Who we are…
Chris Leister
Chris grew up in rural Vermont -Rochester, where he worked on dairy farms, enjoyed fishing in the river, hiking in the mountains, and did a lot of biking around town, mainly for transportation, and occasionally just to roam the logging roads.
For Chris, biking has been a passion his whole life. He has been a road, mountain, and a gravel bike rider, logging tens of thousands of miles “in the saddle.” He has been part of the Green Mountain Bike Patrol since the year 2000, supporting up to seventeen running, endurance and biking events each year in Vermont and New Hampshire with FCC radio communications and medical support. Chris has also been a licenced EMT for twenty years.
Skiing has also been a passion all Chris’ life, with snowboarding for the past 25 years. He has worked in volunteer ski patrol for over 40 years (at Stowe, Sugarbush, Bolton, Pico, Saskadena 6, in VT, and Pats Peak and Tyrol in NH). In 2013, he lead the return of the Bolton Valley National Ski Patrol young adult program (aka YAP) which trained youth ski patrollers in northern VT.
Chris also hiked the Long Trail end to end, in sections with his daughter, Nicole, starting when she was 9 years old. It was an epic journey for both of them!
Chris holds 2 degrees in civil engineering, from Vermont Tech and UVM. He worked as a construction manager for 25 years before starting his own environmental design and permitting company in 2006. Hogg Hill Design LLC operates in VT and NH providing design and permitting of water supply and waste water disposal systems for residential and small commercial applications.
Chris says, “Living in Vermont has been, and continues to be my passion, for all the great activities and qualities of life available.”
Marcia Gauvin
Marcia Gauvin grew up in Caribou, Maine – with a free-range childhood spent wandering the surrounding Aroostook County potato fields and northern forests.
Marcia attended the University of Maine in Orono, where she earned a double bachelor’s in Chemistry and Biochemistry (1987) later returning to earn a MA in English (1999). She worked for a few years as a science research assistant/ lab tech at both Harvard and Villanova, took some time to raise her two sons, got her Waldorf teaching certification and taught a Waldorf class from first through 8th grades, before earning a middle school (MS) science teaching license in 2010. Between 2010-2015, she taught MS science in Hartford, Chittenden and St. Johnsbury, VT. In 2015, she was the founding director of the STEM Lab (STEM Blog) – a K-6 science, engineering and technology program at the Windsor Central Supervisory Union (now known as Mountain Views Supervisory Union).
She retired in 2025, and has been since pursuing other interests, not the least of which is this 251 Gravel Ride project.
Marcia says, “I never could have done such a super cool and challenging project without the intensive planning, preparation and support of the amazing Chris Leister! He is truly a tornado in a human form! I just had to make sure I grabbed my helmet!”
All writing and photo credits for this site is claimed jointly by the two of us. The writeups were a collaborative effort, written over a period of years, when we were both busy and working full time. Forgive any mistakes – we are sure there are 100’s of them! Feel free to email us at 251vtgravelrides@gmail.com to let us know if we have mislabeled a photo of a road or mountain, or if our directions are misleading and brought you to who knows where – like the williwacks of Stannard. We hope to make this site continually better and more functional. So thanks for the help!