We are travelling to Vermont in late October and my son (9yr old) and I are looking to rent bikes to go for a couple of hours ride whilst my wife sits and reads in a cafe.
We are staying Cavendish. I am aware of Okemo mountain nearby but that seems more downhill trails whereas I am looking for something gravel biking type. I’ve googled and found a few places but most seem to close to rentals early October.
Any suggestions? Or anything else activity wise people can suggest? The wife will be happy for a couple of hours in a coffee shop with a book.
Killington is 45 minutes from Cavendish - I know they have one of the east’s best (if not the best?) downhill parks there, and there should be rental options as well. My guess is everything from beginner to expert with a place like that. Have skied there plenty, but never biked that area.
Plenty of Gravel in VT from what I know, but I’m not the expert on it. There are VT gravel groups on FB if you’re on there where I bet you’d get some great advice.
A lot of places start transitioning stock over to ski season then. If your looking for gravel bikes your best bet would probably be Ranch Camp up in Stowe. Around Cavendish the hills there can be a bit brutal for climbing, there are no flat roads. I would also recommend going to Killington and have fun on their lower mountain there they have some fun machine built mtb trails and the chair lift is pretty mellow.
I’m north a bit in Central VT, and I’d say your best bet for finding gravel routes is probably Ride With GPS (free should be fine). I just checked and there are quite a few routes out there you could just push to a phone or head unit very easily. Ascutney is a quick trip from Cavendish, so you could even head over and do one of the Vermont Overland routes, depending on how much time you had.
Can’t really help too much on the rental front, but I’d just make sure you called around in plenty of time before they’ve moved all the bike stuff out for ski season, as other people have mentioned. It’ll be a pain once everything is out for the season, but it should still be plenty early to reserve something.
If you’re willing to drive a bit, I know there are a few shops in the White River Jct/Hanover/Lebanon area that have gravel bike rentals… Woodstock might, too. You could pick them up and do a great gravel ride up around there or take them back to the Cavendish/Ascutney area.
As @FergusYL said, you could check out the VT Overland website for some route inspiration – but you really can’t go wrong with sticking to the smaller side roads that shoot off of the main state routes all over that area.
Enjoy the trip – that whole region has some of my favorite riding I’ve ever done! Do be warned, though, like @Newcombep mentioned – the hills out there are STEEP and all of the terrain is basically up or down.
Great point. Anything in the area is going to be a lot of work without much opportunity for easy spinning, so unless you’re super strong, make sure your bike rental has plenty of gears on the low end. This is last year’s Overland route, as an example:
That said, it really is a beautiful area to ride in. You’ll be hitting it in prime foliage, too, although this year isn’t off to a great start foliage-wise.
