Appalachian Gap & Middlebury Gap

Two Green Mountain passes in one loop: you leave Waitsfield on VT-17, climb past Mad River Glen to Appalachian Gap and drop to Bristol; from there you head south to East Middlebury, cross Middlebury Gap on VT-125 through Ripton and come back north on VT-100 through Granville Gulf and Warren. It's 70 miles of tight bends on both climbs and an easy valley ride home. The App Gap climb is steep with hairpins, so take it calmly. Fuel in Waitsfield or Bristol.

Appalachian Gap carries VT-17 over the spine of the Green Mountains, with sustained grades of 15 percent and more on both sides, and Mad River Glen sits just below it on the east side. The ski area is owned by its skiers as a co-op, is famous for its single chairlift, and its "Ski It If You Can" bumper sticker is known far beyond Vermont. At the top there's a small lot where the view opens west toward the Champlain Valley, a good first stop before the long drop to Bristol.

The second half crosses Middlebury Gap on VT-125. Before the climb you pass the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail near Ripton, where the poet spent more than twenty summers and taught at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf campus just up the road. Back on VT-100 the loop runs through Granville Gulf, where Moss Glen Falls drops right beside the road with a pull-off and a short path to a viewing platform. There's fuel and food in Waitsfield, Bristol and Warren.