Dave Tobey thunders up Mount Anthony Road outside Bennington, Vermont.

Alpacacas check out Herb Terns bike at State Line Bunks.

Herb Terns' Hipcamp campsite near Cherry Plain, N.Y.

Campfire embers and the moon glow at State Line Bunks in Washington County, N.Y.

The bike path through the Vischer Ferry preserve offered a new way home on a bikepacking trip.

The goats were the first to welcome us.

I arrived at the campsite in the hills above Cherry Plain in eastern Rensselaer County with my two friends, Dave and Mike. We would share our campsite with goats and horses on this first night of a three-day bikepacking trip.

This was a trip of firsts. Dave and Mike had never been bikepacking before. Our campsites, one in Rensselaer County, and the second in Washington County, were reserved through Hipcamp, and it was my first time using the app.

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Hipcamp is an online marketplace with more than 500,000 campsites. Those sites, largely through landowners on private land, come in a variety of camping locations and amenities........

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