Sunday afternoon ride

There was a beautiful warm glow outside the window around 3:30 that drew me out for a short ride.

Very funny spoof on rando ranting by Hitler, hope no one is offended...

I hope that people are not offended by this. I re-posted it from a google+ person on the rando group who found it on you tube. It is a Monty Pythonesque spoof on Randonneuring and Hitler.

New gear for Keenan...

Keenan got some new bike gear from his grandma in Seattle. She is a flight attendant who does the Japan route. This cool compass/bell and valve stem lights came from there!

Winter might come...

studly view

I did some work trade in exchange for this beauty. I have missed the black Trek 950 ever since I traded it  in on the Pacer. It came with all the nice period appropriate parts. I added the studded tires. It has a bull moose kind of quill stem. It is now the dedicated winter rig and perhaps will become a camping bike as well.

Children, Tractor, Cattle Crossing

Read the sign!

Clifton and I went for a chilly 42 miles this past Sunday. We met up around 10:30 at his house in Washington, VT. My son and his girls hung out with Clifton's wife while we headed out for a ride. We had a pre-ride cup of coffee from his new coffee maker. It supposedly always brews at exactly 207 degrees F for perfect coffee. It was really good.

We drove 2 miles to Washington as his road is treacherous and brutal, especially covered in wet leaves. When we got ready to leave he did a quick seat adjustment and broke his seat clamp bolt. Luckily it happened before we left. I broke one a few years back and had to ride miles with a very low seat that moved side to side as I pedaled.

Back at his house we had another coffee, some more BS and found a replacement bolt. Then back to town and we were off. It was a beautiful ride with some repaved sections. Lots of nice gradual climbs and rolling flats. The ride also fit nicely into my training plan for this year which is to ride through the afternoon since that is when I struggle on long rides.

Fall Classic

The start

end of a climb

end of same climb, ride organizer extraordinaire Mike

fuel stop

requisite bakery stop around the corner from the control

the only thing better than a covered bridge is a covered bridge with bikes

lovely river view

this is a great road at the end of a climb

top of the largest climb

Add caption

also top of the largest climb-nice folks from Boston, one of whom just got a new job at Seven Cycles

nice field

giant sap line held up by birch poles

Our Fall Classic ride started at 7am in Burlington and followed a beautiful climby route on back roads and a bit of pavement. The light was amazing. A soft, never quite sunny kind of diffused light. It was one of those rides that was so nice that it didn't matter that we were rained on for an hour or so. The pictures tell a lot of the story. There was much riding and snacking with many great folks.

I felt good and am starting to enjoy climbing again now that it is my 3rd year road riding after a decade or so of no road biking.

I rode with a central Vermont friend of mine. I told him it was 60 miles with 4 coffee shops, confusing this ride with the cafe cruise. As we sat at the Village Cup in Richmond he seemed genuinely, if slightly irritated by this situation. As Mike pointed out, I keep confusing the two rides. He struggled a bit but was glad he pulled through it. Plus, he generated one of the greatest brevet quotes I have heard yet. It goes something like this...(talking to his wife on my phone) "...I'm doing great. My left eyelid is not currently hurting. Everything else hurts. I am pretty sure when I start riding again something will happen and my left eyelid will start hurting too. But it is going great. I feel good." (he is very funny and self deprecating at times).

Anyway, another awesome VT brevet.

Texas Gap, Vermont S360

breakfast at the Red Hen

back trail through waterbury

back roads from moretown to waitsfield

Mike going up

neat old water works for moretown

old supports for viaduct for moretown

didn't see it

falls in granville gulf

at the bottom of the gulf

gratuitous bike shot #1

gratuitous bike shot #2

Mike on the road to dinner

we'll be in hancock soon for dinner

Texas Falls

gratuitous bike shot #3

my new hennessey hammock, it was great

Mike's tarptent contrail

breakfast

also breakfast

packing up

hey, this road stops here! guess we'll go back

let's walk a bit

this was interesting on the pacer with 28's

it was

no bridge

but we walked the excavator trail

Also, Mike took a million pictures (98) that you can check out here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31827372@N00/sets/72157631545445726/

On Friday I took care of a few last minute work details and then I left home around 9:30 am and rode from Plainfield to Montpelier on rt.2. and then along some gravel on the River Road to the Red Hen in Middlesex. It was sunny and cool with a fair amount of traffic since it was a Friday. I had a breakfast of ham and cheese croissant and oatmeal raisin cookie with coffee. My wife observed that it is really all about the food since every time I contacted her I told her where we were and what we were eating but nothing else. She might be a little bit correct on that one.

Then I rode on to Waterbury and met Mike at the green/park and we had a hot dog/chips snack and rode on. We took a nifty little back road/trail to some more gravel as we headed back to Middlesex. From there we took rt 100 to Moretown, opting to skip the hefty climb on the gravel with our camping gear. After a hydro stop in Moretown we jumped onto a nice gravel run down to Waitsfield on Pony Farm Road. From there we headed to Warren on rt. 100. It was getting hot and we both felt foggy so we stopped at the gas station near Warren for water etc. Then we rode straight on to Granville Gulf and up and over.

The ride through the Gulf is beautiful. It is a long gradual climb up and down. There are rocky, clear and cold little streams alongside with numerous pools and waterfalls. After that we rolled on to Hancock and the sun was getting lower. We stopped at the Hotel/Restaurant there (which has amazing brunch) and had a great dinner. We learned from the guy there that we lucked out in that we missed the Rainbow gathering by 1 week. They were up in the gap the week before. Nothing against peace and love and drumming and such but not exactly what we had in mind when we planned a quiet bike camping trip into the National Forest.

Leaving Hancock we rolled west on rt. 125 for a bit and then turned north onto Texas Falls road. Along the way we collected trash for kindling to make a fire. We got a 6 pack holder, some Halloween Peeps cardboard and about 100' of toilet paper. We got to camp and set up our gear. I had a quick second time setup of my new Hennessey hammock. What they say is true. They are comfy, dry and easy. We made a fire and hung out until around 10 and then went to bed. It was a windy night with rain. The hammock barely swayed and was completely dry.

In the morning we ate, drank VIA and then headed out. My Jetboil had a few starting issues which I am attributing to the wind and the free can of demo fuel I got when I bought it which was probably 5 years old. It certainly boiled quickly though. We headed back through the forest on some roads, snowmobile trails and single track. The federal forest land are great. Tons of gravel and nice camping spots. Moose. Pheasant. It was quite an adventure on the Pacer. I couldn't climb the single track but descending was no problem.

I felt great. Mike was riding strong, pushing fat mini knobbies and about 20 lbs more than me and hammering along at 13-14 MPH on the hilly tough roads. Definitely more bike camping in my future.