Brookline
9/14/2025
Note -we met a woman out walking and learned that it is pronounced “Brook-line.”
Brookline is literally a small slice of heaven in Vermont, tucked away in a notch between Putney and Newfane. It has mountains running along the town line on both the east and west. The northern half of the town is about 1.5 miles wide and the southern half of town widens out a bit, but not much.
We rode up the gravel road running north and south down the middle called Grassy Brook Road. We did a four mile out and back, totalling 8 plus miles, but you could bike a lot more miles by including Athens, if you wanted.
To get to Brookline, we drove down from Grafton, but a person could also go up and over the mountain road that connects to Putney to the east. We parked at the Windmill Hill trail head on the west side of Grassy Brook Road just south of Parker Road.
There is an effort to preserve 142 acres of land in this area, connecting the Putney Town Forest in the north to the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge in the south, to perserve more than 1000 acres of forest trails. Very cool.
This ride was very flat and has wetlands and a stream along the road. The road was not very heavily travelled on this Sunday morning.
Despite being rather remote, the homes in Brookline had a lot of personality.
There are several trails crossing in this town, and a person could hike both north and south on several intersecting systems.
We biked to the Lily Pond Highlands trailhead, which is located at the Brookline/Athens town line. Beautiful ride!