Paper Trail Gravel Travel - Vermont

To Stephen, Alex, Brielle, Michelle & the Paper Trail Team:

The thing I look forward to most when I get the opportunities to join you all is the time spent together, the conversation and laughs shared. The joy of experiencing Vermont, The Jungle Book House, and so much more together are memories that will last a life time. Between the miles share, the food we snacked on and the roads traveled, it is my hope that these moments and weekends reflect the intentional nature of what we as a team at Paper Trail strive to accomplish. Thank you again for the wonderful weekend and birthday celebration, it was truly a treat. As alway, may the pictures do all the talking, sending tons of love and stoke your way!! 

-GO

Location: Dummerston, VT

Distance From Philly: 6 hours

Type of Riding: Gravel

When we left Philly, I was told we would have a special guest in need of lift and to my curiosity, no one told me until we pick them up (more on that later). We split up this time as each group had specific objectives to accomplish before our guests would arrive. The drive up with Mark was lovely, we were able to catch up and laugh a lot as we made our way up to his hometown which was approximately 45 minutes away from where we would be picking up our guest. While we waited for our guest's plane to land, Mark and I scored some amazing local Thai food and stumbled upon the place where Mark had bought his first road bike. Thank you Mark for the opportunity to go to your hometown, have some time with your family and the chance to break up the drive. 

Once the moment arrived, we were off to pick up our first of 4 guest for the weekend. Everything with his arrival went smooth and as expected. The trip up was a breeze for the fact we were all pretty giddy to get up to our lodge and get a lay of the land. We got in fairly late to Rudyard Kipling’s "Naulakha" & Carriage House where we would be staying for the next several days. From the bits of what we could see as we rolled into the dark estate, we all knew the next few days were meant to disconnect and to ground ourselves into the sights, sounds, smells and tastes this location would provide, in hopes of allowing us to reconnect as we leave. (If you thought I forgot to mention who our guest was, I’m building curiosity as the professionals would call it).

So much of what we do at PTGT is designed by intention. Getting our guest to disconnect is the first step. Allowing our guest to let Mark, Paul, Deborah and myself to tend to everything from food to laundry, stretching / yoga, the routes it is all meant for you as a whole person to relax from the stresses we carry day in and day out. (Trust me when I say, we want to take care of you on these trips and to exceed your expectations of what a day on the bike could be). We carefully choose our locations to reflect an opportunity to connect to America's backroads, to the places where many often don't travel. We spoke a lot on this trip together about how we want EVERYBODY to join us on these inclusive opportunities to ride together and share in the joy of riding our bike together in beautiful locations. 

We got up the next morning just as the sun was starting to peak its head over the ridge. This gave the four of us the opportunity to start knocking out our prep list before the rest of our guests would arrive. So much of what I do is try to observe, capture, and process visually into a rational and designed experience that we can all live back through. This gives me, you, and the people who join this trip an opportunity to sneak into the moments we have while we're on these trips in hopes that you will join us all very soon. I personally love waking up the first day at a new location and just discovering what the land has to offer. Each of our locations have a unique aesthetic, design and environment to appreciate of which lends itself to the type of riding we are looking to promote. 

As our days progress and we were able to accomplish our task lists. Our guest had started to arrive. We had a wonderful crew, as always! I could genuinely not contain my excitement as Alex from Redshift arrived, followed by Brielle and Michelle (who is our first return customer!) Oh and I forgot to mention Stephen, the owner of Rodeo Labs, our bike sponsor, joined us as a surprise!!!!! This was an epic crew to have in Vermont. We were able to quickly get them all cookies baked by Paul and up into the accommodations to get changed for the first of our many rides this weekend. 

Day 1: The Shakedown Ride

Miles: 24.5

Feet Climbed: 2,651 ft

Total Time:  2 Hours 15 minutes

Our shakedown rides are meant to be the first opportunity to forget and leave all our worries behind. And by behind, I mean way down at the bottom of a gully! The climbing in Vermont is not something to underestimate. It'll leave your legs feeling heavy and your head light from all the climbing our riders accomplish.  

We had a wonderful ride to get the legs fresh and ready to start climbing the next day. Our first day’s ride was exactly what the doctor ordered and we definitely had a bunch of laughs along the way. 

Day 2:

Miles: 46.7

Feet Climbed: 5,105 ft

Total Time:  4 Hours 30 minutes

Day two did not disappoint let me tell you! The weather was clear, cool, and ready for us to conquer mountains. We typically put the majority of the climbing before lunch to allow the afternoon to just roll on with the opportunity to take in the sights.

Lunch was perfect! Almost like we were in France or Italy, just pulled off this gravel road to have a "bite"… "Bite" as in shovel as much food and take in the sights!!!!! Personally these are the moments we all want to keep developing. A meal, good friends and a stellar view! In the words of Michelle "NO SAD DESK LUNCHES"!!!! Safe to safe we were all super stoked with today's office (Shoutout to Dave Pryor!)

To be continued… https://www.gabrielortiz.design/herethere/paper-trail-gravel-trail-vermont-pt-2

Thank you to all our sponsors!

Rodeo Adventure Labs

Redshift Sports

Wilderness Trail Bikes (WTB)

Philly Bike Expo

Nittany Mountain Works

Ride With GPS

Ridge Supply 

Goodr Sunglasses

UnTapped Maple