Vermonster 2017 - Day 4

The final day was the downhill day. Look at the route profile at the bottom of the page and you'll see what I mean. Sadly after surviving all the climbing on day 3, Kait's stomach rebelled overnight and she felt too sick to ride and called for rescue.

So we were down to four.

Unusual for us, we did have a brief climb at the start, but this helped warm us up as it had gone quite chilly overnight.

But then we got to coast along for hours... Well not really, the guys hammered downhill!

Vermonster 2017 - Day 3

Day 3 started with a chilly descent, because we always end the day with a big climb.  And what goes up must come down.  No fear though, we warmed up quickly on a long steep climb, because what goes down...

And this pattern would repeat over and over throughout the day.

When SadiB, my alter-ego on ridewithgps mapped out the day, it was clear that it would be a tough one. I had wanted to take a more westerly route than last year, but the trick was to find a place to stay within a reasonable distance from Woodstock. A friend has a place near Prospect Mountain, but every route I came up with to go there was too long and also involved more main roads than I'd like. At some point, while scanning the map, I realized Mount Snow was a reasonable distance. As a ski resort, we might have some hope of finding reasonably priced accommodations in October. Sure enough I found a B&B that had a large room that could take 5 people for not a lot of money. John and I had ridden all around the area before and had a few must-do roads both north and south of Mt. Snow, so I mapped out the final two days as one route, taking in roads we knew with just a few new-to-us sections. The climbing ratio was the typical 100 feet per mile. So it seemed a 75 mile day would be long, but doable.

However when Kait broke it up into the individual days, she pointed out that 75 mile day had well over 9000 feet of climbing.  It should have been obvious to me since ski resorts are on top of mountains.  At least the next day would have a lot of downhill! Since Kait expressed so much concern about this day, I jokingly subtitled the route - Kill Kait.

Vermonster 2017 - Day 2

Vermonster continues, now with 8 riders. Dave and Nancy planned to join us for one day. They had just returned from a tour in Japan, and had literally reassembled their bikes the night before. Injury had prevented Nancy from riding last year, but this year she planned to take advantage of her fitness from the recent tour.

Daniel joined Kait and Caleb on the train up Friday night. They had a mild evening to enjoy a short but hilly ride from Montpelier up to Waitsfield.

The route profile for the roads John, Jamie and I took from Burlington looked pretty benign, meaning we all had relatively fresh legs.

But now we would face some proper (SadiB) Vermonster terrain, rolling up and down along a ridge, before a climb to the highest elevation for the weekend, then a long fast descent followed by some choppy climbs to finish the day. Now I am allowed to say this, today, a month and a half after the trip. At least we had better weather than last year! So  folks could enjoy the magnificent views along the ridge, and have fun playing with cute farm animals.

This section of the route was suggested by Dave. It was a bit rougher than the pristine dirt roads SadiB had picked, but it served to properly break in Daniel's brand new bike. When you have a new bike, you need a good story for the first scratch.

Vermonster 2017 - Day 1

The memories of 2016 Vermonster remain seared in Kait's memory - in a PTSD sort of way. I'm sure she still wakes in a cold sweat reliving nightmares from that weekend.

Last year, we crested Rochester Gap in pouring rain with temperatures hovering around freezing. At the top we found 2 feet of snow lining the roadside.  We then had about 10 miles of descending in these conditions. When we arrived in Bethel, we were wet and 80% frozen and in serious need of some hot food and a chance to dry out. Luckily we stumbled into a café where we ordered anything and everything that was hot and attempted to dry our soaked gloves with a full  roll of paper towels. After an hour, we had filled the void in our bellies and thawed just enough to head back out to ride another 30 miles. This day will stay with all of us for a long, long time. It will be the standard by which we judge misery. It is also our badge of honor. After surviving that, we know we we can get through anything.

Despite that still-raw-memory, we were all quite eager to do Vermonster again this year, including PTSD sufferer, Kait. We had new folks who even after seeing the photos and hearing our horror stories, still wanted to join us.  We had hoped to pick a date earlier in October, but due to various scheduling issues, we selected the 3rd weekend of October.

It is amazing what a difference one week makes.

Where last year's photos showed us all wearing winter cycling boots with overshoes and woolies and rain gear and heavy gloves; this year's photos featured smiling cyclists in shorts and short sleeves. Last year's snow photos have been replaced by pictures of amazing foliage. Last year's memories of stalling inside heated cafés as long as possible were replaced outdoor coffee stops. We even got to experience peak autumn color!

The basic idea of Vermonster was the same as the first year. We'd take the Amtrak Vermonter train to the northern reaches of civilization, and then ride home, sticking to as many dirt roads as possible. Just like last year, we faced a limit of three bikes per train, so our group had to travel up on two separate days. Hopefully Vermont tourism can work with Amtrak to make bike travel a bit less hassle in the future.

It seems to vary according to the humor of the conductors whether bikes can be rolled on and parked as pictured above. The official policy is that one has to use a special bike compartment with just one of these per car. IMNSHO, these compartments are poorly designed, requiring the removal of the front wheel, potentially damaging a front fender, requiring one to lift the bike and taking much more time loading and unloading. It would be much better use of the space as pictured above, where 3 or 4 bikes take barely more space than one bike in the compartment. Since the wheels remain on, the bikes are quickly rolled on and then off, and gear can stay on the bike.  And with 4 bikes per car, we could have 12 cyclists travel on the same train, rather than 3 one day and 3 another. This is twice as many folks staying in local hotels or B&Bs, twice as many cyclists eating at cafés in small towns along the route and twice as many cyclists buying Vermont souvenirs. So, ahem, Vermont tourism and Amtrak, if you are reading this... please let's make this process better.

But enough complaining about Amtrak. On to our trip.

Vermonster - Day 4 - what is that bright thing in the sky?

The final day of our four day tour left us wanting for more. More of this blue sky and sunshine, for sure. This was the weather we had hoped to have for the whole trip. But then the story wouldn't have been as interesting and the trip wouldn't have been as memorable!

We packed up and rolled out of our Airbnb and headed into Putney. Our first stop of the day was at the Co-op to get some (excellent) breakfast. Despite the second "B" in the name Airbnb, breakfast isn't part of the deal, due to regulations!

So it was into town for breakfast sandwiches and coffee. While waiting for our sandwiches, I took the time to do what I should have done the day before. I pulled out my iPad, remapped a section of route and reloaded it onto my GPS. One of the cool things about the Wahoo Elemnt GPS is you can wirelessly load routes from online tools like RideWithGPS. So while the Wahoo is missing the critical panning feature that makes changing your route on the fly easier, I have used the ability to alter a route online (mid-ride) using my tiny iPad and then re-upload to the Wahoo on more than one occasion, most notably when the original route proved too busy, or after taking a detour to somewhere interesting and then not wanting to backtrack. In this case, it was to avoid backtracking after breakfast.

Vermont is known for its covered bridges and we had several on each day. I'd like to say I planned to hit the ones we did, but it's actually hard not to see lots of them in Vermont.

Vermonster - Day 3 - I'm not certain the road I mapped out is really a road

We woke to the sound of silence. This was a good thing. There was no noise from rain or icy sleet on the roof. After checking the morning forecast, it seemed that we might actually get lucky. A milder day was predicted. Of course at this stage, I didn't have a whole lot of faith in weather forecasts, so don't ask me why I trusted this one!

And while we might have a hope of milder weather, it would definitely not be an easier day. Our route planner, SadiB, had plenty of great dirt climbs mapped out for us, with one very special climb, planned for right after lunch, just in case we needed extra help warming up again!

Vermonster - Day 2 - A Day for Badasses

Remember the soundtrack that plays when you are watching a scary film and you find yourself screaming out loud to the foolish person who is about to open the door, "Turn around!  Get back into the house!  Don't you know what's waiting outside?  Do NOT open that door!"

So, now that we've established the mood, let me tell you about Day 2 of our Vermonster ride.

When we left off, our six protagonists had turned in for the night, dreaming of good fortune, believing the worst of the weather was behind them.

Yes, there was snow on the ground, but Day 2 was to be an improvement on Day 1 and Day 1 really hadn't turned out that badly.

(Music from Law and Order - dun, dah, dun)

DROVES 2015 - Day 3

DROVES - Day 3 - 1 Trapped Cat, 1 Vertical Mile and Lots of Tulips

First let me say that if you want an awesome campfire, invite Ted to your event. Ted builds the best fires. He's a pro, coming prepared with his own special fire starting kit, which he conveniently keeps in the trunk of his car at all times for the spontaneous campfire. 

Sadly for the curious cat, Megatron, open trunks must be explored, and while we were enjoying tall tells, strange music and great beer, Megatron was getting cozy inside Ted's car.

But then, without realizing he had a visitor, Ted closed up the car, and once the beer was gone and fire died down, we all headed off to bed.

DROVES 2015 - Day 2

DROVES - Day 2 arrived with bright sunshine and much warmer temperatures. However, most folks seemed cautious and arm warmers and vests were still prominent as we gathered around the picnic table, getting ready for our attempt on Radar Road. It seemed that fresh memories from a very chilly descent to Lake Willoughby just couldn't be shaken. Nevertheless, as we mingled about pumping up tires and checking brakes, there was no denying that it was indeed significantly warmer. Some people even threw caution to the wind and stripped down to just shorts and short sleeve jersey. Still, being sensitive to cold, I traded leg warmers for knee warmers and kept my arm warmers on. I also carried my wind vest, just in case sanity left me and I climbed up to Radar and needed it for the descent.

As a special treat, Dave and Nancy came down from Waitsfield to join us for the day. We'd met them serendipitously at a Luka Bloom concert last year. While awaiting the start of the show, we discovered that we had more than musical taste in common, as Dave runs many of the Vermont brevets, and his sister and brother-in-law run Red Hen Baking Company, a bakery/cafe in Waitsfield that we love. We've kept in touch and when I sent out FB invites to come join us for rides and dinner, they decided to do just that.

DROVES 2015 - Day 1

For many years now, we have spent Memorial Day weekend ascending and descending the many exquisite dirt roads of Vermont. This year would be no exception.

Megatron, The Barn cat, has to inspect everything.

We've been staying at the Burke Bike Barn since it opened in 2011. The first time we stayed, we fell in love with the place. So much so, that I booked it for Memorial Day and Labor Day for life. I'm not sure that Doug, the owner, thought I was serious at first, but we've been going up for these dirty climb-fest weekends at the beginning and end of summer ever since, and we aren't about to give up our reservation for the future.

The Bike Barn is exactly what it says it is. It's a big old barn that's been converted to comfortable accommodation for cyclists in the center of one of the best biking locations on the planet. We usually have a dozen folks staying at the barn, with frequent drop-ins for rides by folks who live or are staying nearby. At this stage, it all works like clockwork. We have a few routes, covering a variety of distances. Depending on weather, mood and other arbitrary factors, we will decide which route to do. The one thing all the routes have in common is lots of smooth-packed, quiet dirt roads and maximal climbing per mile. These are quality miles, such that even a 30 mile ride will not leave any sane person wanting more.

F2G2 - Fall Foliage Gravel Grinder

I have a whole slew of posts to put together from our September trip in Oregon, but Fear Rothar still has to whittle down the massive number of photos he took on that trip, so in the meantime I'm skipping ahead to a ride we did last weekend. While the Fall Foliage Gravel Grinder also involved numerous photo stops per mile, being just a one day event, the sheer number of photos was smaller, making his task of going through them much less daunting. As such, it allows me to have an almost timely post, for once. But fear not, Oregon posts are forthcoming! After all, we've got to get them out before we go to Ireland and create an even worse backlog! [It would help if I wasn't working 16-hour days - FR] [Whatever - FP]

Not a Recovery Ride! Hair of the Dog

Fear Rothar teases me about my choice of routes for the day after various Big Event™ rides. He likes to call them Recovery Rides - with a big dose of sarcasm. I prefer to think of them more as Hair of the Dog that Bit Ya. In reality, I am just taking advantage of the great terrain in whatever place we happen to be. Since most of our Big Event™ rides take in lots of climbing and dirt roads, most of our day-after-the-day-before rides tend to do the same. Recovery rides do not happen on weekends!

When Roxbury Gap Is the Bailout...

This is what every week has been like for me this summer...
Monday - unpack, do laundry, recover from weekend. Figure out what Big Event is next.
Tuesday - 100ish km social ride from Ride Studio Cafe
Wednesday and Thursday - Various appointments with doctors and physical therapist
Friday - Pack and load up for weekend. Drive to Big Event
Saturday - Big Event
Sunday - so-called recovery ride, then drive home
Wash, Rinse, Repeat...

I'm not looking for sympathy. Really. It's a pretty sweet life. It's just my excuse for why I am months behind on any ride reports! We are so busy creating content that we just have no time to post it. I'm hoping to open the floodgates with a few posts soon, but will not make any more promises.

One ride report at a time.

We'd heard about the Irreverent Road Ride last year, and it made it's way onto our short list for this year. The words irreverent and road were combined to convey the fact that the word road might be a generous description for some of the route. A large part of the route was on lovely scenic quiet dirt roads, quite rideable on a road bike with reasonable tires. But there were some sections connecting these roads that would be a proper challenge, both physically and technically difficult. This sounded very appealing to us.

Green Mountain Double Metric

The alarm goes off at 3 AM. John silences it. The room is quiet. We drag ourselves out of bed and begin the pre-ride rituals. I do love to ride my bike. I do love the long rides. But I do hate getting up at this hour.

I brush out and re-braid my hair. Then I apply sunscreen to my face and arms and slather on plenty of chamois cream. This is going to be a long day, better add some more. I check the outside temperature. It's 59F. Heavy rain fell all day yesterday and continued overnight. The dirt roads we'll be riding on today will be soft and full of mud puddles. Looking out the window, I see light drizzle under the street light. I put on my shorts, arm warmers and leg warmers.

I take a few bites of bagel and some sips of cold coffee drink.

My RoadID hangs from a chain that I wear like a necklace. My primary contact is John, but it also says, "If on tandem, call Susan". The ritual of putting on this necklace is new for me since last September, when I discovered that not all EMTs know about back pockets on cycling jerseys. I was rather lucky that my phone wasn't broken when I was thrown from the bike, since I couldn't come up with phone numbers or addresses without it! Once I explained that I was actually lying on my phone (and wallet and ID), the EMTs, who already had me strapped to the backboard, were able to retrieve the device and possibly ease some of my discomfort from lying on all that stuff. The deputies were then able to use my phone to contact my cousin. I think someone eventually would have found the card in my wallet with all John's info on it, but it likely would have taken a while longer to contact my local hosts. 

So before I got back on a bike again, I ordered a RoadID. The first few times I went through the process of hanging this thing around my neck, I thought back to that fateful day and paused... Each time I returned from a ride safely and took the necklace off to hang on hook on the bathroom door, I felt a sense of relief.  Now it has become just another part of the pre-ride ritual, after applying sunscreen and chamois cream.

DROVES 2014 - Day 3

Dirt Roads of Vermont Early Summer 2014

Photos from other DROVERS

from Steve and Carolyn
Day 1 and 2
Day 3

from Henry

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Constantin arrived late Sunday night bringing yet another new set of fresh legs. But before he could climb away from all our tired legs that morning, Chef Henry cooked up some fabulous Dutch pancakes. 

The forecast for the day was classically Irish, and this one proved to be classically accurate. It was cloudy and showery and sunny and showery and sunny and cloudy and showery. Every time it started to rain, a few folks would stop and put on jackets. As it continued more people would stop and don jackets. Once everyone had stopped to put their jackets on, the rain would stop and the sun would come out. Then various folks would stop at different times to remove jackets. Once the last jacket was removed, it would start to rain again, on cue. Repeat this pattern for 6 hours and you have our day. This is classic Irish weather !

A bit grey at the barn this morning

DROVES 2014 - Day 2

Dirt Roads of Vermont with Exquisite Scenery - Day 2

We woke to brilliant sunshine, making it much easier to hop out of bed after a hard ride the day before, finished off with good food and drink and late night shuffleboard. We got the day started right with Neil's delicious Steel Cut Oats and some pancakes with real Vermont maple syrup.

Next up, Neil definitively showed off that he brought some fresh legs as he powered up the first climb and then every one after that. Fortunately for him, the exquisite scenery distracted us from knocking him down and beating those fresh legs with our pumps. 

Burke Mountain, rising above the clouds

DROVES 2014 - Day 0 and 1

Dirt Roads Of Vermont with Exquisite Scenery - DROVES-eve and Day 1

When we first started doing DROVES a few years ago, we did a point to point ride starting and ending near Ludlow, VT, with two overnights at the same inn in the Waitsfield/Warren area to allow for a middle day of unencumbered riding or even a rest day. Our initial route was inspired by the many dirt road deviations we had taken over the years on another mid-summer weekend ride in Vermont known as TOSRV-East (standing for Tour of Scenic Rural Vermont, or seemingly more often than not, Soggy Rainy Vermont and on at least one occasion Scorching Roasting Vermont). And for those for whom this acronym is familiar, yes, TOSRV-East ride was inspired by the more widely known AYH TOSRV - Tour of the Scioto River Valley. Anyway, some 30 or more years ago, the Boston chapter of AYH starting running TOSRV-East run along the 100 miles on Route 100 between Rawsonville and Waterbury, with hostels at each end of the ride. It stayed the same for many years, but a few years back, some route changes were made as various hostels closed and Route 100 got to be a bit busier, and some of the regulars just wanted to explore a bit more of Scenic Rural Vermont. John and I did the ride many times, but often would go even further off the beaten path and try out another dirt road diversion, sometimes enticing a few folks to join us, until one year when we only criss-crossed the planned route, and literally rode less than 5 miles along the official route!

DROVES - 2013 - Shamed into Riding

Maybe it's old age or maybe it's too many prior rides in the rain, but the Bike Barn was still quiet at 8AM. Well, I say quiet, but that's not really true. Rain continued to pound off the tin roof creating quite a racket. It was quiet in that there weren't any cyclists stirring about when I rose. Although to tell the full story, Cristine and Dominique were up well before any of us and had headed into St. Johnsbury for an indoor swim class. But everyone else was enjoying a rare lie-in on a Saturday morning. However the smell of coffee and omelets soon filled the barn, and not long after, the bike stand again was the center of attention, as mechanics-extraordinaire, David Wilcox and Matt Roy, set forth to swapping the lines of John's hydraulic brakes to his preferred orientation.

A few of us headed down to the general store for coffee and to pick up more food. East Burke was a ghost town. The place is normally packed with mountain bikers on this long holiday weekend, but there were almost none to be found. We saw a couple of friends who were taking shelter at the store, as they were camping up on the mountain and had grown tent-weary.

DROVES - 2013 - Going with the Flow

Apologies for another long delay without a blog post. If you are the impatient type, follow me on twitter - @fixie_pixie - where the posts are more frequent and much shorter! Current twitter followers are keenly aware of how busy things have been for us in the last 10 days. And that now we have lots of stuff to blog about! So let's get on with it...

DROVES 2013 will not be soon forgotten. For many reasons: the hills, the dirt, the bike build, the rain, the epic rain, the cold, the snow and the fun.

Climbfest in the Catskills - Part 3

The smoker's cough seemed to be getting worse. Almost to the point that John considered passing on the planned long ride for Friday. I'd initially plotted out this brutal century route, but also created a shorter option with a remote start.

Just as I had the car packed up and was about to leave, I convinced John to come, so we put his bike back into the car and headed out a little later than planned. We drove out to Phoenicia where we are becoming regulars at Mama's Boy Coffee Shop. After a quick coffee, we headed out on our bikes.