This past week the MTBVT crew met up with our Quebec fam’ David Lauzon and Isabelle Nault from allezy.net and headed down to Millstone Trails near Barre. It had been a couple years since we had last been down and it was immediately apparent that things had evolved. The parking lot was full, Millstone HQ was bustling and now included the Magic Wheel full service shop, and the map had expanded!
Owner Pierre greeted us and recommended we check out the Harrington Ridge trails on our ride. The Ridge is Pierre’s personal handi-work and is a section of the network where advanced riders can test their skills on hundreds of feet of granite fins that run like rock-skinnies through the scrub pines. Picture a mini Moab with moss growing where tires don’t regularly roll.
So, after a quick set of directions we hopped on the bikes and headed up between the piles of granite.
David was on fire. Opting to ride a fat bike (we laughed too) he proceeded to beat the snot out of us on every trail. Funny thing, watching him on the fatty reminded me of the crazy Jeep rock crawlers I saw out in Moab on the slick rock. He managed to roll over all kinds of terrain that our long travel trail bikes struggled on.
Isabelle was riding strong, all the while pondering how far we were from the cold IPAs she had stashed back at the car.
We found the bridge and rock work on the new trails to be well engineered and super fun.
David cleaned the most technical features with finesse. Who couldn’t with tires that size? Right? Here we see him smiling and proud of the sound his studded snows made on the exposed stone.
After a couple hours of hammering around Dr. Ron Murray and Mason the Bad Man Bixby still looked pumped. Hey Bad Man, why were you in the back of the pack? Slacker.
And to finish the ride off we cruised down through the quintessential Vermont village.
IPA time baby!
Aw yes. Evidence of a day well spent.
See you all at Millstone again soon. Go check out Harrington Ridge and let us know what you think. And give a big thanks to M.T.A., Darren, Pavel, Pierre, Kevin, and all those responsible for making our day.
Looks rad!