Vermont and New York?
 

Anyone tour in the Vermont and New York area? I am think of possibly doing a tour with my daughter after she finishes a conference in Vermont on June 12th. How is the touring there? Will we be carried away by black flies? The two AC routes in the area look interesting, but I would be curious about other routes in the area too.

I'll go read some journals, but would also like to here recommendations from folks here. If we would be better off to skip Vermont in June we will go somewhere else.

Off out touring with your daughter again! You are a very fortunate, lucky man Staephj!

I have toured in Vermont and NY, but hardly for any time at all. I do know Vermont can be hilly, but that's as far as my knowledge goes, so I'm no help here.

Enjoy yourself and your quality time with your daughter, I can only but hope I will have the same opportunity with one of my daughters or my son (fingers crossed).

Yes I consider myself very lucky. She lives a couple hours a way so I don't see her too often, but she still likes to spend some time with Dad so we manage to run, hike. or ride together with at least some regularity.

I've toured NY and VT a lot. Lake Champlain in fall is my all-time favorite ride. Highly recommended. Should be nice enough during summer too.

South of the Adirondacks, there's not a lot of good touring except the catskills park.

I've been upstate new york during the summer, and I can tell you - black flies aren't a problem while you're on the bike, just don't stop :)

VT and NY are probably two of the finest states for bicycle touring. NY has very good roads -- wide shoulders and smooth pavement. Almost any road in VT is going to be beautiful. I wouldn't worry about flies. They shouldn't bother you during the day. Try not to camp in swampy areas or next to water to minimize mosquitoes and make sure to have a good tent. As for route recommendations, pick anything, the smaller the better. Green Mountains, Adirondacks, Champlain Valley, Lake Ontario. It's all very good. Stop and ask locals if you get a little lost or aren't sure how exactly to get where you want to go.

Check this out:

http://www.champlainbikeways.org

I saw this in Adventure Cycling magazine the other day. It has me thinking ...

Funny you should bring this up. This month's Adventure Cycling had an article about the best places to tour. They mentioned the circumnavigating Lake Champlain. You travel through New York, Quebec, and Vermont. There's a website, Lake Champlain Bikeways, with a lot of information about biking there.

My wife spotted it and fell in love with the idea. That's next summer's tour for us!

(edit)Note to self: read entire thread before posting.(end edit)

(another edit)Black flies love Moms and hate Dads. The season runs from ~Mother's Day to ~Father's Day. It's not uniform. In any area they start at lower altitudes and move up as the season progresses. Starting on June 12th you will probably do okay in the valleys.(end edit)

Speedo

The Finger lakes region of NY is really nice if you like hills and wine. Lots and lots of hills, and lots of wineries.

The Adirondacks are always beautiful. In late spring, be on the lookout for the "tent worm" hatch. Those things make camping out, and even riding on the shoulders, pretty miserable. And they tend to bring out the flies. But I think they'll be gone in June. The hatch usually only lasts a few weeks. The roads and shoulders all through the park are awesome. You can spend a couple of weeks easy, just touring around in the park. It's huge.

The Thousand Islands region of the ST. Lawrence river is incredible for waterfront scenery. The Seaway trail is a heavily used bicycle route, with great shoulders and lots of neat towns and diversions.

Vermont has lots of cool covered bridges, but that's all I know about Vermont. I'll be touring there myself, sometime this year.

Has anyone heard if they're going to fill the gap on the Island Line Trail? I understand the ferry is't there year-round.

VT is great !!
Where in VT will the conference be held ?
How long do you want to tour ?

You might consider "borrowing" some itinerary ideas from the companies who do this for a living. I always assume the commercial tour companies have figured out how to extract the most scenery per mile when they put together their routes.

http://www.vbt.com/vermont-bike-tour.aspx

The bike ferry only operates during weekends in August, as well as Labor Day weekend. Our local bike advocacy group Local Motion (www.localmotion.org) provides that service, and is working on a permanent solution to close that gap.

Vermont can indeed be hilly--they don't call it the Green Mountain State for nuthin'--but if you stick fairly close to Lake Champlain and away from the state's spine, it's pretty flat and/or rolling. The Lake Champlain Bikeway mentioned above has something like 1,100 miles of mapped rides, and is a very useful for planning a tour around the lake.

If you have time and inclination, integrate a ride through the Adirondack Park/Adirondack Trail. There is some spectacular riding there. In some central areas of the park, near the high peaks, it can be steep ups and downs, but the northern part of the park has some nice long, very scenic flat sections.

Here are some links to some VT tour blogs, there are plenty more on CGOAB

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Montreal2008
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/greenmountains
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/randr2008b

I used to live in Vermont. It definitely was the greatest cycling Ive ever done, anywhere.
Conde Nast type scenery for miles, friendly traffic(when you actually see some) and
hills '0 plenty !!!! :eek: You will want to gear low, have lots of supplies because you
will ride for miles and miles and maybe never see another person. Bike shops are
few and far between. I was central Vermont and no real problem with big black
flies, usually the smaller gnat clouds that hovered around farm areas were more
prominent. There is an extremely friendly and knowledgeable gentleman called 'bmike'
on BF, usually 'long distance' forum who is a veritable tome of info about cycling in
VT. You might PM him as I think he would graciously share his info with you :)
I miss VT :cry:

Vermont indeed has a special charm and magnetism. One book I would recommend is John Freidin's "25 Bike Tours in Vermont." Although the rides in the book are 1 or 2 day tours, he gives a good description of the character and flavor of each region of the state.
The book came out in the 70's and is now in its 4th edition. I have ridden all or part of his routes and they have all been good to great. The northeast kingdom, which the ACA route crosses, is particularly attractive with great roads and nonexistent traffic.

Well, black flies will find you went you stop, not while you are riding.

For a multi-day tour, I would suggest either the ACA Green Mountain Loop, ACA Adirondack loop, or the Lake Champlain loop.

My wife and I did the ACA Green Mountain Loop in 2006. I thought it was a great trip. Vermont drivers are the best. New York on the other hand.... It wasn't awful, but it was remarkably different from the other side of Lake Champlain where the Vermonters go way out of their way to accommodate cyclists on the roads.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?...c_id=1772&v=82

I can tell you RT5. between Brattleboro & Ascutney are hilly. Campgrounds and amenities along the way. There is bike path that heads towards Springfield. 2 Good bike shops in Brattleboro

The conference is in Stowe. Length is yet undetermined it could be a week to a month, but probably in the 1-2 week range.

I was pleasantly surprised to see all the responses so far.

OK, assuming you start/end in Burlington, and conference is in Stowe, then I'd recommend a tour based around the ACA Green Mountain Loop. This loop has several options, like going over Jay Pass or around it and into Quebec. Likewise, you can avoid the climb over Rochester Gap by following Route 12 to Route 100 along the White River (The ACA Northern Tier route).

In New York state, the Adirondacks come right down to the lake, so there are steep climbs and descents.

If you want to explore more, you might consider going into Northern New Hampshire and looping around the White Mountains.

Just get a state highway map for both states and overlay the ACA routes on them.

Favorite campground on the Northern Tier: Lake Carmi

Favorite B&B: Liberty Hill Farm, south of Rochester (and it's before the hill also).

Most photographed village: Peacham

If you're not afraid of climbing, the area around Mount Mansfield has some great riding. Underhill to Stowe Via Pleasant Valley Rd. and VT Route 108 offer some great scenery. Underhill State Park has camping at the foot of the mountain too.
google maps link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...43396&t=p&z=11

Another Nice loop in the area is from Stowe to Burlington via Route 100, Appalachian Gap, Bristol, Charlotte, and Shelburne. The gap is a long climb, but it's worth it. There's a cool view from the top toward Lake Champlain and lots of swooping turns on the descent that will have you whooping and grinning. The ride toward Bristol is through rolling terrain, nice pastoral landscape. Bristol is a nice small town, you could definitely find a good meal or B+B there. The rest of the route through Charlotte and Shelburne toward Burlington is on mellow, flatter rural roads with good views of the lake and the Adirondacks.
google maps link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...86792&t=p&z=10

Check out the Northeast Kingdom if you're going further afield. Places like Greensboro, Island Pond, Westmore and others would be good spots to hit.

Don't avoid the climbs! They are pretty much always worth it, and they're practically unavoidable if you want to see the good stuff.

I hope that helps out! Feel free to PM if you've got questions.

If you're interested in cycling the Northeast Kingdom, have a look at the free guides available from the Northeast Vermont Development Association. There's one guide with paved-road routes and loops, and another guide featuring mostly unpaved roads.

These guides are really nicely put together. I haven't ridden any of these routes yet but I'm eager to try them out.