Vermont Bikepacking – The Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail (Part 2)

s it worth driving almost to the Canadian Border just to ride your gravel bike on unpaved rail trails? Can you make a multi-day trip out of it? The recently completed Lamoille Valley Rail Trail is the longest single trail in New England. If you combine it with the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail, you have a destination for sure. In this episode we cover The eastern half of the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail.

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*AllTrails GPS recording:*
Day 1: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-hike-82cec96-57
Day 2: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/vermont-bikepacking-day-2-ef41d48
Day 3: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/vermont-bikepacking-day-3-a052f1f
Day 4: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/activity-august-29-2023-fd9dcf1

*Suggested Links:*
https://www.mvrailtrail.org/

Trail Section Maps – Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail

Lamoille Valley Rail Trail

Map

https://www.enosburghvt.org/_files/ugd/5ad4b5_9308a0e8964d4658a4a383f2cce97419.pdf
https://www.enosburghvt.org/_files/ugd/5ad4b5_ac2f4c27af4c473c898d4c0fb2196942.pdf

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GoPro Hero 9 Black/Media Mod and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Microphone: Rode Wireless GOII

*Editing Software:*DaVinci Resolve, Garage Band

Chapters
0:00 – Hook
0:13 – Good Morning
0:56 – Leaving Camp
1:21 – The Plan
1:41 – To Enosburgh Falls
2:30 – Enosburgh Falls (AM)
3:26 – To Richford
6:02 – Richford
6:27 – Davis Park
7:03 – Native Americans
7:27 – The Rain
7:59 – To Canada
8:33 – Exploring Richford
9:31 – The Wye Track
10:20 – To Enosburgh Falls
10:59 – Exploring Enosburgh Fall
12:08 – Back to Camp
12:32 – Camp
12:50 – Part 3 Preview

In today’s episode we explore two quined cenal Vermont Villages Enosburg Falls and Richford and we completed the misisco valley rail trail as you’ll see we experienced several periods of rain but we didn’t let that stop us from enjoying the day looks like I have a slug on my bag

Mike is making oatmeal with real oats show us what you have Theo egg scramble all right nice well it’s day two uh got down to about 50 I say about 52° last night pretty comfortable sleeping got a little bit of uh rain around 4:00 but it’s dry right now which we’re pretty

Happy about it’s about quarter after 8 we’re getting the bikes packed up we’re going to head to Richford lake carai is the fourth largest lake entirely within the state of Vermont it’s 7.5 M around with an average depth of 20 ft and is only 33 ft

At its deepest point the state park has 140 campsites 35 lean and two cabins providing many options for bike Packers they’re closed but the Wi-Fi is still up and running Mike is doing an upload to a straa me and I are just giving him a hard

Time on this day we were out to explore and enjoy the towns of Richford and Enosburg we rode 3 and 1/2 miles on paved roads from Lake Carmi State Park and Franklin to the msoy valley rail trail we follow the trail for about 3 miles to the Village of vosburg Falls

Where we attempted to visit the museum in the old Freight House it continued East for another 9 and 1/2 miles to the end of the trail in Richford we rode into and around town and even went to the Canadian border the Missy Valley rail trail opened in 1996 without carrying all our camping

Gear we were light and fast felt like we were [Applause] Flying [Applause] [Applause] Heary we just hit the town in enburg [Applause] Falls the building with the Blue Roof is the former Central Vermont Railway Depot this orange Caboose was built in 1972 the Enosburg Freight House was built cira 1871 we’re in the town of Enosburg and here on they have a little Museum a little Railroad Museum in the Old Depot

Here and the Caboose is open we’re going to try to check it out on the way back the museum here is open 10 to 2 on Saturdays but we were here too early on the way out and too late on the Return up and Holes we’re following the Missy River here and we’re getting some terrific views of the River so today was supposed to be the big rain day that’s one of the reasons why we chose to go to richer today is we figured we should get seek shelter in either Richford or Enis birg Falls is that your new friend Mike [Applause] Yeah We’re in the town of East birkshire now which is the last Village before we hit Richford 22 miles into the trail from St Alin really didn’t think we’re going to see the sun today forecast was horrible but here we are pulling into Richford sun is out shining we’ll see what the rest of the day holds for [Applause] Us we’ve reached the end of the trail which leads us on the outskirts of the Town Center according the sign and Mike we’re at the end of the mcoy valley rail trail here um we’re going to go in check out the town a little bit see what we can

Find Central Vermont Railway crossed route 105 and continued 1/8 of a mile to a rail yard into Depot we’ve uh got a little bit further than the rail trail here but this is where they would have had the freight yards and that building with the chimney back there is the old station [Applause] The Northern Forest canoe trail is a 7 140 Mi Waterway route think of it as the Appalachian Trail for people with Canoes looking at the weather looks like we’re uh going to get some thunders showers probably by 2:00 it’s what time is it now 11: 11:00 yeah so uh we’re just taking a little break here a nice little Park for 10,000 years this region has been inhabited by the Waba nakak people of the Dawn land European colonist mispronounced their name as abanaki likewise the indigenous name for their home was mispronounced as miss isoy the native people named the river was Zak wat OK which meant the river that turns

Back or the Crooked River here’s our rain we’re under a tin roof so we’re lucky for now hoping it’s a short one I was figuring the whole day to be wet so even if it’s like wet all the way back it be better than I thought it was going to Be guys need any stuff the misisco Valley Railroad and the Southeastern Railway both reached Richford in 1873 the Southeastern Railway began serving Richford in 1873 Ian wanted to see Canada yep what do you think it was worth it it was worth it every that hill we got to go back over just to see Canada all right Mike get a good picture of can please we have a museum here Guys the Greenwood Bakery in Delhi is located in downtown across the street from the town hall it gets 4.5 stars on Google and we found it lived up to that high ring it looks sunny out there now we’re hoping it isn’t raining by the time we

Get out of here Mike says it is Mike says it’s going to rain on us when we get out of here timing is perfect here comes the rain here it is this would be the wide track the two railroad Depot in Richford were located on opposite sides of the town the wide

Track provided a connection south of town where the two railroads exchanged Freight cars this was not part of the official Trail and is not maintained but we decided to check it out anyway as we continue the trail condition degraded and the wind got Heavier That’s it there’s the other railroad track there would have been a junction right here we made it well just stopped ring enough for me to pull out the camera Trail has been nothing but water it’s starting to dry out a little bit now Check out the backs of these guys rain [Applause] jackets we’re experiencing a bit of a sun shower but more rain nonetheless there’s uh really spotty clouds everywhere right now thankfully by the time we reach enburg Falls the rain had stopped on our way back we spent time in hburg Falls

And explored the town there are two online guide books that provide a list of services things to see and historical information I’ll put links in the description Below EXA see so we’re taking was probably our last stop maybe our last bit of sunshine for the day here in Enosburg Falls we’re at the Village Green pretty nice here this Log Cabin was affectionately named ab’s Cabin quick pit stop here m has got the goods and we’re going to head on back what’d you get Mike got a beer a grilled barbecue grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of these he’s got it all amazing it’s warm and Dry what kind of beer is that is uh zero gravity Brewing from uh Burlington uh October Fest I couldn’t let Mike be the only one to have some adult beverage so I grabbed a cider this was Ian’s last night with us so we decided to build a fire and maybe

Dry our wet clothing in the next episode we’ll tackle some back roads in the L Moy Valley rail trail for 65 M of riding be sure to subscribe and hit the Bell notifications so you don’t miss it