[excerpt]
Ultimate Sledding
The Lincoln Gap Road
Near Warren, Vermont
This ain't a polite golf-course run. If you're a serious sledder, then haul your rig to the top of Lincoln Gap Road where it bisects the crest of Vermont Green Mountains. Once there, you and your sled can make like a gravity bomb as the road drops 1,100 feet in 1.2 miles with no fewer than eight hairpin turns and a hair-parting straightaway near the bottom.
Hardcore sledders often skip the road-route altogether and slide down the backcountry trail; it's marked with slashes of orange tape. This near-free-fall route drops 700 wild feet in a scant .3 miles. "It's totally out of control," says Whitney Phillips, of Warren-based sledmaker Mad River Rocket. "There are 10- to 30-foot drops, and where it crosses the road, you literally fly over it."
You don't even need to look both ways before rocketing across this street. The road, which connects the towns of Lincoln and Warren, is closed to traffic all winter. Sledders should approach from the Warren side, and hike the mile-plus to the top. The ride is worth the trek, though Phillips strongly encourages first-timers to take on this monster run only with an experienced local.
"The best is nighttime sledding," he adds. "Oh, yeah: Headlamps."
