We discovered this new bike trail in Newport today, The Beebe Spur’n Spin. We happened to have this map, Biking in Kingdom, Routes for Road Biking in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. We followed the directions but ended up parking at the hospital because there was a sign at the IRS parking lot saying not to park there. Guess too many people parked there during business hours.
The trail was easy to find, turn left from the Hospital and head past the Internal Revenue Service huge empty parking lot and the trail is easy to see on your left.
It was a nice flat well kept trail…just like we like!
It is a 11.2 miles round trip departing from downtown Newport and 7.6 miles round trip departing from IRS parking lot on Prouty Drive. It is a flat ride recommended for energetic beginners to advanced. Mountain bikes are best. Hybrids may work depending on trail surface conditions.
I like these trails because there are no roller bladers and none of those 10-speed racers who zip around the L’esplanada Bike Trail as if they are training for the tour de France!
It is a very beautiful trail along the Memphre Magog Lake with a marsh and cute houses. There were nice flowers and berries (DD resisted the temptation and thought it best to leave the berries to the animals…and locals). People we passed by were polite and so friendly and a couple even waved at us from their porch.
We were very impressed by the people’s attitudes and it makes us sad to hear so many judgemental comments about Americans. At home, people don’t want to be looked at or smiled at or talked to. It must be a big city mentality. We must also admit that driving through downtown Newport we did see some tough streets. But the people living along the trail are living the Dolce Vita!
How can they not be happy? I’d be so happy to live there!
We were surprised to find a hidden mountain bike trail entrance along the way which is actually used for country ski in the winter. We decided to go ahead and give it a try on our way back: now that’s where all the SPIN was!
And that’s also where DD left her gloves along with her Ryder’s glasses during a pee break…and got muddy! We almost got lost and DD thought this must be a tourist trap! It was like riding through a maze and she kind of got afraid we could get lost. We decided to always keep left and that was a smart decision, we got back to where we had started!
DD was so tired she didn’t even have the energy to cheer. Back at the hospital parking we both thought that if ever we would have been injured we were at the right place. We will sleep very well tonight!
Oh! We were almost forgetting to mention that we saved a turtle before turning on Prouty Drive towards downtown. We got out of the car and put it back in the grass where it went across the high grass tossing the leaves left and right, it was too sweet. Our spirits lifted up immediately, we love animals and today we have had once chance to show it and make a change in a small turtle’s life!