by Addison Larrow

Going Home

When I meet people at rides/ races and they find out I grew up in rural (which is probably redundant) northern Vermont they always get excited and ask me how it was to grow up in one of the most storied biking locations in the country. Good question! No idea! I learned to ride a bike as a kid but never really rode it beyond the backyard a bit and around the town I went to high-school in before I got my drivers license. Fast forward 10 years (from when I last permanently called Vermont home) and five years of biking. Bikes have become a big part of my life so obviously I have to make up for lost time. Over the summer I spent three weeks visiting my mom and decided to ride my bike as much as I could physically handle. She has relocated to South Burlington from my childhood home in Fairfield and her new house is at a crossroads of amazing riding. I did road rides out her front door that are some of the most scenic I've ever done. The dirt roads ("gravel" for you flatlanders) were hilly but the payoff was well worth it. I stumbled on more covered bridges in two days than I've seen in all my gravel riding in rural Virginia and West Virginia combined. On my "off" days I'd drive the short ways to my favorite gravel and mountain biking playground: Catamount.

BUT... there is one specific ride I had my eyes on: the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail. It starts in St. Albans, were I went to high-school and the closest real "town" to where I grew up, and makes its way 26 miles northeast to Richford, just shy of the Canadian border. I ran (gross) cross country in high-school and we used to do our LSD runs on "the Rail Trail" as we called it (there is only one of everything in Vermont: "the interstate", "the mall", "the lake") so I knew the first ten miles or so pretty well but it was still top of the list for rides I had "missed" growing up. I'm not very fast on a bike but I've been working pretty hard to build my fitness (I'm coming for you sub eight hour Hilly Billy) and thought it would pretty fun to make the leader-board for my hometown gravel trail so I decided to wait until the end of my trip, take a couple rest days in preparation, then push the first half and enjoy the scenery on the way home. A couple days of rain followed by a forecast of low 60s and sun meant I had my day!

The Ride

The Rail Trail has a great, if slightly tricky to figure out how to get to, parking area not far from downtown St. Albans. The weather was perfect and I was feeling good so I headed out. As a rail trail it is nice and flat and generally straight. It starts as a wide, finely crushed path that is a joy to ride on but varies a bit as it goes with some double-track and slightly more rugged surfaces closer to Richford. All of it well maintained and a joy to ride. I saw a wide range of bikes from cruisers to gravel bikes to mountain bikes but was very happy with 33s on my 'cross bike.

The ride is very scenic with the miles out of St. Albans generally being (surprisingly picturesque) swamps and cornfield.

As a rail trail there are few cool converted rail bridges that you both ride over and see from the trail.

As you approach Richford you start to see more of the river and oh is it worth the miles to get there.

The middle third of the ride is easily the most scenic with views of rolling farmland with stunning mountains in the background.

The day was so nice and the ride so scenic I didn't quite push myself as hard as I could have but I made it to Richford and began the journey back. A few miles in I found a bench to take in the view and have lunch before finishing the ride home.

All in all it was a great day and I highly recommend the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail. It's a bit out of the way from Burlington and the more traditional and touristy riding areas but gorgeous, well maintained, and less crowded than trails like the Stowe bike path and the Causeway in Burlington. I'm excited to ride again next year and hopefully bring some of my fellow Eskapers along for the ride.

P.S. I managed a top five time on the first leg: