By now, you should know that we are huge fans of the Green Mountain State, and we’d recommend you add Vermont to your winter destination list, if it is not there already.
In late fall/early winter of last year, Becca and I, feeling spontaneous, burned up the eastern seaboard for a 3-day weekend in Vermont. This was a mixed-use trip (we were looking for a wedding venue, actually), but managed to squeeze in a winning combination of Vermont culture, hospitality, and Class IV road exploration in our short time up North.
Our home-base for the trip was the Amee Farm Lodge in Pittsfield, Vermont (pretty much in the center of the state). The lodge is a beautiful 15-bedroom post-and-beam style farmhouse that also frequently serves as a wedding venue (which is how we found it…). Rates are super-reasonable (starting at $95 from what I’ve seen lately) and it is a certainly an aesthetic home base for some exploration. Added bonus: during our weekend stay we were pleasantly surprised to wake up with a thin blanket of snow covering the ground on Saturday.
(Photos from www.ameefarm.com)
Amee Farm Lodge’s central location served us well as we canvassed the state visiting some of our favorite breweries (Long Trail, Harpoon) and checking out both Stowe and Montpelier for the first time.
It wouldn’t be a DirtRoadTrip weekend recommendation without some dirt roads, and we definitely got some off-pavement exploring in. Still fairly fresh off of running the Vermont Overland Trophy, I took Becca on a portion of the Year 1, Day 2 loop (ran it backwards) and enjoyed some lesser seen sections of Vermont.
Overall this particular weekend in Vermont was a welcome change to my typical off-road heavy jaunts in the state, and was a great way to introduce Becca to what the Green Mountain State has to offer. If you’re interested in doing a similar trip, but can’t or don’t want to camp, definitely consider the Amee Farm Lodge as a great home-base option.
Alex,
Thanks for the advice. Yes I know VOT is a private run event and its one on my bucket list. What im asking Ben is the backroads he did that co accidentally was part of VOT route. Im not asking for the VOT mapped out route. Same is true when one dotransamerica you have to buy it online bec somebody put a lot of money and effort to create it
I still hope I can run a trail with DirtRoad Trip group ( even though I will be miles away from the group as I will driving slow in the expressway on my aging lifted 80 ) I am always amazed everytime i read DRT how you guys have time to do it. But i enjoy reading it. I guess its all about priorities. See you all in the trails.
Shoot us an e-mail and we can point you in the right direction. As far as time is concerned it’s all about making time and prioritizing. A big part of what we do is making sure the majority of our trips can be accomplished by all our readers. Most of our trips take place over a regular weekend, so if you’re ever looking for suggestions we’re happy to help.
Ben
I guess what i ask is too much. How bout point a to b by street name. I think i can connect the dots. Also could a tundra 08 crew cab do it? Only mod i did was 33” duratracs. Its 4wd. I hope to do it with snow flurries( not heavy snow) or prob this coming fall. My LC 80 with 4 inch lift has issues travelling above 50 mph- plus dont want to be left stranded with blown engine in the woods. Take your time but i hope youll get back to me .,thanks again.
As far as capabilities are concerned, running the trails with a long wheelbase vehicle such as a Tundra can be problematic. The conditions are only worse during the winter because of snow and ice. I would recommend that you don’t run it solo unless you’re familiar with your equipment and have some form of recovery equipment such as a winch.
A good place to start on capabilities is the Vermont Overland web page, Peter’s requirements for VOT are pretty straight forward, you won’t need anything that serious for running day trip trails but a good set of A/T tires and a winch will take you a long way when you’re out there in one rig.
I guess my question should be separated in 2 parts. I already got the answer for Running VOT… the LC 80 is the answer.My primary question was running the back roads of VT as what Ben did using my tundra. Will it do with a long wheelbase? I feel the answer is prob the same. Anyway theres a lot of trails in Va that i can explore with 757 group and problay DRT in the near future.
A long wheel base is definitely a liability when traveling the class 4 roads of Vermont. That being said I’ve personally driven a 200 Series Land Cruiser though everything Vermont has to offer and if you don’t mind dragging your rear end over some obstacles you shouldn’t have that tough of a time. There are plenty of milder routes, but a good set of tires, and some under body protection should be on your short list.
I’m not trying to make it sound overly difficult, but you can easily go from enjoying your ride to breaking something and being stuck. If you’re a skilled driver and know your limitations you can have plenty of fun exploring the area.
Ive never been in VT and i want to experience what your doing. Time is just not on my side. I know i cant yet afford the Vt overland tropy but i want to run similar tracks. Can you map it out google map (most of it if not all) ? I got nav so i know i will not get lost. Thanks
Rainier
Rainier,
The routes that we run were provided to us after participating in the Vermont Overland Trophy and Northeast Overland Rally. We don’t plan on posting routes online because Peter and his team spend countless man hours running these trails in order to map them and provide them to us. Participating in a Vermont Overland day trip or one of the rally’s really is a small price to pay to get a hold of these maps.
That being said every route is a published public road and you can find the maps on the Vermont Department of Transportation website with little fuss. Hope you manage to make it up to VT and safe travels.
Alex