In 1997, I had an assignment from Men’s Journal magazine to preview a network of mountain biking trails being created in the northeast corner of Vermont. Biking with one of the route’s designers, I quickly saw the potential for an off-road biking route through this rural part of the state. On a spongy mat of trails dusted with pine needles, we cruised past century-old barns and small, dilapidated sugar shacks lost in the countryside. Yet, even though the scenery was pure Currier and Ives, the trails felt very raw, as evidenced by the mud bog we ended up in, sludge up to our knees. Today, I’m happy to report that the Kingdom Trails is the preeminent mountain biking route in the northeast, a 150-mile circuit of former farming roads and slender singletracks that climb and dip with the green countryside. If you want a great fall ride, this is it! Take, for example, Coronary Bypass, a gem of a singletrack run, where you bank corners and bounce over roots as the path snakes back and forth through a pocket of colorful maple trees.

See the story I wrote about biking the Kingdom Trails with my son for the first time, recently published in The Boston Globe.