A route that links Vermont’s best breweries together? On a bike? On GRAVEL ROADS?! Sign me up!

Any bike loving, gravel seeking, beer sipping Vermonter has seen this column in Outside making the rounds. This concept has lived in lore in my mind since first landing in my inbox, forwarded along by a friend. Part of the allure is what was spawned by Tim Johnson, Ryan Kelly, and me deciding to mosey 200 miles clear across the state of Vermont on the epic #200on100 nearly a decade ago. Point-to-point rides just add something slightly more gnarly, more adventuresome, more — dare I say it… epic to the ride.

The logistics of a point-to-point trip are far easier said than done. Even before you can start brainstorming the route, I recommend you search far and wind to find someone generous enough with their time to drive you and your squad of like-minded yahoos to the ends of the earth (or ends of the state) so you can start an adventure; they politely turn around and drive home.

My good friend Ansel — videographer extraordinaire of Groad to Kanza, now the King of the Ride — and I have been scheming for a long time how to make something similar to that original Growler Grinder a reality. Between the two of us, we know these roads, we know the breweries, and gosh darn it we have a mighty thirst to link them together.

Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, I found a very narrow sliver of time without any other obligations. Let me qualify that: I did an interview recently and was trying to explain what all it is that I do every day. If I operated on a 27 hour day, I couldn’t accomplish everything I need to do. Between sponsor obligations, tackling my share of tasks involved with co-owning UnTapped, maintaining a small coaching business, planning trips, trying to fit in a bike ride, and perhaps a dozen other projects on any given day, my calendar is busy. So in this interview I explained that I accomplish everything I possibly can over the course of a day, check off as many items on the to-do list, kiss my wonderful wife goodnight, then wake up early the next day, evaluate the priorities and do it all again.

As it relates to this story, I was due in California on Sunday evening and for the subsequent 12 days for a variety of projects. But because California is seemingly burning down, my trip was diverted and I set off east instead of west. Laura was in California (safe and sound, thankfully), and so there I was back at home with these few magical free days that no immediate tasks appeared on my calendar. No place I had to be, sure plenty of obligations, but nothing that I couldn’t balance thanks to the modern marvel that is the telephone. Or the pocket computer, as it were.

I shot Ansel a text: “shredXvermont starting tomorrow? I suddenly have a few days free”.

“Word”

It’s awesome having friends who are down to join unforeseen shenanigans at the drop of a hat.

The reality quickly set in as the two of us started hashing out the details over the phone. It’s nearly November. It’s cold in New England this time of year. Besides a particularly ridiculously cold trip that I took to Canada, we’re both, shall we call it amateur at bike packing. Furthermore, even if we started the next day on Monday, we had an atmospheric deluge arriving to New England by Wednesday. In short, we had two days. Ansel and I talked about testing out this route and that route, connecting this brewery and that restaurant, this super sick gravel road and that unknown Vermont gap; the wealth of options began to seem daunting.

We also discovered that virtually every brewery in Vermont is closed on Monday, Tuesday, and most of them are closed on Wednesday too. With the exception of Lawson’s Finest Liquids. Check; we’re going to Lawson’s!

Hemming and hawing wasn’t getting us anywhere. Realizing that time was short, I packed up all my gear, caught up on a few hours sleep, then woke up early on Monday and ripped south to Ansel’s house south of Woodstock, Vermont to begin the journey. We loaded up our packs and with just a general idea of where we were going and we set off north.

Gravel. Oooh, sweet sweet Vermont gravel. With the benefit of my handlebar bag and toptube nerd purse, plus Ansel’s saddlebag and similar toptube bento box, riding Vermont’s gravel on our bikes now weighed down with a dozen extra pounds and on damp hard packed gravel, it’s like riding a 14.3mph rollercoaster. Which a) is 1,000,000x more fun than it sounds and b) see a.

We set off on this adventure with high hopes of stopping at every cafe that sells hoppy libations along the way. But within a few hours we realized that sobriety and another type of brewed beverage would be to our benefit. We had 70 hard, hard miles ahead of us and with a later than expected departure, it suffice it to say that it’s a good thing that we each brought lights.

Stops are still a key component of not having a mutiny during long distance travel. Coffee stops included Mon Vert Cafe in Woodstock, First Branch Coffee in Royalton, The Green Light Cafe in Braintree and were all very well timed breaks. Plus these semi-bonked photos of Ansel are perhaps my favorite from the trip.

Rolling into Waitsfield, the sun had recently dipped below the horizon. Our evening camp site (which, for the sake of congruity to the story, we’ll call an “AirBnB”) was equidistant from where we stood on the side of the road making our decision as was our dining establishment, as was Lawson’s Finest Liquids. Long since underfed, slightly smelly and overdue for a shower, now chilly and damp, it was a no brainer: next stop, Lawson’s.

Another libation down the hatch, hydration is key and all, next we were off to dinner at Worthy Burger Too. Soon we were well fed, well tired, so it was off to our AirBnB. Being Vermont, where crime is as low as the population, you just leave your bike by the front door overnight.

Below is Worth Burger. Not to be confused with Worthy Kitchen or Worthy Burger Too. All are amazing and well worth your time to visit.

For the sake of wrapping up, day 2 was similar to day 1. We woke up even more sore than each of us expected, but well rested. Rolling quickly down the road, our first stop was at Toast & Eggs, where I nearly went with the eponymous order, but instead went with a breakfast sandwich. From there, a headwind made travel slower than expected, but with the hallowed Cushman Ridge to Gilead Road paralleling the ferocious Rochester Gap as the day’s literal and figurative high point, we had to keep on top of our game. It was a day built for duathletes as we pushed our bikes seemingly more than we pedaled for long stretches at a time.

The sun peaked out behind the otherwise overcast sky every now and again. The two of us talked about everything under the sun just as we went long stretches in total silence. No matter how hard we went, we made consistent 14’ish mph headway the entire time. And seven hours after setting off on day two, we made it back to Ansel’s house.

So that’s it folks, shredXvermont is a wrap. Let’s call it shredXvermont 1.0 because there will definitely be more. We might even camp next time around. I have been talking to my friend, World Tourist, and Vermont denizen, Ian Boswell, who is pumped to slap a trailer on his bike and bring his festive merriment along on the ride. My take home advice is to plot an adventure and then just do it! Sure, cover your bases, make sure you’re relatively safe, but it’s fascinating how far you can go on a little optimism and preparedness.

Next up, I’m headed to Iceman Cometh this weekend in way northern Michigan. Brrrrrring it on!

All good photos are from my compatriot and photographer friend, Ansel Dickey of Vermont Social. The crappy ones are mine.