Burlington mountain biker Greg Durso says he never wanted anyone’s pity or to be their inspiration. And he definitely didn’t want to be a burden to his friends when he rode with them. All he ever wanted was to bike the same trails — without toppling over, getting wedged between trees or having to be carried over obstacles.
Now, the new documentary Best Day Ever tells the story of the world’s first adaptive bike network, inspired by Durso and built by a community of Vermont mountain bikers.
The 40-year-old Long Island native was paralyzed in a 2009 sledding crash and rides an adaptive mountain bike. Several years ago, he took a hand-pedaled three-wheeler on a trail ride with friends in the Hinesburg Town Forest. Along for the ride was Berne Broudy, cofounder and president of Richmond Mountain Trails, a local mountain biking nonprofit.
Going in, the group knew the experience would be miserable for everyone. The riders had to stop frequently to carry Durso’s bike over boulders and bridges that were too narrow to accommodate his bike’s wide wheelbase. But their goal wasn’t to have fun; it was to see how much of the trail was “Gregable” or “not Gregable” — that is, accessible to those who ride adaptive bikes. Much of it was not.
“I left that ride thinking, This is so dumb,” said Broudy, a veteran journalist, filmmaker and outdoor enthusiast. “There are so many problems in the world that are not solvable. We can solve this problem.”
So, in May 2022, she and a group of volunteers set out to create a network of adaptive mountain bike trails. At the time, Broudy knew nothing about constructing such trails. Nevertheless, over three years and 5,000 hours of work, she and more than 200 volunteers succeeded.
The result is the Driving Range in Bolton, which its builders claim is the world’s first adaptive mountain bike network. Completed in spring 2024, it winds through 256 acres of private land, all of it open free of charge to riders of all abilities.
The story behind the Driving Range is chronicled in Best Day Ever, a beautifully filmed and emotionally moving documentary that also features Richmond adaptive athlete Allie Bianchi. The special-education teacher, who broke her neck in a mountain bike accident in 2022, returned to the sport once the Driving Range opened.
The trail designers and builders put themselves on adaptive bikes to explore the terrain before starting work. Professional trail builder Tom Lepesqueur of L&D Trailworks in Rochester described the experience as “eye-opening” and key to the resulting design of the trail network.
Make no mistake: These are not flat or boring ADA-accessible paths but challenging, intermediate to expert-level routes, including the first-ever double black diamond adaptive single track. The Driving Range has since inspired similar installations, including more than 57 miles of adaptive trails in the Kingdom Trails network in East Burke.
Produced by Broudy, who codirected with award-winning filmmaker Ben Knight, Best Day Ever has been making waves at film festivals around the world. Last week, it won an audience choice award for best documentary at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis.
The 45-minute documentary will play in Stowe on Friday, November 7, and in Woodstock on Saturday, November 8. Both screenings are part of the Green Mountain Showdown, an annual film fest and variety show that celebrates Vermont’s bike culture.
“Our inclination as able-bodied people is to feel bad for somebody who’s had an injury,” Broudy says in the film. “But when somebody doesn’t feel bad for themselves, it changes your perspective.”
Best Day Ever will screen at the Green Mountain Showdown on Friday, November 7, 8 p.m., at Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe, and Saturday, November 8, 7 p.m., at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre. $20-31.75. bestdayever.mov
The original print version of this article was headlined “New Documentary Chronicles the Making of the World’s First Adaptive Mountain Bike Network”
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4 2025.
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