Posted by:
Matt Horlor
on
10 Oct 2013.
Date of Visit:
2 Sep 2013
Autumn blast in the Kingdom
Checking out the kingdom of trails in Burke, VT
After a night bundled up against a late September starry sky under one of the leanto's of Burke Mountain Campground, picked up a $15 day pass to Kingdom Trails, over 150km of prepared and maintained XC trails. The ticket lets you ride everything in, near or around Burke except the chair lifts. Open from 8-5 the KT office is just behind the The Pub Outback bar opposite the petrol/gas station in the middle of town. It's well signposted and very quiet during the week. The campground was booked up for every weekend until end of October but had only two other groups on a Monday night so a weekday suits if you prefer quieter trails. There are three kind-of-official parking spots around to access the various trails including parking at Burke Mountain to access the XC trails around the DH there. In the valley all the trails link up, in two to three (maybe 4 depends on how you look at it) main areas. Plenty to go at for at least a day and probably two, though at least in the valley around Darling Hill on greens, blues and a few blacks I didn't see huge variety in riding terrain - maybe my riding limits and choice of trails! It was interesting enough with varied scenery, and very pretty but very little 'tricked up' trail work, and only a few banked corners to speak of. Certainly no north shore style that I found, unless ignoring the 2ft wide planking over boggy areas. I get a strong feeling there is more to explore - i didnt ride a single trail twice the whole morning. There were a few puddles but on the whole the areas even down by the river were dry and grippy. There are plenty of roots on a few of the trails in the valley so don't have any major dental surgery before hand. I will be leaving the pump track plus the XC and DH up at Burke Mountain itself for another day. After 4 hours blasting around the lower valleys on a frigid autumn morning I was done.
Will definitely be heading back soon for another day, which is probably a fair summary of the place: good fun, big and definitely worth going back to. And $15 is great value if you have the stamina to ride all day and get up to Burke Mountain XC trails (drive up unless you are a masochist!)
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