Bayley Hazen Military Road, VT

[ETD]

Hey Yall,

I'm new to this site and I figured I would start out by telling you about a little ride up the Baylay Hazen military road I did this summer in Northeastern Vermont.

Lets start with a little bit of history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayley_Hazen_Military_Road

Now with that out of the way lets start with the ride...

My bike at the time was a 03 BMW f650gs, and I had recently fallen in love with ridding the dirt roads of Vermont. I had been doing some research of the BH road and figured it was time to get after it. So on a nice sunny morning in June I set off from Burlington. It took about 1.5 hours of highway ridding to get to the start of the trail, but as soon as I got on the trail it all turned to dirt, farmlands and beautiful mountain views. The BH road follows the ridges of the mountains for 150 or so miles from Wells River to North Troy through the remote Northeast Kingdom. Its mostly well maintained dirt road for 90% of the time, but there are about 15 miles of un-maintained class 4 road called the hero section that really gave my GS and I a good ride. I was surprised to find that most of the road showed up on my GPS, even some of the class 4 were in the GPS. The ride from Wells River to Troy took about 5 hours, although I stopped a lot for photos, food and route finding and because I was solo the hero sections ate up a lot of time. It’s a great ride that I recommend to anyone in the northeast looking for a great day trip.

Enjoy!

Starting out on the Bayley Hazen road.



Most of the road looked like this.



Some great views.



Start of the hero section.



Inside the hero section, makin my bike feel pretty big out there all alone.



End of the hero section.



The memorial reads:

1781
Near this spot by a block house guarding Hazen road two scouts,
Constant Bliss and Moses Sleeper were killed by Indians and buried where they fell.
Lest we forget the pioneers
This memorial was erected
1941




Thanks for reading!

[juames]

Welcome! Nice RR.

You don't happen to have a GPS file for this road do you? I see the section from Woodsville north to Danville, but can't see anything north of there.

j...

[ETD]

I unfortunately don't have a GPS file anymore.
I was able to find a decent description on the VT BMW group site.
I also used a turn by turn description from a country road biking company in the area, I found the description on-line.
The DeLORME Gasetteer maps also have a lot of the road.
I just used the GPS for additional help.

[juames]

Cool thanks! Renting a cottage near Jay Peak this summer and looking for some riding in the area.

[joe a]

There are quite a few guys/gals here on ADV who know the Jay area well.Look around at some of the RR,,, I'm sure you will get some great tips.I did the B/H a few years ago with some fellas that knew the route with out maps etc....It was a great ride....

[juames]

FYI Forgot about the VT BMW site...they have the GPS file for it. I've done the PDR and it was anice ride, so I'll have to try this one too!

[greenmtndave]

Excellent. Thanks for sharing a piece of home.

[D0N1]

Awesome! I'm gonna need to check this road out this spring. thanks!