don
Well-Known Member
I was up in the Stowe area on and off for the last couple of weeks. I have been hearing a bunch on the Driving Range in Richmond and decided to get over there to check it out. I unfortunately didn't get to ride all the trails as I was having some "stressful fun" dissecting the Upper Hot Dogger line the first time I was there and only had a little over an hour the second time and wanted to try out the ladder drop.
Over all the place is very impressive. It has easy access with good parking and close to the other spots in the area (about 30 minutes from Stowe and Burlington, and within 10 minutes from Waterbury). Parts of it are gnarly. The Diving Board and the Don't Panic roll in had my eyes spinning just looking at them (I did not do either).
Once you park it's a short flat pedal to the main area. Then you climb taking Green Fee. Green Fee all the way up takes you to the start of Hot Dogger and Heavy Duty which can go into Skidmarks. That splits the area into half and the Green Fee climb isn't bad so a good option to lap that a few times. The other option is to go to the top and take Sugar Road to Iteration about half way up on Green Fee. That will get you to Brush Fire and Double Bogey.
Green Fee - nice switchback climb route. It had good traction and drainage. I like how in intersects in a few spots with Hot Dogger so you can session certain areas.
Some nice rock work on the beginning of Double Bogey. I didn't ride it as I wanted to warm up on Brushfire. Brushfire was good but not sure if it's worth that extra climb.
Brushfire leads out to the top of the Green Fee climb. You can split into Heavy Duty or Hot Dogger. Hot Dogger starts with a drop over the trail that goes into Heavy Duty. It took me a number of tries but I finally did it. Overall it's ok but I feel the berm that you land into could be built up in the sweet spot/corner pocket of it.
There were a a few tabletops, rollers, and berm on upper Hot Dogger. Decent and pretty fun but not as manicured and mature as Cady Hill's Florence that I rode the day before.
Here is a one of the example I had that I was scratching my head. The sender lip is on the inside and the landing was pretty eroded so transfering to the optimal line outside could be hazardous. Landing straight puts you in a weird spot for the berm. Watching Green Mountain Biker's vid of it shows how oddly setup it is the landing looked way smoother in his videos.
Right near the drop in which is by the on-off was the Diving Board feature. Skills with Phil has a video of him building it:
The Diving Board - The easy side (right side) looked hard as I'm guessing the material got eroded away.
Middle Hot Dogger had some fun sets and I found this area the most fun and spent most of my time there. The best being the left side skipper line right before it meets up with the intersection of Green Fee and lower Hot Dogger. I'll post pics and a run down on it in the next post.
Lower Hot Dogger was ok. The landings seemed like they had lots of rocks in them. The berms - while big kind of "feel off" at the last third althought the entrance to them felt good. The middles of some sections were rutted from rain. And while I like steeper lips and landings I feel for a public park it's not the best move unless they are maintained frequently. I would mellow /smooth the tables out or keep the lips and make the landings a stepup. Or maybe it just needs some smoothing - weather in Vermont is tough and it being a newer system might not have the bugs worked out of it yet.
Towards the bottom there is a roll in that was wild! It's called Don't Panic. I just looked at it. Here are a couple of pics but they never look as big as they do in person.
I know Skills With Phil has a bunch of videos from there but that guy is a cyborg or something and he rides too fast and makes everything look easy
The Green Mountain Biker is still really good but more in line with mere mortals:
Over all the place is very impressive. It has easy access with good parking and close to the other spots in the area (about 30 minutes from Stowe and Burlington, and within 10 minutes from Waterbury). Parts of it are gnarly. The Diving Board and the Don't Panic roll in had my eyes spinning just looking at them (I did not do either).
Once you park it's a short flat pedal to the main area. Then you climb taking Green Fee. Green Fee all the way up takes you to the start of Hot Dogger and Heavy Duty which can go into Skidmarks. That splits the area into half and the Green Fee climb isn't bad so a good option to lap that a few times. The other option is to go to the top and take Sugar Road to Iteration about half way up on Green Fee. That will get you to Brush Fire and Double Bogey.
Green Fee - nice switchback climb route. It had good traction and drainage. I like how in intersects in a few spots with Hot Dogger so you can session certain areas.
Some nice rock work on the beginning of Double Bogey. I didn't ride it as I wanted to warm up on Brushfire. Brushfire was good but not sure if it's worth that extra climb.
Brushfire leads out to the top of the Green Fee climb. You can split into Heavy Duty or Hot Dogger. Hot Dogger starts with a drop over the trail that goes into Heavy Duty. It took me a number of tries but I finally did it. Overall it's ok but I feel the berm that you land into could be built up in the sweet spot/corner pocket of it.
There were a a few tabletops, rollers, and berm on upper Hot Dogger. Decent and pretty fun but not as manicured and mature as Cady Hill's Florence that I rode the day before.
Here is a one of the example I had that I was scratching my head. The sender lip is on the inside and the landing was pretty eroded so transfering to the optimal line outside could be hazardous. Landing straight puts you in a weird spot for the berm. Watching Green Mountain Biker's vid of it shows how oddly setup it is the landing looked way smoother in his videos.
Right near the drop in which is by the on-off was the Diving Board feature. Skills with Phil has a video of him building it:
The Diving Board - The easy side (right side) looked hard as I'm guessing the material got eroded away.
Middle Hot Dogger had some fun sets and I found this area the most fun and spent most of my time there. The best being the left side skipper line right before it meets up with the intersection of Green Fee and lower Hot Dogger. I'll post pics and a run down on it in the next post.
Lower Hot Dogger was ok. The landings seemed like they had lots of rocks in them. The berms - while big kind of "feel off" at the last third althought the entrance to them felt good. The middles of some sections were rutted from rain. And while I like steeper lips and landings I feel for a public park it's not the best move unless they are maintained frequently. I would mellow /smooth the tables out or keep the lips and make the landings a stepup. Or maybe it just needs some smoothing - weather in Vermont is tough and it being a newer system might not have the bugs worked out of it yet.
Towards the bottom there is a roll in that was wild! It's called Don't Panic. I just looked at it. Here are a couple of pics but they never look as big as they do in person.
I know Skills With Phil has a bunch of videos from there but that guy is a cyborg or something and he rides too fast and makes everything look easy

The Green Mountain Biker is still really good but more in line with mere mortals: