Biking Vermont

Author: By Christina Tree, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, June 22, 1997

Page: M13

Section: Travel

Vermont deserves this image as a mecca both for bicycle tourers and mountain bikers. Birthplace in the '70s of the country's first bicycle touring company and in the '80s of pioneering mountain biking programs, Vermont in the '90s may just offer the world's widest choice of biking options.

Scenery is, of course, what both breeds of cyclist say draws them to Vermont. For traditional tourers, quiet roads thread a countryside dotted by farms and villages, and for the fat-tired mountain-bikers, woodland and remote meadows are increasingly accessible via dirt, ``Class Four'' and abandoned logging roads, snowmobile, cross-country, and ``single track'' trails.

For the traditional bicyclists, guided and self-guided tours now link campsites and small bed-and-breakfasts as well as full-fledged inns, and for do-it-yourself tourers, the number of marked bicycle routes with support material seems to grow daily. A map/guide, for instance, outlines the new 350-mile Lake Champlain Bikeways route, and free pamphlets suggest bike routes from each of the nine Vermont Amtrak stations (the trains are equipped with bike baggage cars). The miles of specially designed bicycle paths throughout the state also seem to grow daily.

Mountain biking in Vermont began on woods and farm roads, but then for a decade seemed largely limited, at least for out-of-staters, to ski resorts -- several of which still stand ready to hoist you to the top of mountains and teach you to ride down. Now, however, hundreds of miles of beautiful back country throughout the state is also accessible, thanks to a growing number of outfitters, shops, and inns specializing in mountain biking.

It's no wonder that the 1997 annual (and free) Vermont Traveler's Guidebook pictures two tanned and happy bicyclists on its cover or that the summer exhibit at the American Precision Museum in Windsor is ``Pedal Power.'' Obviously, there's a story here. The hitch: Whoever writes it should really have bicycled for at least a day or two in Vermont, something this writer had managed to avoid during more than 25 years of writing about the state.

I have a bike, but it's an old clunker with no gears and mismatched wheels, the amalgam of several rusty carcasses found in Harvard Yard by my third son's Cub Scout leader. Ten years later, it still gets me around Cambridge.

But a good story is a good story. Dreading the prospect of joining a spandexed phalanx of gear-happy bicyclists, I called Bike Vermont, reserved a 21-gear Trek ``hybrid'' bike and a place in a Three Mountain Inn Tour.

Of course, the June weekend was not at all what I expected. Pleasant surprises began Friday evening, with the discovery that my companions included a 60-ish as well as an early 30-ish couple, and that the two fit and friendly Bike Vermont leaders were nearer my age than my children's.

The real rush of relief came, however, the next morning when I finally edged out onto Route 30, well after everyone else had gone. Grateful that there was no one to watch (the rear guard leader was discreetly out of sight), I fiddled with the three left and seven right gears, gradually getting the idea and marveling at the way the bike took the 9 miles into Townshend, a classic white and green village with a steepled church and Victorian bandstand.

I listened to birds and smelled lilacs, and it only got better. The next 3 miles were along a shady, little-trafficked road, and with all those gears even the mile-long hill was surprisingly do-able. Then it was all downhill into Grafton, another classically pretty village, one with a cheese factory, an elegant old inn, and a general store selling good sandwiches and excellent pickles.

Sure, I could have done this on my own, not that I ever would have, but Bike Vermont's ``Sag Wag'' (as bike tour support vans are generally known) ultimately saved the day. A half hour west of Grafton when the sandy, stony dirt road began to steepen, I climbed aboard the van for 5 uphill miles, emerging at the hilltop Windham Congregational Meetinghouse. It's all downhill from there to Burbee Pond and past Herb and Ida Dutton's glorious old farm, on down to Hamilton Falls. There, the bike was stowed in that handy van, and I was free to explore the falls, a 125-foot drop through pools and over granite ledges. With fellow tourers I walked (stiffly) back to Jamaica along the West River.

Admittedly I absorbed little of the 6 p.m. workshop on cleaning and maintaining chains and gears, but I did devour innkeeper Elaine Murray's delicious dinner, and after a long, hot soak, I slept soundly in my four-poster. Sunday was, again, surprisingly pleasant, including long stretches of well-graded, virtually deserted dirt roads following streams and a stop at Pikes Falls. It ended too quickly, by 2 p.m.

``The very first recorded bicycle tour in the U.S. occurred in 1879 when Charles Pratt planned and led a `Wheel around the Hub,' a two-day bicycle tour that explored the environs of Boston,'' according to ``Bicycle Touring in Vermont & Vermont's Scenic Byways Program,'' a report prepared in 1995 by Bruce Burgess.

Burgess chronicles the huge popularity of bicycle touring in the 1880s and '90s, its virtual disappearance during the next seven decades and reappearance in the 1960s, with the advent of ``ten speeds'' and the promotion of bicycling as a route to fitness. The report also decribes how John Freidin, now a state senator, happened to start the country's bicycle guiding company in 1972:

``I had a flash,'' Freidin likes to say, ``while bicycle touring with a few friends. If people had someone to plan wonderful rides for them in a beautiful part of the country, had a comfortable place to stay in the evening with good food to eat, and someone to go along with them to take care of mechanical problems, they would enjoy bicycling as I enjoyed it.''

Freiden's ``flash'' became Vermont Bicycle Touring, or VBT, successful enough to inspire the creation of similar companies throughout the country. Owned since 1986 by Bill Perry, VBT continues to prosper. It counted 7,000 customers last season and currently employs 91 tour leaders on a total of 488 tours to no less than 50 destinations in the United States, Europe (its current growth area), New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina. This season, VBT offers 160 Vermont departures, on 13 tours.

Bruce Burgess notes that guided bicycle touring in Vermont peaked in the late 1980s, and many past and potential clients are now pedaling instead in Europe. And that's as it should be, according to Bike Vermont owner Larry Niles.

``Bicycle touring in Vermont is a mature industry that's leveled off,'' Niles says. ``But it's not like bungee jumping. Many of the people who have tried it keep coming back.''

Bike Vermont, itself 21 years old this season, remains dedicated to Vermont routes, with occasional detours into New Hampshire, and employs 26 guides. Last season, 60 percent of its 2,000 patrons were repeats.

While VBT and Bike Vermont tours are limited to 20 members and are frequently far smaller, both are also limited to larger, more formal inns. By way of several outfits -- Northeast Kingdom Cycling, Balloon Inn Vermont Vacations, Cycle-Inn-Vermont, and Country Inns Along the Trail -- all transfer luggage and supply routings between smaller inns and B & Bs, each in a different part of the state. And Bruce Burgess's Bicycle Holidays offers customized, self-guiding inn-to-inn tours throughout Vermont.

Two new outfitters, moreover, have significantly increased Vermont's touring options. Don Wexler, a longtime, long-distance rider, operates Magic Mountain Cycling, specializing in long-distance rides for experienced cyclists, and POMG Bike Tours offers weekend and five-day tours using campsites in Vermont State Parks.

``POMG'' stands for ``Peace of Mind Guaranteed,'' a slogan Richard First (University of Vermont '90) adopted from his grandfather, who coined it for his jewelry store in Hartford, Conn. Exuding enthusiasm for Vermont's campgrounds as well as its countryside, First enjoyed a banner first season in 1996, earning a reputation for camp cooking and comfort (there are air mattresses in roomy tents), appealing to younger cyclists both with reasonable prices and routes suitable both for mountain and touring bikes.

Of course, far more mountain bikes than touring bikes are sold these days, and Vermont has thousands of miles of dirt roads and many miles of abandoned roads, not to mention an outstanding supply of cross-country and logging tracks. It was only a question of time before entrepreneurs began putting these phenomena together.

``In 1985, we had to describe what a mountain bike was, people didn't know'' recalls Tom Yennerell, owner of the Pittsfield Inn, sited in a steeply walled central Vermont valley. It's the base for ``Escape Routes,'' a reasonably priced guide service to a 100-mile maze of interconnecting tracks and trails.

Up in the high rolling farm country of the Northeast Kingdom, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center also began offering mountain bike rentals and tours in 1985. A former prep school with programs in running and sculling as well as bicycling, the center offers food, lodging, and access to a 200-mile web of dirt farm roads, and to single-track riding on a wooded cross-country ski trail.

The first ski resort in the East with a Mountain Biking School (opened in 1988), Mount Snow remains the state's single biggest magnet for both want-to-be and skilled mountain bikers. It offers weekend and special three-day coaching programs for all abilities and daily lift-assisted biking for advanced bikers, a 140-mile trail network in all, geared to all abilities. Killington and Sugarbush, Stratton, and Jay Peak also offer lift-assisted biking, rentals, and instruction.

More and more want-to-bes as well as already skilled mountain bikers are, however, discovering the delights of a Vermont that's simply not to be found in or around ski areas. Access is through enthusiasts like Dean Wilson, a former Mount Snow instructor and guide who operates Newfane Off-Road Biking.

``This is the real riding -- and the real Vermont'' Wilson likes to say. Based in a small shop behind the Newfane Market, Wilson sells and rents bikes, offers instruction and tours over a network of some 200 miles, composed of dirt roads and grassy trails throughout Windham County.

Located within walking distance of the Amtrak station in Randolph, Slab City Bike & Sports serves a base for exploring 18 distinct loops maintained by the White River Valley Trails Association, a system composed primarily of snowmobile trails, covering much of central Vermont.

The number of shops providing similar services include Green Mountain Bicycles Service in Rochester, the Mad River Bike Shop in Waitsfield, and the Mountain Bike Shop in Stowe. Adventure Guides of Vermont will, moreover, put you in touch with qualified mountain bike guides throughout the state.

A word of caution: Unless otherwise specified, all private land is, of course, off bounds to mountain bikers, as are all but vehicular roads in the Green Mountain National Forest, with the exception of three trails around Silver Lake in the Moosalamoo Region (for details, check with Blueberry Hill Inn, the rental and guidance center for this area).

For Bike Vermont Inn-to-Inn Bicycle Tours, phone (800) 257-2226 and for Vermont Bicycle Touring, phone (800) 245-3868.

Northeast Kingdom Cycling (800-639-5234) custom-designs tours and tranports luggage between inns. Balloon Inn Vermont Vacations (800-666-1946) transports luggage between two B & Bs in the Connecticut River Valley and will also arrange hot-air balloon rides. Cycle-Inn-Vermont (802-228-8799), based in Ludlow, and Country Inns Along the Trail (802-247-3300), based in Brandon, are both composed of innkeepers who supply maps and move luggage between their respective inns.

Bicycle Holidays (802-388-BIKE) offers custom-designed and ready-to-ride Vermont Vacations, with or without rentals.

For Majic Mountain Cycling phone or fax (802) 496-2614, and for POMG, phone (888) 635-BIKE.

For Escape Routes, phone (802) 746-8943, and for Craftsbury Outdoor Center, (800) 729-7751.

For Mount Snow Resort Mountain Bike Center, (802) 464-3333 (inquire about theme weekends). Jay Peak Mountain Bike Center (802-988-2611) will be offering mountain bikers free lifts on its aerial tram June 28 (rides are otherwise $5). The Kilington Mountain Bike Center (802-422-6232) offers 40 miles of trails as well as tours and access to 4,241-foot Killington Peak via a double chairlift. Stratton Sports (800-STRATTON or 802-297-2200) also offers rentals, tours, and lifts to the top on its gondola, and Sugarbush Resort Sports (802-583-2381) offers lift-served biking at Lincoln Peak.

Newfane Off-Road Biking (802-365-7723 or 365-4782) offers rentals, self-guided, and guided day and inn-based tours.

Paul Rea is the man at both Slab City Bike & Sports and the White River Valley Trails Association; phone (802) 728-4420.

For Green Mountain Bicycles, phone (802) 767-4464; for Mad River Bike, (802) 496-9500; for the Mountain Bike Shop, (802) 253-7919; and for Blueberry Hill Inn, (800) 448-0707.

John Freidin's ``25 Bicycle Tours in Vermont,'' updated in 1996, remains the Vermont road tourer's bible, and ``25 Mountain Bike Tours in Vermont'' by William Busha is also the best book on the subject at the moment. The new ``Lake Champlain Region Road Map and Guide'' ($3.95) is available from Northern Cartographic (802-860-2886, or fax:865-4912), and for an accomodations directory and event listing, phone the Lake Champlain Visitors Center at (518) 597-4646.

For a copy of ``Bicycle Touring in Vermont and Vermont's Scenic Byways Program'' by Bruce Burgess, phone (802) 828-3960.

``Pedal Power'' at the American Precision Museum (open daily) celebrates the invention and evolution of the bicycle.