Vermont
Vermont Bikepackers hostsBeginners’ Community Campout – Mountain Times
Friday, June 14 at 8 a.m.to Sunday, June 16 at 8 a.m.—GOSHEN—A free, fun, off-road ride and campout in the Green Mountain National Forest in Goshen. The event will be based at the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center, 1288 Goshen-Ripton Rd, Goshen, which has been reserved for the weekend to offer this event free of charge for participants. The Outdoor Center provides access to the Blueberry Hill network of trails, the Vermont Long Trail, The Catamount Trail, and the Moosalamoo National Forest Trails. There is ample camping space and the convenience of campground amenities.
The goal of this event is to combine off-road biking and camping to serve as a comfortable introduction to bikepacking. Blueberry Hill will serve as a basecamp where day rides will leave from, and camping will be available on both Friday and Saturday night.
Saturday morning will start at 8 a.m. with an introductory workshop to answer questions about bike setup, how to pack bags, etc. Participants will be encouraged to load up their bikes to try out different setups – and volunteers will be on hand to help with DIY set-ups.
Then riders will set off mid-morning. The route will be a loop that consists of gravel roads, forest roads, and some double/single track. There may be sections on pavement that connect to other trails, and other sections may require hike-a-bike. There are several options for resting mid ride. The main ride is 30 miles with ~3,200 ft of elevation gain, and an option to cut it short about halfway through. There will also be an option to extend for those looking for more miles.
Riders will return to Blueberry Hill to reconvene and share stories over dinner and campfires. Another optional ride is planned for Sunday morning.
This event is for those new to bikepacking and/or looking to expand their skills and competencies in this activity. The atmosphere will be supportive and non-competitive, with the goal of sharing bikepacking and creating a safe and inclusive opportunity to engage in off-road riding on a loaded bike. You bring your bike, gear, food and self-supported riding skills and we’ll bring the community and camaraderie.
Q&A:
Should we plan to be fully self-supported?
Yes, we might have some snacks on hand but plan to be fully self-supported. Blueberry Hill Inn across the road will be serving pizza for a fee the night of 6/14. Nearby towns such as Brandon, Ripton, and Forestdale have stores if backup supplies are needed (though the hours may be restricted for stores in Ripton and Forestdale).
Are we biking with our sleeping gear or leaving it at Blueberry Hill?
No, feel free to leave supplies and food at the BHOC. There is space inside the outdoor center for gear to stay dry. Additionally there is a drinking water tap available.
What’s the parking situation?
Parking is available on site, but we encourage folks to carpool, or even bike to the event!
What level of amenities should we expect?
There are bathrooms and water on site, parking is on site at the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center, there is a drinking water tap available and there is space inside the outdoor center for storage.
What should I bring? How should I pack?
If you don’t have items in this list that is OK! The goal of this campout is to learn about bikepacking. Bring what you have and learn from your peers on what setup works for them.
A bike suitable for the route. The routes use significant sections of forest trail, and gravel bikes may face intermittent sections of hike-a-bike. This route is best for larger gravel or mountain bikes with tires at least 1.75”/45mm wide. We don’t recommend road bikes with slick tires. If you’re deciding between tires that might be too small vs. too big, we’d encourage you to err on the side of too big. You’ll be more comfortable, and this is definitely not a race!
A helmet. All riders are required to wear a helmet at all times when riding their bikes during this event.
Clothing, repair tools, equipment, food and water to ride self-sufficiently along the route.
Overnight gear and food for up to 2 nights of camping. This can be packed on your bike or stored at the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center.
What if there is inclement weather?
Be prepared for all kinds of weather, including temperatures ranging from 40 to 80 degrees fahrenheit, potential precipitation, and possibly some wind.
Insect repellant is encouraged.
Are there re-supply locations? How much water should I bring?
Please arrive prepared with the food you need for the event, including meals to prepare at camp. You’re welcome to team up with others to cook in small groups.
You’ll need 2 days worth of ride food, 2 lunch(es), 1 dinner (2 if camping on 6/14), and 2 breakfasts.
We recommend you carry 1-2 liters of water capacity during the ride. Blueberry Hill has a tap available for riders to use to top off their bottles. There will be water sources such as streams and lakes throughout the ride if you have means of purifying your water!
Resupply: The outdoor center will have water available to top off. There are some stores in bordering towns but would be a little bit of a trek to get to. The Blueberry Hill inn is across the road and does offer meals.
What is the service like in that area?
Cell phone service can be spotty and is not guaranteed.
A satellite tracker (such as a SPOT or InReach) is not mandatory but is nice to have if available to you.
Download the ride files ahead of time and ensure you can use them without cell phone service, or on your GPS device (Garmin, Wahoo, etc.).
Arnaldo Gregorio Alay Aguilar was following his navigation system while delivering a truckload of logs to New York and ended up at Vermont’s Highgate Springs border crossing into Canada.
Canadian officers would not let him back up the truck for safety reasons, his lawyers say. So he was forced to cross through, make a U-turn and report to a border official on the U.S. side.
That detour led to the 40-year-old trucker being held in federal custody for three weeks. But the government did not make a case for why, according to court documents.
The situation has similarities to a pattern that emerged in recent immigration operations in Burlington and South Burlington, where government lawyers failed to provide evidence when seeking to hold people picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford ordered Alay Aguilar’s immediate release last week “given the nature of the constitutional violations in this case,” according to the court order.
Federal officials “failed to provide Petitioner with a charging document or to articulate a clear or legally sufficient basis for his detention,” his lawyers stated in court filings.
In his order, Crawford noted that the government had offered no justification except a reinterpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act as it applies to people who originally entered the U.S. without authorization and have been living in the country. Alay Aguilar has a pending asylum application from October 2025.
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Federal lawyers argued that a person in his situation is subject to mandatory detention and not entitled to a bond hearing, at which an immigration judge would consider whether the person is a flight risk or a danger to the community.
That reinterpretation, Crawford determined, was wrong.
Amid the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on immigration, federal judges in Vermont this year have issued a string of rebukes to ICE for violating people’s constitutional rights while detaining them.
Nathan Virag, one of the lawyers who represented Alay Aguilar in federal court in Burlington, said the government had no grounds for holding his client.
“This is a person who did not try to leave the United States. It was an inadvertent reroute that should not count as a departure from the United States,” Virag told VTDigger. Virag is a lawyer with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont.
Co-counsel Erin Jacobsen, a lawyer with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, said the hearing March 25 was brief and featured “very little argument by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
Spokespeople for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions via email about the case.
Alay Aguilar’s description of what happened when he reached the Canadian border March 5 is contained in the habeas corpus petition filed in U.S. District Court on March 23, the federal response filed March 24 and the judge’s order filed March 25.
A citizen of Ecuador, Alay Aguilar lives in North Carolina and had applied for asylum in October 2025, according to court filings. That case is pending.
A long-haul truck driver with a valid commercial driver’s license, he recently took up an extra gig — to haul timber from Vermont to New York — to pay for an immigration lawyer for an upcoming asylum-related hearing, according to his lawyers’ petition.
Alay Aguilar inadvertently crossed into Canada at Highgate Springs, one of the busiest border crossings in New England, while following directions on the truck’s navigation system, the petition said.
Canadian border personnel, who communicated with Alay Aguilar in Spanish, would not let him reverse the truck for safety reasons.
When Alay Aguilar tried to reenter the U.S., a Customs and Border Protection official gestured for him to exit the truck and walk into a building, which he did.
In the building, Alay Aguilar was allowed to communicate using Google translator on his phone. Officials said there was a problem with the truck’s manifest and ordered him to call the owner, which he did. CBP officials then spoke with the owner in English and did not translate the conversation, court documents state.
Officials then confiscated his phone and handed it to an ICE official. ICE personnel then handcuffed Alay Aguilar and drove him to an office about 15 minutes away where he was detained for about three hours, according to court documents, before being moved to Northwest State Correctional Facility and held there.
Court filings indicate Alay Aguilar fled Ecuador and entered the United States around November 2023. He was detained by the Department of Homeland Security near the Mexican border and held for a few weeks, after which he accepted the government’s offer to fly him to New York so he could pursue asylum outside of detention, his lawyers said in their petition.
He relocated to Charlotte, N.C., and applied for asylum. He received work authorization and is currently employed by a local company in North Carolina. He has lived and worked in North Carolina for two years, where he has friends and a serious girlfriend, his lawyers said in court documents.
“There were no changed circumstances after his release on his own recognizance in 2023, no criminal history, so it really was an unconstitutional detention,” Virag said in an interview.
Cases arising out of accidental border crossings are based on Homeland Security officials “misinterpreting” decades-old rules meant to punish people making an initial entry into the United States or those who are a danger to the community and pose a flight risk, Virag said. Judge Crawford noted in his order that Alay Aguilar had not been found to present a danger or a flight risk.
“These detentions serve no legitimate government purpose or interest,” Virag said.
Similar border crossing detentions last year — involving Alexi and his family and Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz and his stepdaughter, for instance — illustrate some of the tactics CBP have used on noncitizens amid detention quotas mandated by the Trump administration.
As for Alay Aguilar, his detention was one of “fear, confusion, isolation, and hopelessness,” his lawyers said in court filings.
“This case had a good outcome, but Mr. Alay Aguilar was subjected to 20 days of detention with absolutely no due process whatsoever — a completely unjustified, inexcusable, traumatizing abuse of power,” Jacobsen said.
“In many ways, Arnaldo’s case was like the other unconstitutional detentions we’ve seen, with our government arresting and detaining people outside of regular and constitutionally required procedures,” she added.
And his lawyers would not have known about his case were it not for the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project’s detention check program, she said. Under that program, lawyers and interpreters proactively visit the detention centers in Vermont. Alay Aguilar was found at the St. Albans prison during one such visit on March 18, she said.
Now that Alay Aguilar has been freed, he is back in North Carolina.
“He will be able to resume what he was doing before his apprehension — working, taking care of his family and continuing to pursue his asylum case,” Jacobsen said.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The open house for a new medical office in Williston looked ordinary enough.
On a recent Friday evening, a smattering of prospective patients grazed on fruit and healthy snacks, peeked at the exam room, and chatted with the owner and staff members of Blue Spruce Health.
But the flyer announcing the event contained clues that this wasn’t your typical doctor’s office. It’s one of a growing number of practices in Vermont that deliver medical care through a relatively new model known as direct primary care.
Though similar in concept to a more commonly known version called “concierge medicine,” direct primary care touts cheaper care — fees typically top out at $200 a month — allowing doctors to see patients who are from a range of income levels rather than just high earners. It’s sometimes referred to as “blue-collar concierge.”
Darren Perron spoke with Seven Days’ Alison Novak, who reported on the new health care model in this week’s edition.
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.
Vermont’s barn preservation effort is getting a fresh coat of energy as the state opens applications for the 2026 Vermont Barn Painting Project.
The initiative offers reimbursement to farm families for painting and minor repairs that help maintain historic barns, according to a community announcement. Funding comes from the A. Pizzagalli Family Farm Fund, and ten barns will be selected for support this year.
The announcement notes that the program continues a long-running effort supported by Angelo Pizzagalli and the family fund. The fund has been involved in barn restoration work for years, evolving into the microgrant format now being used to help farm families manage the upkeep of large, aging structures.
Applications are open through April 30 and will be reviewed as they arrive, according to the announcement. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.
Interested barn owners may apply online or email Scott Waterman at Scott.Waterman@vermont.gov for more information.
This story was created by Dave DeMille, ddemille@gannett.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
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