NOVEMBER 2012 • BACKROADS
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s we rolled up to the wide gravel parking lot of the Gray Ghost there were already a dozen or so machines lined up in front of one of Vermont’s most rider-friendly hotels. As the afternoon wore on more bikes came rolling in, from both the south and north on Route 100, to find a spot in front of the Ghost. It had been a awhile since we had held a Summer Squeeze, little things like a Backroads Tour of the Alps and other travels getting in the way, but this summer we were good to go and Carina and crew were ready for our group. In truth the folks at the Gray Ghost are always ready to handle riding groups large and small.
With a free week happening towards the end of August leading into Labor Day Weekend we booked the Gray Ghost for a Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and put out the invite to our readers to join us; and many did. The idea of the Summer Squeeze is to get up to the little hamlet of West Dover, in southern Vermont and take advantage of the superior riding on the Monday and Tuesday when there is far less traffic and crowds to deal with. We have found that empty roads make for a far more pleasurable riding experience. Unlike some other years when we had been plagued by chancy weather it looked as if the Gods of Weather were on our side, especially when you consider that it was this same week, exactly a year before, that Hurricane Irene came along and basically took apart the Vermont road system. What a difference a trip around the sun can make. The pool, porch and local restaurants were busy this evening and most everybody was up and ready to ride early the next morn.
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We had set up some suggested rides to some odd places. A spider-web farm, a unique reservoir spillway that had been terribly misnamed and a number of passes, and gaps with just a few great restaurants tossed in to keep our people well fed. After a good breakfast riders took off in groups large and small to see what they would find. We rode along with Bob LoCicero, webmaster for Motorcycle-Vermont.com and after the typical Backroads u-turns and searching we ended up on a superb 200 mile route that included about 30 miles of hard pack Vermont gravel roads. The fact is that if you are exploring Vermont and going to vector off any of the bigger roads – Route 100, 7 or 12 - you will run into gravel.