This will be the winter to explore Vermont and find new places to play outdoors. Thanks to a RESTART grant, the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance (VOBA) (a statewide non-profit dedicated to strengthening, expanding, attracting and retaining outdoor recreation businesses in Vermont) teamed up with Vermont Sports to profile emerging recreation regions. In the last two years, the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC) has given out Community Grants, totaling $300,000, to help nine communities fully leverage their outdoor recreation assets.  Here’s what’s going on in these regions and what the grants will do for regions, north to south.

1. Newport, VT : Where The Lake Comes to Life

As the ice starts to glaze over Lake Memphremagog, Newport puts away its kayaks and bikes and rolls up its sleeves for its second season: winter. The Orleans County city has a population of just over 4,000 and it feels like everyone turns out when the lake hardens.

Pond hockey tournaments pop up. Folks gather around small bonfires. Parents pull their kids on sleds. Skaters follow a path that connects outdoor rinks in Gardner’s Park. As soon as the snow falls, cross country skiers glide along the 25 kilometers of groomed routes at Memphremagog Trails.

The last weekend of February the town will bustle as folks from around the state turn up  for Winter Festival (still on the schedule). “We have chuck-a-puck, horse-drawn sleigh rides,  sledding on the hill near Prouty Beach, bonfires along the shoreline and fireworks,” says Jessica Booth, Newport Parks & Recreation Director.

That weekend is also typically the time when Kingdom Games hosts its famous Winter Swim competition with top swimmers racing laps in a “pool” that’s cut out of the ice on Lake Memphremagog.

All winter long you can hear the hum of snowmobiles buzzing on the network of VAST (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) trails that crisscross the region. “I think we are the only city that has groomed trails that go right into town,” says Booth. “You can literally ride your snowmachines right to one of our restaurants and on nice days in the winter you’ll see dozens of snowmobiles parked outside The East Side where they have outdoor dining and an ice bar.”

Shop: The Great Outdoors which rents kayaks and bikes in the summer switches over to skis, snowboards and ice skates in the winter. Wright’s Sports Shop has been serving local anglers and hunters for 30 years. Pick and Shovel has everything from Muck Boots and Carhartts to apparel . To find bargains on quality bike gear, head to Louis Garneau’s factory outlet and U.S. headquarters on Route 5 in Derby.

Eat/Drink: Watch all the action on the lake from your table at The East Side, a shore-side restaurant and pub that serves up dinner specials such as a Fried Fisherman’s Platter and Roast Duck. It also has an antiques and gift shop.

After a day out on the trails or lake, stop in for a pizza, sub or pasta at Hoagies—a Newport staple since 1966. Lagos has fine dining and don’t miss the Northeast Kingdom Tasting Center where you can sample local cheeses, bakery treats, brews, jams and more or try farm-fresh fare at the Warehouse Restaurant.

Stay: Downtown, the Newport City Inn & Suites is a comfortable motel with an indoor pool and small fitness center.  Newport has a number of cozy B&Bs that are steps to the lake such as the Little Gnesta (closed in winter, though), and if you want a bit of old-world elegance (think fireplaces and four-poster beds), head to the Derby Line Village Inn.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: In 2019, Newport received a $35,000 VOREC grant for a critical trail connection and boardwalk project between Prouty Beach and Bluffside Farm, a 129-acre dairy farm on the lake that was acquired by the Vermont Land Trust in 2015.

More info: Discover Newport

2. Brighton/Island Pond: The Wild, Wild Northeast

The village of Island Pond was once a bustling railway stop with 16 tracks, the historic midway point between Portland, Me. and Montreal. Now, the hum of engines you might hear in winter is from snowmobiles as the area bills itself as the snowmobiling and hunting capital of Vermont.

With more than 125 miles of groomed VAST trails, it’s a reputation that’s well deserved. The trails, maintained by the Brighton Snowmobile Club, fan across miles of undeveloped land in the most northeastern corner of the state, a place that has few roads and fewer towns.

But there is a lot more going on here in terms of outdoor recreation. Brighton/Island Pond is also the jumping off point for exploring the Nulhegan Basin section of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge—more than 26,600 acres of forest interspersed with wetlands, peatlands and shrub swamps, lined by three of the four tributaries of the Nulhegan River. Hunting is permitted in several sections of the refuge and it’s not uncommon to come across moose, bear, deer, fisher, coyote, grouse and snowshoe hare. The refuge is also an important stopover for migratory birds in the spring and fall.

From the Silvio O. Conte visitor contact station in Brunswick, you can head out on a number of short interpretative trails. This section of the refuge also  has 40 miles of gravel roads that are open until mid-December. After that, many become part of the VAST trail network for snow travelers.

In the warmer months, this area has scenic sections of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, connecting from the Clyde to the Connecticut River. In 2017, the Vermont Huts Association built the 14- by 18-foot Nulhegan Confluence Hut on the river, a short walk or ski in from Route 105. The cabin is open year-round, by reservation, and has access to miles of VAST trails for snowmobiling or skiing

Nature lovers should also stop off at the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in East Charleston, just west of Island Pond. A  non-profit devoted to conservation and education, the center hosts classes in everything from mountain bike skills to leadership programs to wilderness survival workshops – including one billed as the “Yeti Challenge.”

The Center owns more than 1,500 acres where it does sustainable forestry and habitat management and also hosts a number of “challenges.”  The NEK Peak Bagging Challenge is one you can do on your own, scaling the Center’s list of more than 20 peaks in the Kingdom.

And each fall, the Westmore Mountain Challenge sends hikers and runners to the summits of five peaks in a day – including Mt. Hor and Mt. Pisgah – near Lake Willoughby.

If you do all five and finish the route at the NorthWoods center, it’s a full 26.2-mile marathon —and undoubtedly Vermont’s toughest. For something with a little less elevation, the NEK Marathon and Half Marathon are scheduled for May 1, 2021.

From Brighton/Island Pond you can also explore the backcountry ski glades and Nordic trails on Mt. Hor and Bartlett Mountain in Willoughby State Forest.  For advanced climbers, Black Mountain, northeast of Brighton/Island Pond has become something of a hot spot and the cliffs on Mt. Hor and Mt. Pisgah have rock and ice climbs with views across Lake Willoughby.

Shop: Simon the Tanner in Island Pond and Gervais Ace Hardware carry all the rugged outdoor apparel you need to stay warm. For holiday gifts, try The Hearth and Home Country Store.

Eat/Drink: Kingdom Grille opened in the summer of 2020 with a lake view, pub fare and live music on weekends. For something more upscale, try the Maple Bourbon Scallops at Essex House and Tavern.

Stay: Locally owned and recently restored, the Essex House and Tavern harkens back to the town’s railway boom with simple, country-chic rooms and a bustling tavern. The recently sold Lakefront Motel (now renamed Island Pond Country Inn) is right off the VAST trail and right on the water. It has efficiency suites and, in summer, dock space. For an adventure, book the Nulhegan Confluence Hut ($80 for the entire hut, via Vermonthuts.org) which has a wood stove.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Thanks to a $62,500 grant from VOREC in 2019, and grants from The Northern Forest Center and the NEK Collaborative,  Brighton has been improving the Bluff Mountain Trailhead and creating maps to area recreational opportunities and assets, which will be available at the Welcome Center. The town is also installing a public bike repair facility and a dock in Lakeshore Park.  

More info: visitislandpond.com

There are few places in the Northeast where you can find a higher concentration of world-class athletes per capita than Craftsbury. There are two reasons for this. For starters, Craftsbury (which comprises Craftsbury Village, Craftsbury Common, East Craftsbury, Collinsville and Mill Village) has a year-round population of under 1,200 that’s spread out over 36 square miles of rolling hills, fields and small villages.

On any given day there you might run into a former World Cup Nordic skier skating the trails at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center or, come spring, an Olympic oarsman sculling the length of Big Hosmer Pond.

You might also see families skiing trails that lead to Caspian Lake or snowshoeing on The Nature Conservancy’s Barr Hill Preserve. Or you might find a crew of Sterling College students fatbiking or bucking up firewood as part their community projects or sustainable agriculture classes. The college, based right in Craftsbury, is known for its focus on ecology, sustainability and outdoor education.

Just north of Craftsbury Village on the shores of Big Hosmer Pond, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center has been welcoming top athletes, as well as recreational skiers, cyclists, runners and rowers to its campus and trails since 1976.

In 2008, former Olympic rowers and co-founders of Morrisville’s Concept2, Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer helped purchase the center and turned it into a non-profit with the mission of promoting excellence in lifelong sports such as rowing, Nordic skiing, biathlon, cycling and running.

What draws so many elite athletes to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center is, of course, the training opportunities, top-tier coaches and a state-of-the-art gym. However, the 105 kilometers of carefully groomed trails are  a draw for beginners and experts alike. The trails cross open meadows with big views, wind up and down the forested hillsides and connect to Greensboro and to Caspian Lake.

Keith Woodward, himself a multi-time age group world champion in duathlon, has been grooming Craftsbury’s trails since 1976 and in 2019 he and the grooming team worked with University of Vermont geology professor Paul Bierman and students on a study on how to save snow. Craftsbury stockpiled snow (preserving spring snow under an insulated blanket covered with wood chips) to get it ready for an early winter start.

Between the reserved snow and snowmaking, the Center has been able to kick off the season reliably in mid-November.

By early February, when Craftsbury usually hosts its famous marathon and 50K races, the snowpack is thick. Note that  this year the event won’t be held but Craftsbury has planned a series of Sunday citizens’ races (see Calendar).

You don’t have to be a top athlete to stay at Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The Center has cabins, cottages and a dorm-style building with rooms for singles or doubles and serves up three meals a day featuring fresh local produce (some of it grown on premises) to its guests.

Craftsbury Outdoor Center isn’t the only skiing in the area. You can ski the Craftsbury-groomed trails all the way to Greensboro and connect to trails on 136 acres owned by The Highland Lodge, a classic 1860s inn that Wallace Stegner featured in his book Crossing to Safety, written after he spent time in Greensboro.

Shop: The Craftsbury General Store has gifts made by local artisans such as pottery, candles, wooden bowls, yarn, paintings, and jewelry.

Eat/Drink: In Craftsbury, the Black Bird Bistro has over-the-top grilled cheese sandwiches such as a Veggie Hipster, made with Jasper Hill Cave-Aged Cheddar, broccoli rabe pesto, avocado and green onion aioli.  In addition to regular deli fare such as pizza and sandwiches, The Craftsbury General Store  has been offering international specials for weekly  Wednesday takeout dinners such as Swedish Meatballs, Hawaiian Huli Huli or Vietnamese Pho. If you prefer traditional deli sandwiches and chips head to the C-Village store. Don’t miss a stop to Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, where visitors line up to buy the small-batch brews that are consistently rated among the top beers in the world. 

Stay: Craftsbury Outdoor Center has cabins, cottages and dorm rooms in clean, minimal rooms on the trails. Lodging comes with three farm-to-table meals using locally sourced food. Highland Lodge  is offering its cabin rentals and pre-packaged meals for Friday and Saturday nights, as well as its lodge rooms.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: As part of a town-wide effort to build on Craftsbury’s reputation as a winter-trails destination, a 2020 VOREC grant of $26,750 will be used to create an official Craftsbury Trails brand, maps, kiosks, and wayfinding signs.

Come winter, this Franklin County hub doesn’t slow down. Ten years ago, The St. Albans Messenger launched The Running of the Bells, a mile  run where participants attach jingle bells to their hats, shoes, gloves, coats, strollers, and wherever  as they move through the town and Taylor Park, lit up with holiday lights and decorations. This year,  the event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on November 27, in conjunction with the town’s Holiday Extravaganza but has been moved down to St. Albans Bay. It benefits local families in need.

The community spirit here is alive and well, as a trip to Hard’Ack Recreation Area, one of the few town-owned ski hills in Vermont, will demonstrate. The tiny ski area has been around since the 1950s but was recently purchased by the town, which opened the new Greg Brown Lodge last winter. On Friday and Saturday nights lights beam out across two trails for 700 vertical feet of skiing, sledding and tubing off a rope tow.

Thanks to donations from neighbors Jay Peak and Smugglers’ Notch, Hard’Ack also has a terrain park that features a rotating cast of rails and boxes and jumps. “We get folks who come up from Burlington to play around because it’s such a unique setting,” says Kelly Viens, St. Albans’ Parks and Recreation Director. It’s a family-friendly scene with some serious shredders of all ages and an annual Duct Tape Derby, often held during St. Albans February Winter Carnival.

With 4k of groomed Nordic ski trails, the ski area also sits adjacent to about six miles of snowshoe trails which move through birch and maple glades on the back side of Aldis Hill.

Of course, you can still head out onto Lake Champlain. St. Albans Bay and Missisquoi Bay are hot spots for ice fisherman after Northern Pike, according to the Agency of Natural Resources. In February 2020, St. Albans’ Mill River Brewing BBQ and Smokehouse launched the Clean Water Derby, a day of fishing for yellow perch for families on Missisquoi Bay.

And you can still ride the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail – on a fat bike, by foot or on skis—some 26 miles from St. Albans to Richford, near the Canadian border, traveling across open farmland with stunning views of the Green Mountains.

Shop: Back Country Sports’ motto, “Where fishing is in our blood and hunting is in our soul,” says it all.  Lenny’s Shoe and Apparel carries Skida, Darn Tough and a variety of other outdoor apparel and footwear brands.

Eat/Drink: St. Albans has no shortage of watering holes. One of Vermont’s most recognized breweries and brewpubs,  14th Star Brewing Company is based here. But there are plenty of others with every type of food imaginable. Try 84 Main Bar & Grill, Catalyst Coffee Bar, The Drake Bar & Kitchen, Evelyne’s On Center, Feldman’s Bagels, Grazer’s, The or Grind Café. There’s also Jeff’s Maine Seafood, La Casa Bar & Grill, The Main Squeeze, Mimmo’s Pizzeria, Nelly’s Pub & Grill,  Red House Sweets, Tim’s Place Diner, The Traveled Cup or Twigg’s American Gastropub.

Stay: Back Inn Time is a B&B in a classic, tastefully restored Victorian manor house right downtown. St. Albans also has a number of chain hotels such as the Hampton Inn, in the downtown, and La Quinta Inn and Econolodge on the outskirts.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Using a $64,417 VOREC grant,  St. Albans City is partnering with the Northwest Vermont Rail Trail Council, Northwest Regional Planning Commission, and communities along the trail to install wayfinding signage along the 26.4-mile Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail.

More info:  https://downtownsaintalbans.com/

5. Montpelier: A City of Trails

One of the reasons Montpelier was chosen to be Vermont’s state capital back in 1805 was its central location. Nestled between the mountains, roughly in the east/west middle of  the state with the Winooski River running through it, Montpelier was relatively easy to get to.

Today, that’s still true and  good news if you want to base out of there to recreate. From Montpelier, it’s a 40-minute drive to the base areas of Sugarbush, Mad River Glen or Stowe. The Millstone Trails (which circle around the deep Barre granite quarries) are a 20-minute drive. It’s another 45 minutes to Groton State Forest.

It’s no wonder that when ultra-runner and social media influencer Mirna Valerio came to visit Vermont, she chose to live here. Or that other ultra-runners such as Alex Jinks (two-time winner of the  Ghost Train 100-Mile trail race in New Hampshire) call Montpelier home.

You don’t need to go far out of town if you want to just get out and burn some calories. As soon as the weather is cold enough, a lighted outdoor skating rink appears on the State House lawn. 

Just steps from the State House, Hubbard Park has more than 7 miles of hiking and skiing trails running through its nearly 200 acres,https://roamvt.com/ as well as a sledding hill and a cool 54-foot stone observation tower built in the 1920s. This past summer, the Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association worked with North Branch Nature Center to add a pump track and four-miles of machine-carved flow trails to the network.

Those trails have been the site for the Frozen Onion, a mid-winter fat bike event put on by the town’s outdoor gear shop, Onion River Outdoors which also hosts weekly fat bike rides and a January candle-lit snowshoe romp with hot chocolate and bonfire.

ORO also has avalanche awareness workshops and provides skate rentals and free snowshoe rentals to anyone headed over to North Branch trails. “We really want folks out there packing the trails, not postholing,” says Jen Roberts, Onion River Outdoors’ owner.

Shop: Run by outdoor experts with years of experience in paddling, running, cycling and skiing, Onion River  Outdoors has been the hub of the region’s outdoor community for years and has an extensive selection of the latest gear as well as advice on where and how to use it. Next door ROAM offers apparel that’s good for trail wear and a night out. SlopeStyle Ski & Ride also has a great selection of alpine gear. With dozens of specialty shops and boutiques featuring local artists and craftsmen (and free parking over the holiday season) Montpelier is a great spot to shop for presents.

Eat/Drink: The Three Penny Taproom is Montpelier’s legendary bar serving up a wide variety of local brews. Sarducci’s offers finer dining with views of the river and Kismet offers take-out only for its eclectic specials, which range from beef tartare to noodle soup bowls. Caledonia Spirits, makers of Barr Hill gin, also has its distillery and tap room on the outskirts of town on Gin Lane.

Stay: The Capitol Plaza Hotel is within a stone’s throw of the Capitol building and is a favorite of lawmakers during the legislative session. An elegant hotel, The Inn at Montpelier, which dates back to the early 1800s, has 19 rooms right off Main Street.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Working with private landowners, the town is using a VOREC grant of $25,400 to create and market a 5-mile universally accessible loop connecting downtown Montpelier, U32 High School, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Caledonia Spirits, East Montpelier Trails, and the Cross Vermont Trail.

6. Randolph: The Backcountry Hub

If you haven’t been to Randolph recently you need to go. Start by visiting the Outdoor Hub, a literal trail hub and source for maps and beta, located in The Gear House (a new bike shop) near the entrance to town. There, you can walk into a room with a large 3D topo map of the area showing all the new trails (and some old ones) that have been carved out of the surrounding mountains and hills of the central Greens.

There are trails up and down Braintree Mountain where the Ridgeline Outdoor Collective  helped cut backcountry ski glades. There are also maps of the cut and named ski glades in Brandon Gap (just over the hill), trails in the Sayward Town Forest, trails up and down Abel Mountain, leading out and around Vermont Technical College and soon, out toward Silloway Maple’s vast sugarbush…in short, trails everywhere. Randolph now has  more than 240 miles of mapped trails for hiking, biking, cross-country and back-country skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing

Some of the trails are left over from when Randolph was a burgeoning mountain bike town in the 1990s and early 2000s. But many are the work of volunteers with the Ridgeline Out Door Collective. Led by Zac Freeman and Rochester’s Angus McCusker, Ridgeline Out Door Collective  volunteers have cut and mapped routes with an eye toward making the area a center for backcountry skiing, mountain biking and gravel riding,  supported with one of the first two VOREC grants.

The trail work is building on other efforts around the town.  In the 1950s, Harold Farr put up a rope tow on his farm near Elm Street so local kids could ski and toboggan for free. After many bustling winters, the rope tow and area shut down in 1966. Recently, local businessman Perry Armstrong and his wife Lynn purchased the 12-acre property, reinstated a tubing hill and are considering adding a rope tow.

House bike shop in 2020. Sam Hooper (whose mother, Alison Hooper started Vermont Creamery) bought Vermont Glove, maker of goatskin hand stitched work gloves,  in 2018 and, overall, there’s a new energy in town focused on outdoor recreation. Couple that with the Chandler Center for the Arts, all that Vermont Technical College offers, and the prospect of a new hotel slated to be built just off I89, and Randolph is putting itself back on the map.

Shop: The Gear House has bikes and gear for fat biking, gravel riding mountain biking, snowshoeing, camping and backpacking—and consignment gear.

Eat/Drink: Black Krim Tavern, which recently moved down the street to a new larger location,  serves up mouthwatering weekly specials such as venison-stuffed poblanos. Chefs Market, located in the old train station, has locally sourced fare for breakfast and lunch and features crafts by area artists. One Main Tap & Grill also serves up meats, poultry and eggs from local farmers and Tacocat Cantina, the bricks-and-mortar version of the popular roving Taco Truck All Stars opened this fall serving local Vermont Chevon goat meat, among other things, in its tacos and burritos. The brew of choice is Bent Hill, brewed in Braintree.

Stay: A plan for a new hotel right off exit 4 on I89 has been in the works for many years but for now, options for places to stay in Randolph are limited to Airbnbs and the like. Or, head over the hill to stay in Rochester at the working farm, Liberty Hill Farm, or at Huntington House, a B&B.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: In 2019, Randolph (in partnership with RASTA) received a $65,000 VOREC grant for marketing and events, trail design and construction projects and trailhead amenities.

7. Poultney: The Southwest Kingdom

Over the past few years, the area around Poultney that was once the source of slate for much of Vermont has seen so much trail building some folks have started calling Slate Valley the “Southwest Kingdom.” 

With Morrisville trail builder Hardy Avery and his partner, Caitrin Maloney (former executive director of Stowe Land Trust) moving into town recently, an off-the-grid bike shop named Analog and an ambitious plan to build and map more than 20 new miles of trails in 2020 (adding to the 40 existing miles) “Southwest Kingdom” may well be building a reputation that follows in the footsteps of Kingdom Trails.

Some of the multi-use Slate Valley Trails, many cut and groomed by Avery, look through the forested hills above Lake St. Catherine, offering stunning views to the west. 

There are three major networks that spiderweb out from parking hubs at the Fairgrounds, Endless Brook and Delaney Woods and work is being done to connect them. You can also ride the D&H Rail Trail from Castleton to the New York border (about 10 miles) and plans have been in the works to connect the northern portion of the trail with the southern portion, which runs from West Pawlet south to West Rupert, another nearly 10-mile ride.

If that’s not enough, Slate Valley Trails has also mapped an extensive network of gravel rides.

Events are still going strong here. The September 2020 Slate Valley Scramble sent runners on a half-marathon scramble on the trails. In October, Analog Cycles, wove many of the Slate Valley routes into an ATB (All-Terrain-Bicycle) race that involved taking selfies at various checkpoints – including one on an island in a pond (accessible by paddleboat). The shop has also hosts a variety of other events. 

In winter, some of these trails firm up for fat biking, but snowshoeing and ski touring (when the snow is thick enough), can be just as fun. The area is also popular with snowmobiles and the Poultney Fish & Game Club’s “The Frosty” tournament usually draws ice fishermen from around the state to Lake St. Catherine.

Poultney has also been the home of Green Mountain College, which closed in 2019. In the fall of 2020, Raj Bhakta, the founder of Whistle Pig distillery in Shoreham, Vt., purchased the campus’s 22 buildings (many red brick classics built in the 1800s) and 155 acres.

Bhakta has moved his family there and intends to revive the college as an educational institution with a focus on sustainable agriculture.

Shop: Analog Cycles is an off-the-grid bike shop in East Poultney that carries All-City, Surly, Rivendell and more and also does custom builds and fitting. Mart’s Sporting Goods on Main Street has everything hunters and anglers need. Rabidbaits.com, maker of acclaimed fishing lures, is located in Poultney and owned by two of the area’s prominent fishermen, Bob Scott and his son, Bob Jr. It does online sales only.

Eat/Drink:  A sign of the evolution in Poultney is evident with a glance at the menu at Taps Tavern, a gastro-pub with specials such as Maple Bacon Poutine or Pumpkin Cauliflower Mac n’ Cheese. Poultney Taco Experiment has eat-in and take-out and smokes their own meats.

Stay: Bentley House is a classic Victorian B&B right in town. In Wells, Pond Mountain Inn offers a loft apartment and garden cottage off a renovated farmhouse and has winter specials. In Fair Haven, the Maplewood Inn, Marble Mansion Inn and Haven Guest House are also B&Bs located in historic homes.

What the VOREC Grant Will Do: Poultney is using the VOREC grant of $20,874 to help attract visitors to the area and let them know about the growing trail system. It is creating maps and brochures as well as a website portal for its trails. The town will also conduct an economic assessment of area trails.

8. Springfield/Rockingham/Bellow’s Falls: The Valley Revival

Once a manufacturing hub, the Connecticut River valley towns of Springfield, Rockingham and Bellows Falls are finding new life. Springfield is home to Black River Produce and Meats, the Black River Innovation Campus and has the fastest internet speeds in the country (10 gigabits).

Rockingham sees thousands of visitors pass through, making stops at the Vermont Country Store to shop for everything imaginable. Bellows Falls, a former mill town right on the Connecticut, is seeing its downtown classic buildings given face lifts as antique shops and small restaurants move in.

When it comes to outdoor recreation, this is an area that has hidden gems that many Vermonters are not even aware of.

In Springfield, Hartness Park walking trails pass by the hill that was the former Springfield ski jump. You can also run, bike or cross-country ski on the Toonerville Trail – a 3-mile former railway corridor along the Black River that connects to Charlestown, N.H. The trail is the site of  the town’s EdgarMay 5K Turkey Trot each year (this year too.)

For nature-lovers there’s the 10,000-year-old North Springfield Bog, and Springweather Nature Area, 1,300 acres with trails used by cross-country skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers in the winter.  For a fun afternoon with kids, try one of the Springfield Valley “quests” —a treasure hunt of sorts—that let you discover places along the trails throughout the area (quests are listed in the Springfield Valley Trail Guide).

The city is also just 11 miles from Mt. Ascutney. A monadnock rising above the Connecticut River Valley, Mt. Ascutney, was once a full-fledged ski resort with lifts, lodging and a ski school.

After several changes in ownership and a bankruptcy it shut down. In recent years, locals have been reviving it via the non-profit Ascutney Trails Association. There are now mountain bike trails, more than 50 acres of hardwood and spruce glades for backcountry skiing, a T-bar and new base area lodge. Last season the ski area launched Thursday night citizen races on the lit hill. Okemo is also less than a 40-minute drive away.

From Rockingham and Bellows Falls, there are several major trail networks that are worth a visit from anywhere in the state—or beyond.

In the historic town of Grafton, Grafton Trails and Outdoor Center, affiliated with the Grafton Inn, has a network of trails groomed for cross-country skiing, fat biking and tubing and you can rent gear right there.

Not far from there, the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association has conserved more 2,000 acres in Rockingham, Athens, Grafton, Brookline, and Westminster with a 26-mile hiking trail system with stunning ridgeline views as far south as Mount Snow, a wildlife sanctuary and even a summit hut you can stay at (temporarily closed due to Covid-19). The Oak Hill trails, just outside Bellows Falls, also feature 2 miles of trails.

Shop: Two legendary shops support athletes in this area. The West Hill Shop, just south of Bellows Falls in Putney, has long been a leader in cycling and cross-country ski gear. In fall of 2020, the West Hill shop was bought by Zach and Amy Caldwell whose Caldwell Sport has helped some of the top Nordic racers in the world prepare for competitions. In 2018, Frank Wadelton, better known as Frank the Welder, moved his custom bike frame and R&D shop to a 12,000 square-foot facility in Bellows Falls.

Eat/Drink: If you are craving a hearty steak, it’s hard to beat the filet mignon at Springfield’s Black Rock Steakhouse.  Wash it down with a local brew such as a Harpoon or Trout River ale. Brownsville Butcher & Pantry, near Ascutney, is the locals’ place to pick up a breakfast or lunch sandwich.  In Rockingham, Wunderbar is doing take-out only but it’s worth calling ahead for dishes like Pumpkin Bolognese or Bourbon Apple Ribs.

Stay: For a step back in time to a town that has hardly changed in the last two centuries, treat yourself to a night at the historic Grafton Inn, home of Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center and Grafton cheddar. Near Springfield, the Hartness House Inn is a beautiful, updated B&B  on the National Historic Register with 38 rooms set on 35 acres. At Mt. Ascutney, Holiday Inn Club Vacations operates villas with one to three bedrooms.

What the Grants Will Do: Springfield and its team of volunteers will use its $19,250 VOREC grant to develop improved up-to-date marketing materials and trail signage, rehabilitate existing kiosks and build new ones at trailheads on the Toonerville Trail and Hartness Park. It will also build community engagement and stewardship of the Toonerville Trail and Connecticut River Byway through development of an inventory and action plan to track and control invasive (especially noxious) plant species

Rockingham, in partnership with local trail non-profits and the Village of Bellows Falls, will use its $19,000 VOREC grant to plan connectivity in its trail systems, create maps and signage, build trail stewardship programs, and create a pump track.