Hello Pride Riders! Hope you are all having a great summer of riding, it has been wonderful to see you out on the trails and gravel roads of Vermont (and even New Hampshire) with us throughout the summer. Now, as the summer begins to fade, we prepare for our annual end of summer bike packing trip to Groton State Forest!
Each year, we team up with Vermont Bicycle Club (through Vermont Bicycle Shop) to create a 2 night bikepacking trip to a beautiful Vermont state forest for riding bikes, camping, exploring, camp fires, and assorted other side quests throughout labor day weekend.
More details and sign up can be found at 2026 Labor Day Bike Packing Reservations! – Vermont Bicycle Shop. If you have any questions about sign up, please reach out by email — prideridesvt@gmail.com.
Bikes and gear are available for this trip – please reserve before August 29th to allow for time to navigate bike and gear set up. You can reserve bikes at Gear Library – PRIDE RIDES. You can request bags by noting on your bike reservation or emailing us — prideridesvt@gmail.com.
We will have an informational meeting August 25th at Vermont Bicycle Shop in Barre at 5:30PM to discuss details of the trip and answer questions. The library of bicycles will be at the shop for that meeting and will be reservable in person. We can get you on the right bike and set up with a few bags to get you ready to roll. This trip is friendly to beginner bike packers, no previous bikepacking experience required! We can walk you through what you need to know and how to have a great first experience. The camp site will have cabin and lean-to spaces, as well as additional space for a tent or two, if a tent is your preference. Some biking experience is necessary. It would be ideal to have ridden on at least a couple 15+ mile rides over gravel type terrain to be best prepared for the ride out to camp and then back to town.
Details:
Tuesday August 25th: Informational meeting at Vermont Bicycle Shop – 42 Summer st. Barre Vermont — 5:30PM
Saturday September 5th: Departure from Vermont Bicycle Shop in Barre — meet at 9:30AM, depart 10AM
Saturday September 5th: Second meet up spot, Plainfield Park and Ride – 65 Main st. Plainfield Vermont — approx 10:45AM meet up, depart park and ride 11:15AM
Saturday September 5th: Arrive at campsite, Ricker Pond at Groton State Forest
Sunday September 6th: Sunday Funday! Rides will be led from camp, likely a longer more adventurous ride led by Darren of Vermont Bicycle Shop and a chill shorter ride led by TBD. There are also plenty of fun outdoor activities to be enjoyed in the state forest, including: boat/kayak/SUP rentals, hiking, birding, swimming, camp relaxing, reading, etc and you are free to do as you please, no requirement to join a ride! Join a ride, do something else, or make it all happen and do a little of it all!
Monday September 7th: Return to Barre via the same route as was taken out to camp, but in reverse. — approx departure time of 10:30AM.
For more details, check out the event posted by Vermont Bicycle Club, linked above. For questions, please join us on August 25th or email at prideridesvt@gmail.com
