Brewery #1 Lawson's Finest Liquids

When friends we had barely met before asked us to join them on an epic journey into the the mountains of Vermont to ride bikes on questionable roads and drink beer we thought: "Why Not?". Besides, they are planning all the logistics of the trip and all we had to do is ride.

Previewing part of the route on Google, Thumbs Up!

The GMGG (Green Mountain Gravel Growler) is a bikepacking route that connects dozens of breweries in Vermont with a mix of paved roads, gravel roads, bike paths, single tracks, and a few streams.

Not a paved road.

We ultimately ended up with a version that spanned 3 days and about 160 miles starting and ending in Montpelier. The first day which consisted of a late start, the Lincoln gap, 60+ miles and a trail section was definitely the hardest.

This is at the top of the "Dead End"

But enough with the dramatic hype of the difficulty of this trip let's get on with the fun stuff.

Typical Vermont Gravel

We got rolling about noon and had over 25 miles before our first brew stop. The route started out interesting with some gravel roads that turned to trail that resulted in our first wrong turn of many. Fast forward 20 miles and we took another wrong turn looking for Lawson's Finest Liquids. Fear not, we found it. The taproom alone is worth the visit.

I'm not really sure about the order of these beautiful views but I know this was on the first day.

The next stretch included the Lincoln Gap. It has the notoriety of being the steepest paved mile in the US. It is no joke.

Anybody up for a quick side hike?

This is the first time (that I can remember) that I have had to walk part of a hill. Our friend that had done this route before dubbed it demoralizing. I think I might call it more Mortal-izing. Our group consisted of a lot of strong riders and nobody did the whole thing without getting off the bike at some point. (I'll stop short of saying "walking"). Even though my heart felt like it was ready to pop, for some reason I want to give it another crack when I am not hauling extra clothes and tools.

Everybody made it to the top in decent time.

The trip down the back side was part gravel and better for people with wider tires and disk breaks. This is the point where I'll mention that one of our group was doing this route on a road bike with 28C tires. There were times, like this, when he was at a disadvantage but for the most part he made it look pretty easy. (We're not talking about the pickup truck incident)

I think this was still the first day

After Lincoln gap everybody was a little worn down and there was still one pretty big climb before we got to Middlebury. We rolled into town around 6:00 to find that one of the breweries we were targeting closed at 5:00, What? Isn't that when people get out of work and might want to get a beer. We checked the second brewery. Closed at 6:00. Ummm. OK, we'll try the "Mad Taco". Good luck finding it, I'm going to keep it the secret that it apparently is. When we finally did find it, there was an hour wait to get a taco and they couldn't serve beer before the food was ready. FAIL. We ultimately found The Two Brother's Tavern which required hungry puppy dog eyes to get a table, but they had plenty of beer and food.

Food & Beer

The group is happy. From here we rode a few miles to an Air B&B which was a great way to wind down after a long day. They even had laundry!

Breakfast in Bristol

The next day started with coffee, like they all do. We rode about 10 miles to Bristol for a nice breakfast outside.

Happy Birthday Girl

A breakdown with a view

From there we started our trip toward Hinesburg. The trip was interrupted when somebody lost a shift cable. Problem? No. Between the group we had 2 spares.

Pit Crew

When we got to Hinesburg we found 2 breweries that were actually open. Frost & Foam.

Thirsty

Frost had quite a line waiting or beer.

Foam was more of a warehouse with no sign. (Notice the lack of shoe, "foreshadowing")

Sidewalk cobbler service.

We sat outside in the park alongside the brewery and enjoyed the weather. This was another one of the points in our trip that I thought that I could be content to just stop riding for the day.

Gorilla Glue and Saran Wrap to the rescue.

From Frost and Foam we mad our way to Fiddlehead...Fantastic. We stopped, drank beer and ordered pizzas.

Not Thirsty

The trip from Fiddlehead into Burlington was mostly on the Burlington bike path which was busy but pleasant.

Waterfront Park, Maybe we can just stay here.

The trip from Burlington to Wiliston was the most unpleasant leg of the trip filled with rush hour traffic and a few assholes. A small price to pay for the quality of roads to so far. We got to the hotel which cost about as much as an all inclusive long weekend in Cancun, but they did have "breakfast".

The bikes are in for the night and we went out for Sushi

Saturday, our third and final day was my favorite as far as terrain goes. The route started through a subdivision, found its way to some gravel road and then dropped into a trail all in the first 10 miles.

Emerging from the first trail section of the day

From there we were on country roads with excursions into a magical piece of singletrack called the river trail that I could have been happy on all day long.

River Trail

But it didn't last all day. Eventually we ended up on a quiet gravel road running parallel to the river that would get us to Waterbury and The Prohibition Pig.

This is the prohibition deer, unfazed by our proximity and public drinking.

Except the pig was (supposedly) closed so we ended up at The Blackback Pub. It was not a bad choice. The beer selection was huge and the food was excellent.

Good Lunch Spot

This was the last stop for beer on this version of our trip.

Good Beer Spot

Wait, not it wasn't. Prohibition Pig was actually open. But we didn't go there. We got some beers at the store across the street and drank them in the park.

Louts Mode: Namaste

This was the last stop for beer on this version of the trip. We crossed back over the river and made our way back to the Dog River park and ride.

I will replace this with a cooler video if it becomes available.

Takeaways / Unofficial TripAdvisor Review of the GMGG:

I would do it again. Preferably the northern loop that we missed with some river trail.
I liked the 3 day format. Plenty of riding including a full day of riding but not a huge commitment away from home or work.
I liked the minimal packing, air B&B, hotel version. Nobody needs to pedal a bunch of crap over the Lincoln Gap.
Less is more. We had a group of pretty strong riders and we were still using up the whole day. If you aren't the kind of rider that could do a road century at a moment's notice, consider keeping the daily mileage below 50.
The beer to riding ratio was well spread out.
Check the brewery hours before you go. There isn't much rhyme or reason to when they are open.
Don't miss the river trail.
Try not to be sick! My wife was brewing some kind of cold on the first day and had to drag herself through the last 20 miles. She was down for over a week after the trip. (It wasn't COVID) Luckily none of the rest of us got it even though we were sharing a lot of space.
Make sure your route includes the breweries so you don't spend too much time searching for them once you get to a town.
Book your hotel room early, or better yet, find an Air B&B or VRBO
Go with the flow, it is an adventure!