Green Mountain Byway

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Waterbury Vermont

   Waterbury is a small Vermont town at the junction of the Winooski river and the road north to Stowe, a place with brick storefronts, a church spire, and an unusually good number of places to eat for a village of under two thousand. It is probably best known to the rest of the world for Ben and Jerry's ice cream, which has a factory and a visitor tour just outside town, and for the Cold Hollow cider mill, where doughnuts come hot from the fryer in autumn. Neither is a bad reason to start a ride.

   Read the complete Waterbury Vermont write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Waterbury Vermont is where the day begins. Next is Stowe.

2. 2. Stowe

   Stowe sits in a bowl of the Green Mountains, with the long ridge of Mount Mansfield rising behind it, and its white church steeple is perhaps the most photographed in Vermont. Mansfield, at 4,393 feet the highest point in the state, has a profile that resembles a human face, with a forehead, nose, lips and chin along the ridgeline, and the summit is reached by a toll road in summer and by ski lifts in winter. The town has about four thousand residents, a lively main street of shops and restaurants, and a long tradition of skiing that goes back to the 1930s.

   Read the complete Stowe write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Stowe comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Smugglers Notch.

3. 3. Smugglers Notch

   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.

   Read the complete Smugglers Notch write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Smugglers Notch. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Jeffersonville, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Jeffersonville

   Smugglers' Notch gets its name honestly. When President Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 closed trade with Canada, Vermonters hauled goods north through this narrow gap in the Green Mountains rather than go without, and a century later the same pass served bootleggers during Prohibition. Jeffersonville sits on the Lamoille River at the northern foot of that pass, a small village of white clapboard houses, a general store feel, and a covered bridge or two within easy riding distance. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak at 4,393 feet, looms behind it, and the village has long attracted painters and potters who came for the light and stayed for the quiet.

   Read the complete Jeffersonville write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jeffersonville closes the day.