Smugglers Notch is the sort of road that makes a motorcyclist grin and a camper-van driver clench. Vermont Route 108 climbs through a narrow gap between Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in the state, and Spruce Peak, and at the top, at about 660 metres, it squeezes between enormous boulders that have tumbled off the cliffs and been left where they landed. The tarmac is tight, with hairpins and blind corners, no shoulder to speak of, and in some places barely a car and a half wide. Large vehicles and trailers are banned, which is the highway department's way of admitting that physics is going to win.
The name tells the story. When the United States passed the Embargo Act in 1807, cutting off trade with Britain, Vermont farmers and merchants suddenly found their best market closed, and cattle and goods went north over the border through any pass that would take them. Later the notch was said to have served runaway slaves heading to Canada and, in Prohibition, liquor smugglers coming south. There is a long tradition of people moving things quietly through this gap, and the caves and ledges among the boulders are exactly the kind of place where one could do it. Some of the rocks have names, with one resembling an elephant's head and another a hearse.
The riding is best on a dry morning, before the day-trippers arrive. Coming from Stowe, you wind up through the forest, past the ski resort buildings, and the road narrows until the trees give way to rock walls on either side. The climb is short but intense, the descent on the Jeffersonville side opens out into farmland and long views, and the whole thing takes twenty minutes if you ride it carefully. Take it slowly, watch for gravel on the corners and for cyclists and hikers on the road, and be aware that the pass is closed to traffic in winter, usually from late autumn until well into spring.
Stowe has fuel, food and a long-established tradition of hospitality, and Morristown, with its larger population, is the nearest bigger town, about thirteen kilometres away. Johnson, on the western side, is smaller but has the basics. In early October the maples on the slopes turn red and gold, and the notch becomes a destination for leaf-peepers, so go midweek if you can. The air at the top smells of cold stone and spruce, and even on a hot day it is cool enough to be glad of a jacket.