Everyone: 🙂
Me: Since you asked… 

After writing about close-to-home Ontario fall cycling routes that would make you forget you weren’t in Vermont, I thought our 2017 trip to tackle the Green Mountain Gravel Growler route deserved a throwback. It’s been eight years this weekend since we set out, and I’m not sure we’ve ever shared the photos in context—and now the Thanksgiving weekend has even more significance as our wedding anniversary (circa 2019!) 

This was our first-ever multi-day tour, and it was, as they say, a doozy. We cut the original route in half—focusing on the most-populated area of a very rural region—and planned our days to end in small-town Airbnb’s, allowing us to forgo packing much in the way of food and camp kit. We started and finished in Waterbury, condensing Joe Cruz' original 400-kilometre route into what felt like a more manageable 200km Thanksgiving long weekend trip. This was partly because we didn’t own much bikepacking gear back then, and also because Adam carried all of our gear himself, allowing me to focus on surviving. He knew what he was getting into, but I couldn’t even imagine. 

Even now, I can remember the first climb of the trip: it was 25 degrees that day, and I was nervous about what was to come after an hour of pushing my bike up a hiking trail. That’s when things (literally) went downhill… 

Until that day, I’d never ridden anywhere that a downhill stretch took more than a few rushing seconds, let alone half an hour. We cruised through a yellow tunnel: leaves papered the trail and glittered in the sunlight. The rest of the trip followed in a similar vein: epic climbs, breathtaking descents, and a healthy dose of Green Mountain hospitality at each stop. 

A high point:

Sitting in a breakfast spot in Burlington, listening to Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'" and knowing we were in for an adventure. Also, the feeling of realizing I'd pedalled up a bona fide mountain for the first time! (It never gets old.)

A low point:

Pushing so hard on the second day to make it to Hill Farmstead Brewery (my white whale 🍺), only to get there just after it closed. Don’t worry: in 2024 we made it happen! But that story's for another day.

What I’ve carried with me since then: 

The knowledge that I’ve climbed bigger mountains. All I have to do is keep pedalling. ✌️

OMG so cute. Outside our first Airbnb of the trip: I could barely get up the driveway after the day's riding. We called a cab to drive us ten minutes to and from Stowe later that night. 😂

We returned to tackle the Green Mountain Gravel Growler over Thanskgiving 2024, and I'll share more from that trip soon. The route never gets old: it's one we hope to return to many times over our lives.