The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

VT Northeast Kingdom Fall Foliage 2016

September 24th to October 3rd

Ride Director: Julie Leever
Ride Co-Director: Tom Leever
Report by: Claire Robinson

The North East Kingdom of Vermont Fall Foliage tour had excellent scenery and was largely low traffic/ backroads riding.  Each day brought new mountains, farms, rivers and lakes to view as you pedaled along.  Normally late September is the peak season for fall foliage in northern VT, but the extreme drought in New England this year pushed that out 1 ½ -2 weeks.  Still, as the tour progressed the colors came out more each day, ending the tour with some of the bright foliage for which New England is noted.

Our leaders, Tom and Julie Leever, were leading this tour for the third time, and were well organized with cue sheets, GPS files and lots of local information.  The happy hours featured local cheeses, local fruits, local micro brews, and local wines, giving the trip a true VT flair.  The 3 group dinners were all excellent and featured local cuisine.  Breakfast each day was also excellent, except for the motel in Newport which was only fair.  But a few steps from the motel was a diner with great breakfast for reasonable prices.

As advertised, routes were hilly – some short and steep, some long and moderate (5-8% grade), some long and steep.  Altimeter calculations for total elevation gain each day seemed to lag behind GPS calculations by 1K-1.5K, but no matter what the total, you absolutely must be ready for hills - flat really doesn’t exist in Vermont – best you can expect is rolling. But the scenery is definitely worth the climbs, and the downhills are your “payback”!  Day 2 of riding had short and long options, each taking you on a loop over the border into Quebec, so this was also an international tour!  Since much of the route each day was through rural areas, you needed to pay attention to the cue sheets and route rap to know where food stops were located, as sometimes there were many miles in between. The biggest negative on routes was the 10 miles of dirt roads on Day 6 (mandatory) riding from Lyndonville to Stowe. It was advertised to be suitable for road bikes, but road like a washboard instead. Perhaps next time this section could be re-routed on paved roads.

Accommodations were mostly at local inns, each with their own unique Vermont character. Three nights were spent at the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville/Burke. The Wildflower Inn is at the top of a hill with panoramic vistas all around and the rooms were spacious and well appointed.  The only downside was that local restaurants were 3-5 miles away and there was no local taxi service. Luckily there was an onsite restaurant at the inn open for all meals.

A big shout-out to our leaders, the Leevers, for a great trip.  Tom and Julie went above and beyond to plan and lead this trip and make sure everyone had a good experience.