Waterbury is a brick-and-clapboard village on the Winooski River, tucked into the valley where Vermont Route 100 meets the interstate, and it is the sort of place where you slow down on instinct. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest summit at 4,393 feet, is a short way north behind Stowe, and the Green Mountains close in on both sides here with steep, wooded flanks that go copper and scarlet in the first weeks of October.
Most people know the name for ice cream. The factory tours north of the village draw a steady line of cars, and Waterbury Center up the road has the cider mill and its doughnuts, which are worth the ten-minute queue. The river has a darker side in the town's memory too. In 2011, the remains of Tropical Storm Irene sent the Winooski over its banks and flooded the downtown badly, and the rebuilding you see on Main Street was done by neighbours more than contractors. It gives the place a certain stubborn friendliness.
The riding is what you came for. Route 100 north from here runs through Stowe and on up the spine of the state, and it is not a speed road. It is a beautiful, curving, two-lane valley road with farms, covered-bridge detours and villages whose white churches appear at every second bend. Sightlines are short, the pavement is patched and frost-cracked in places, and you share it with maple-sugar trucks, tourists in rented SUVs and the occasional tractor. Ride it at an unhurried pace and you will see more. The little reservoir to the west, a manmade lake with a state park, gives the afternoon a quiet corner for a break if you want one. Early morning is best, when mist hangs on the river and the road is yours.
Waterbury is easy for practicalities. There is fuel near the interstate exit and in the village, plenty of places for breakfast or a long lunch, and Stowe, about fifteen kilometres up the road, is the town of four thousand where you will find the larger choice of restaurants and rooms. Weekends in foliage season can crawl through Stowe, so if you have the flexibility, ride on a weekday. As a finishing point for a Route 100 day, it works well: the road delivers you into the village with the light low over the hills and something warm waiting.