When presented recently with a bluebird spring day all to myself, I oscillated between a hike or bike ride. The many charms of the Green Mountain National Forest outside Bennington, Vt., enticed me to do both.
Just east of Searsburg, Vt., is a stretch of gravel road running through the GMNF that has long called to me and I would finally answer that call. From Vermont Route 9 I would ride north to Kelly Stand Road, park the bike, and then hike the roughly four miles into Stratton Pond.
A few minutes into my ride, I met the Deerfield River, which bubbled and sang and joined the chorus of spring warblers’ song accompanied by the baseline of my bike tires on gravel. The trees in the mountains beyond the Deerfield were painted in subtle shades of yellow and green, like an artist was just getting started on the fresh canvas winter left behind.
I paused at a pond hoping to see a beaver or, more optimistically, a moose. Instead, an eagle flew over the treetops. A minute later, another eagle joined the scene. The two screeched and joined talons while tumbling through the air while I wondered how I was so lucky to watch their aerial acrobatics.
The bike round-trip from Route 9 to Kelly Stand Road is roughly 30 miles and the hike into Stratton Pond is 8 miles. There are several small parking lots on Forest Road 71. If doing only the bike portion, a slightly longer trip will bring you into scenic Grout Pond, two miles east of the Stratton Pond trailhead.
Every trip into the GMNF satisfies one hunger but stokes several more. Multiple roads branched off my route, some on my map and some not. I wondered about them as I rode and planned a return with a mountain bike or on foot or with a tent. I will run out of time before I run out of places but that’s a much happier thought than it might sound.
The gravel…
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