hello all, planning a ride for tomorrow 3/5 and would love some input. people we usually ride with don't like to venture far from the normal, but i would personally like to see something new. want to leave from williamstown and head towards waterbury center and mt mansfield state forest (as another post said it was a must). should we go 12 to 17 through northfield then 100 through duxbury and up, or should we do 2 all the way through east montpelier into waterbury? from there how about through stowe, up into morrisville, elmore, and then back down 15 and 12 into east montpelier again? or would it be good to go through hardwick, woodbury, calais, etc.? is this a killer long ride? thoughts on trail conditions? any input would be greatly appreciated! thanks guys!

We have tons of snow here in Waitsfield and the groomers have been out on our side of the Northfield ridge. You might want to head over this way, pass thru camels hump over the suspension bridge and into Little River State Park. At that point you could continue north to Stow and Elmore and then head south or follow 12 over to Middlesex and then head back thru Barre to Williamstown. I did the same loop last week before the latest storm and it was excellent. Have fun no matter what you decide to do.

To answer one of your questions,sort of, it can be a killer long ride. Much depends on how the trails are treated this evening. We did your trip last week but we did it in two trips, one being Camels Hump and the other being Mt Mansfield leaving from Barre. Both are around 120 miles each. The conditions have been great but as you must know that can change in no time depending on the number of riders.

In another thread Rob says 14 from Hardwick to Barre was OK but I wouldn't count on it remaining that way. Rt 15 from Hardwick to 145 in Cabot to 14 is much better. I would not take 12 into Maple Corner from the intersection of 15 and 12 above Elmore. It is seldom, if ever groomed, usually being logged and on the Maple Corner side there are miles of road riding. The map says 6 miles but believe me that is not true.

Once again these are all beautiful rides and the conditions are perfect right now but these are high traffic trails and you might want to plan alternate routes if the going gets rough. Heck you can even turn around. The trails don't look the same from the other direction.

Get your friends out of their rut. Go somewhere new. After a while you get to know which areas are covered by which groomers and if the trails are bad here you know where to go and look for the good ones.

For what it is worth we rode through Williamstown today down 14, up over 110 to 110c to Tunbridge, through those wonderful 4 to 6 foot trails that aren't on the map to Sharon for gas and food and then back on those little trails to rt5 at Downer State forest and back to Chelsea and 110. Then Washington to Barre. 118 miles little traffic and beautiful trails but slippery snow.

Have fun, ride safe.

thanks again for all of the replies. we ended up taking my trip this weekend, and for the most part trails were fair to excellent. northfield and williamstown were as good as they ever are. waitsfield, duxbury, mt mansfield state forest, and the camel's hump loop through to the bridge in waterbury were absolutely amazing. the conditions, the views... all were amazing. from the bridge into stowe left a little to be desired, but was all due to mother nature. the sun really ate through the snow to dirt, and the road riding wasn't too fun. ate lunch at the pizza place a couple doors down from the car wash. once out of stowe, trails were good up through elmore, wolcott, morrisville. went to hardwick to get gas at the mobil station, and from there all the way to east calais the trails were absolutely beat. met the groomer in east calais, and had groomed trails all the way home to williamstown again. 175 miles on the day felt great! again, took pictures, and should hopefully have them this afternoon. thanks again!