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Shamrock Tour®: Rutland, Vermont
No longer summer, not quite autumn – on impulse I stopped by Vermont's newest motorcycle dealership, Lucky's Motorsports. With the Beemer more than a little ragged-looking after my crash in the Berkshires, I was hoping to acquire a photogenic factory ride for Shamrock use. And as luck would have it, Ken Hall graciously offered me the use of not one, but three different Indian Motorcycle models. Good timing and fortune combined: the Indian Motorcycle factory closed its doors as I was finishing this tour and neither my doctor nor my girlfriend knew I was once again straddling two wheels.
Day 1: Riding the Gap Roads
Route 4W leads over Sherburne Pass (2,150 ft.), but the words Pico and Killington are more familiar because of the ski areas located on the slopes of Vermont's second-highest mountain. The rest of the east/west passages over the Green Mountains are known as "gaps" and they are the most popular motorcycle touring roads in Vermont.
Brandon Gap (2,170 ft.) is the next passage to the north and the Indian Chief Roadmaster quickly carries me over the mountain. Then I'm twisting through Satan's Kingdom and along the shore of Lake Dunmore en route to the next gap road: Route 125, also known as the Robert Frost Memorial Drive and the easiest of these east/west passages. After cresting the Middlebury Gap (2,149 ft.), I coast down to the Old Hancock Hotel. It's no longer a hotel but the excellent food served by the Vermont Home Bakery makes it an ideal place to stop and wait for your buddies to catch up.
Granville Gulf, the narrow channel squeezed between the Northfield and Green Mountain ranges, is in places barely wide enough to accommodate the highway. Moss Glen Falls, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the state, cascades from the heights to the edge of Route 100....
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