Battenkill Valley Outdoors is both wide open spaces and an adventure destination with a specific location. It’s an outdoors store with great clothing and gear where you can rent or buy canoes and kayaks, rafts, tubes, bicycles and much more. And it’s the best place to start when planning your get-away to the Battenkill Valley. Just getting there is a bit of an adventure. Head east out of Cambridge on Rt. 313 , toward Arlington, VT, and turn right at the kayak sign. You head up a long pockmarked dirt road to an off-the-grid log cabin where a giant black bear with huge claws (carved) will greet you. Talk with owners Don and Lisa Otey and they’ll show you maps of the Battenkill and surrounding 900+-acre Battenkill State Forest and set you up with whatever you need for your day of adventure, from a 2-hour paddle to an arduous all-day hike. Get on their mailing list and learn about special programs, like their upcoming women’s yoga, paddle and lunch catered by local food guru Spoonful Catering. Might be just what the doctor ordered!
