First off, yes I know I’m very late in writing this report. Funny how life gets in the way of so many things (see Ice Storm story). Anyway…

On October 23, 2008 the Vermont Expedition Society gathered in Northern Vermont on the border with Quebec to begin it’s 4-day, 335 mile trek to Massachusetts. What makes this trip special, is that over 170 miles of it are on trails.
By utilizing unmaintained town highways, or class IV roads, the club hopes to draw attention to the possibilities that these venues give to the public for recreation.

I had the pleasure this year to ride along with Jason Merrill, the Executive Chef at The Hanover Inn in New Hampshire. He offered me the co-pilots seat in his rig for the trip, with the plan for he and I to fuel saturday night with some fare we’d brought in. Due to family obligations (and Jason’s work obligations) we’d both missed the first day. We met up with the group late night on saturday. The plan was to meet them at Camp VTXS (Vermont Expedition Society), but the weather that day had put them so far behind in time that we were forced to change plans and meet them at the VTXS Flophouse a few towns over.

sorry for the pic quality… it was POURING!

We spent our time warming the place up and heating up dinner. Jason made his fantastic chili for the crew (30 quarts for 15 people!)

I busied myself with the heat, and making sure the desserts I brought were set up. The crew finally rolled in about 8:30pm. after a 15 or 16 hour day on the trail. We all ate very well thanks to Jason and hit the beds.

The next day started with Brian discovering a leak of ATF into the radiator. He and Chris T. headed off into the morning to patch it up. We made out way on to a great day of trails. And marvelled at Brian completing a radiator tear-down, a trip to Concord, NH from Woodstock, VT and back, and a radiator install in something like 4 hours. The trip alone is around 3! We made great time and arrived at our bed down right on schedule.

A good nights rest had us waking to the final day. After a coffee and food run the group was off on our way. We managed to dig up some nice challenging terrain, along with some really great views. We finished our day and the trip on the border of Massachusetts right about 5pm.

It was a great trip and I really look forward to it next year with all new towns and roads to explore.