NEBDR Sections 3-4

After burning out the DRZ’s clutch earlier in the summer, I decided that I needed to redeem myself with at least a short off-road trip. I replaced the DRZ’s clutch pack with a heavy duty set from EBC, changed the oil, and repacked my bags. Since I had used a decent chunk of vacation time on the Mid-Atlantic trip I was limited to a long weekend, which let me pack a bit lighter and plan to tackle some some of the harder sections of the NEBDR in Vermont.

I was still using my Wolfman Enduro bags mounted to Kriega OS plates and tusk pannier racks, but with a large Rollie bag as a tail bag instead of a duffle. I was sticking with my hammock setup and went with my dirt-focused Klim Dakar riding gear to help with the temperatures and humidity.

The DRZ had basic protection, the large Acerbis gas tank, and the standard performance mods (3×3, JD Jetkick, and FMF exhaust). Other quality of life changes included a small cowl-mounted windscreen, ODI handlebars & grips, and a JNS engineering headlight.

Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos and I never got around to creating an edit of the helmet footage I captured. I also forgot to turn off Sena’s record, so sorry if you have to listen to my riding music.

The first day through Massachusetts was pretty much what I remembered from my run of Section 3 the previous fall. The day starts pretty simply with dirt roads and fast gravel through several state forests in Southern Mass. There are a few short woodsy sections to warm you up, but nothing crazy.

October Mountain State Forest has some of the first technical bits, starting with my favorite fast hill climb up to Farnham Reservoir. That climb is followed by even more climbing with a good mix of loose, rocky sections and mud. The route continues on through more unpaved and paved roads, but mostly calms down until you hit Savoy and Monroe State Forests where the route gets more technical and rocky again.

While I decided to stay at the same camp site in Mohawk Trail State Forest I’d used the previous year, this year I continued to the official end of the section just over the border in VT. This section includes the first Class IV road in Vermont, which was a hell of a wake up call. It’s a short stretch, but the deep ruts, mud, and tight track painted a good picture for what to expect the following day. I was definitely grateful to be on the DRZ instead of a large adventure bike, especially since the technical section was at the end of the day.

When I got into Bear Mountain at the beginning of the day I came across a pair of riding an F800GS and Tiger 800 taking a break on the side of the road. They were two guys about my age who had made the trip out from Colorado to ride the NEBDR. We caught up a bit on some of the prior sections and I wished them a good trip, but we’d continue leapfrogging each other for the next two days.

After a bit of pavement to make up for backtracking to my campsite, I picked up the BDR in Readsboro. Section 4 in Vermont starts off surprisingly slow, or well fast. You start the day on fast gravel through the Green Mountain National Forest and remain on graded unpaved roads or twisty pavement for hours. After the initial taste of Class IV roads at the end of Section 3, it’s a bit surprising to be keeping the speeds up so high for so long.

I hit the first Class IV road just after lunch time when I cam across Reilly Road. The hits start coming fast with steep, rocky climbs, deep ruts, washouts, and even a few step-ups. I dropped by bike for the first – and luckily only – time on a step up in this section. After my issues on County Rd 3 in NY two months prior, I was a bit wary of the clutch on these kinds of climbs, but everything seemed to be holding up well.

After a brief stretch of pavement, it’s right back onto the Class IV sections with Hartsboro Rd. The hard parts of Hartsboro were a bit less technical than the hard parts of Reilly Road, but it was enough to keep me on my pegs. I ran into a group of three ADV riders coming up the other way and wished them luck.

The next few sections of Class IV roads brought the level back down a little and the pace picked back up. There was a really cool stretch that went through a multi-use park, and it was awesome to ride on groomed mountain bike trails. There were a few difficult bits sprinkled in, like an ATV trail going through the mountains with huge boulders and washouts and some steep, loose climbs.

I was really pleased with the way the DRZ was able to make pretty short work of the hard sections as well as with how my own skills had progressed. I’m definitely not an off-road rockstar, but it felt great to be able to get through some of the hardest sections on the second hardest BDR without much drama.

I made “camp” at a small farm I found on AirBnB. The fire put was tiny, but they had great (and greatly appreciated) showers and it was nice to be able to sleep indoors (in a little shack) without having to worry about pitching camp.