In late September/early October we spent a week touring, and riding, around New York and New England. For those who may have missed out on our updates on social media, here are the highlights!
And for those interested in the van and how it did during the trip (or perhaps how we did), you can check out STBG Van Antics on Instagram.
Lake Placid
Our first stop, after PMC Unpaved was Lake Placid to catch the action at the penultimate race of the UCI MTB World Series. If you haven’t had the chance to attend a race in person, we highly recommend it!
Not only do you get a front row seat for amazing racing, it’s the only athletic event we’ve attended where racers can be seen mingling with attendees. It’s not unusual to even catch teams warming up, or working out, on the roads in and around the venue.
Having attended World Cup events in West Virginia and Quebec, it was great to have a race a little bit closer to home – and we enjoyed the venue which had more local vendors and retailers than other races we’ve attended.
And if you feel so bold and have the time, you can even try riding the course after the event is over as Steve did on Monday morning (making it the third World Cup course he’s been able to ride having previously tried the courses at Snowshow and Mont-Sainte-Anne).
Lake Placid will be hosting again in 2025 – so mark your calendar for October 3-5.
Ausable Chasm
After three days in Lake Placid, we stayed at Ausable Chasm Resort which gave us easy access to not just the Chasm, but also over 400 acres of mountain bike trails we found to be flat, flowy, fun. The trail names and signs were amazing – according to an article in Adirondack Life Magazine, the inspiration comes from trail builder Jim Kobak‘s love of heavy metal. It would be easy to get turned around, but we did as advised by the Chasm Riders MTB Club, which maintains the trails and hosts events and races throughout the season, picking a color trail marker to follow (we went with purple).
Stow, Vermont
The trails at Stowe’s Cady Hill never fail to impress. Smart switchbacks, incredibly well maintained trails thanks to dedicated volunteers (several spotted as we cruised down Florence), and excellent cartography made for a great day of riding, which we finished up with a delicious lunch and connecting with new friends (and neighbors from PMC Unpaved) at Ranch Camp.
Killington Bike Park
At the end of our weeklong van/bike adventures, we decided to mix it up a bit – checking out the trails at Killington Bike Park.
Sticking primarily to the blue trails, we could see why the Park has received high marks from riders. The flow trails were showing the wear of a season of use, but were still great fun. In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much we ended up staying over a second night – Killington happily offers no-fee camping in designated parking lots – as we rode until the lifts closed!
We’re putting Killington on our list of places to return – perhaps earlier in the season for maximum trail flow.
