The Green Mountain Gravel Growler

America’s gravel capital

Vermont is arguably the gravel-biking capital of the United States, with more than 8,000 miles of unpaved town roads, dirt lanes and rough Class 4 woods roads lacing the hills. The Green Mountain Gravel Growler, designed by Bikepacking.com, stitches the best of them into a roughly 248-mile loop that links world-class craft breweries, artisan cheese farms and mountain inns entirely by back road.

It is a bucket-list ride for gravel and bikepacking fans — challenging, beautiful, and deliciously well-provisioned. Most riders take about five days.

The surface breakdown

Expect a genuine mixed bag underfoot: roughly 65% packed dirt and fine gravel farm lanes, 20% rocky Class 4 doubletrack and mud, and 15% quiet paved connectors. The Class 4 sections — legally roads but often unmaintained — are the crux, sometimes rutted, rooty or washed out, and demand patience and wide tires. The reward is near-total solitude between villages.

The five-day loop

The classic itinerary strings brewery to brewery.

Day 1 — Burlington to Stowe over Sterling Valley; Heady Topper at The Alchemist.

Day 2 — Stowe to Greensboro Bend and Hill Farmstead.

Day 3 — the crux: ridge and Class 4 roads to Lawson’s in Waitsfield.

Day 4 — the Mad River Valley to Middlebury’s cider country.

Day 5 — the Champlain Valley back to Burlington.

Beer, cheese & inns

The Growler is as much a tasting tour as a bike ride. It threads past The Alchemist and Lawson’s Finest, out to Hill Farmstead — repeatedly named the best brewery in the world, at the end of a Greensboro dirt road — and near Jasper Hill’s cave-aged cheeses. Between them, village stores, farm stands and welcoming inns keep you fed and rested. Pace the indulgence: riding 12%+ dirt walls on a heavy lunch and a flight of IPAs is its own kind of suffering.

Bike & kit

A gravel bike or a hardtail mountain bike is ideal, on 700x40–45c tubeless tires run at low pressure for grip and comfort. Gearing should reach 1:1 or lower for the steep dirt climbs. Pack light with a seatpack, frame bag and handlebar roll — every extra pound bites on the walls — and carry a proper repair kit, as bike shops are far apart. Water and food between towns can be sparse, so top up whenever you can.

When to ride & planning

Late May through mid-October is the window; September adds foliage but colder descents. Avoid the spring mud season, when Class 4 roads are impassable, and check brewery days and hours before relying on a stop. Book inns ahead in summer and fall, download the GPS track (cell service is patchy in the hills), and tell someone your route — long stretches are genuinely remote.