The landscape around Lake Willoughby is stunning.

A few years ago, Rider published my article about riding Vermont Route 100 from south to north, ending at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the U.S./Canada border. Someone wrote a letter to the editor asking how I got back. U.S. Route 5 runs along the east side of Vermont, and it happens to be another one of my favorite rides. It has all the elements of a great motorcycle road: beautiful scenery, fine curves, light traffic, and nice places to stop along the way. For this ride, I am again starting at the Massachusetts border and heading north, but it can also be run in reverse.

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I cross from Massachusetts into Vermont just south of Guilford, and the road almost immediately plunges into the woods, curling back and forth around the trees, a preview of what?s to come. First, I pass through Brattleboro. With 12,000 residents, it?s the largest town I?ll encounter today. Downtown consists of about three blocks of century-old brick buildings. It?s a little congested, but as soon as I clear the roundabout at the junction with State Route 9, everything eases up and I?m into rural Vermont in search of coffee.
Just one of the many wonderful curves on U.S. Route 5.

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