Prepping for the D2R2

It's been a great season, even if I haven't been writing about it.  The 100/200 went off like a charm, with a few less people than last year, but still a really great crew to ride with.  Hot, and with a headwind, it was one of the toughest editions I've ridden.  There have been a number of other great rides as well, and I hope to get the chance to come back and write about them when things slow down.

 With the D2R2 only a week away, I decided to take a wonderful Saturday, when I should have been finishing building my woodshed, and slide in a training ride, instead.  I had it in mind that I would ride a few gaps, including the mysterious Braintree Gap, which I had tried unsuccessfully to find a couple of weeks ago, and try to hit as much dirt in between as possible.  I put a 28 tooth chainring on the triple and headed out at 8 am, riding the Duxbury Rd to Waterbury and then onto pavement, until taking the shortcut up Lovers' Lane to the great little bridge that is now closed to autos.

View of the Mad River upstream from Lovers Lane Bridge

Shortly after turning onto VT 100B, I was thinking of how I had noticed some dirt roads up on the mountains to the left when looking at the maps and  was ready when I saw Moretown Common Rd come up.  I hadn't planned on riding it, but I knew where it came out and decided to go for it.  It turned out to be a very nice climb on the other side of the Mad River, with some nice views at the top.  Here's one of some old barns with Camels Hump in the distance.

As it turns out, there are some roads that would have made the route easier, but climbing was something I wanted to do, so I'll just save that away for another day.

After a nice descent to the end of the Common Rd, it was on to Moretown Mtn Rd.  It's officially a "gap", at least according to the USGS, but it's fairly easy, at just over 1560' elevation at the top.  There's a very brief, but impressive view of Camels Hump right at the top.  The road then turns a little, so it's the only view you get.

Looking back at Camels Hump at the top of Moretown Gap

A little after cresting Moretown Gap, I missed the unmarked turn onto Devils Washbowl Rd. and had to back up the hill a ways to catch it. What a great name! It's a narrow little track, with a bit of climbing, but very enjoyable.

I wound around on the dirt roads, skirting Northfield, and came across a dandy little blackberry patch along the road. The berries are just starting to get ripe here and some were huge, as you can see. Very tasty.

I came out on the Warren Mtn Rd, but Roxbury Gap was not on the agenda today.  I was set on finding the "Missing Gap," as I was calling it.  I had spotted Braintree Gap on Google Maps and had intended to ride it a couple of weeks ago, but I missed the turn and ended up riding back over Roxbury Gap, instead.  This time. I had studied the satellite view carefully and knew exactly where the turn should be.  It looked like a driveway and had signs saying "No Outlet," but I didn't let that stop me.  At first, the road was quite rideable on my Gunnar Crosshairs cyclocross bike.  I was running smooth 32mm tires, which worked well on the crushed rock.  The road was steep and unrelenting, with lots of waterbars.  There was nothing that could be called flat, all the way to the top.  There's been a lot of logging in the past few years, and the road was obviously improved  for this purpose.  A 4-wheel drive auto with good ground clearance should be able to make it up to the last log landing without too much trouble, but it would be an adventure.

About a third of the way up, I came across prodigious blackberry patches along both sides of the road.  A good excuse to stop, I spent quite awhile, eating berries until I actually got tired of them.  I don't know that that's ever happened to me before--I love blackberries!  I stopped at a spot where a tiny stream, cold enough that it must have been spring-fed, ran right across the road.  it was a great opportunity to cool down, rinse off and clean up the berry stains.  As you can see in the photo, the road was getting pretty gnarly.  The photos do no justice to how steep the road really is.

After this, the road got even steeper and more rough.  I took this photo after coming to a grinding halt, losing traction on the large rocks.  I might have been able to go a little farther if I could have stayed in the center, but it was so steep that, even then, I may not have been able to get traction.  It was definitely mountain bike material, though I only had to walk a couple of short sections.  Braintree Gap peaks at 2490', just 30' shy of Lincoln Gap.  While Lincoln Gap's steep section starts around 1400', Braintree starts at 815' elevation.  It's one nasty climb!

The road down was a different story, entirely.  There were several sections when I was way off the back of the saddle, trying not to pitch over the bars.  I actually walked more on the descent than the climb, as it was just too gnarly and steep for a non-suspension bike with narrow tires.  You'd be banging up the bottom of that Subaru Outback if you tried to drive it down this, and you would never make it at all, headed the other way.  There were drops of over a foot in several places.  Here's a view back up the trail.

I'm going to have to come back with a mountain bike sometime.  The section below was more like riding down a stream bed, complete with gurgling water, in spite of the dry weather.

I came out on North Hollow Rd in Granville, and welcomed the respite for my hands, sore from the pounding and the death grip I had on the brakes.  A short run on the blessedly smooth pavement of Rte 100, and then it was time to turn off onto Plunkton Rd, another dirt road I've never ridden.  A bit of up and down and then the nice descent on pavement into Warren for a welcome break at the Warren Country Store.  Another rider there said the road construction on Lincoln Gap had proceeded to the point where it was rideable, so I headed out to do what I now see as Vermont's second toughest climb.  Thankfully, the construction ends right where the super steep stuff starts.  I made it to the top without any real difficulty with my 28x27 granny gear, and it was down the back side. I wasn't careful enough, though, and overheated the rim to the point that a patch failed, leaving me to fix the only flat of the day.

The pavement, once it started up again, was all fresh and new.  Asphalt is slow when it's first laid, but oh, so smooth. I recollected that there were some dirt roads that might connect through, and I tried a few, but they all petered out, leaving me to return to the pavement until getting to Lincoln.

From Lincoln, it was onto the Quaker St. climb and then Downingville Rd. There's one abandoned section that I like to ride, while it's still possible.  It always makes me think of some post-Apocalypse tale.

I took another break at the Jerusalem Store on Rte 17, where the clerk complained, but filled my water bottle.  "We don't usually do this because we sell water," she said.  So much for Yankee frugality and hospitality. Sorry, but bottles and trucks are far less efficient than pipes for moving water. I'd pay 50 cents for a water bottle refill, if the shop keeper needed the money that bad.  It would be cheaper, and I bet she'd make a better profit and she wouldn't even need to order it, put it in the cooler or pay to refrigerate it.

My path home led right by the bottom of Appalachian Gap, and I couldn't talk myself out of the opportunity to slide in an August ride to the top (keeping my multi-year, monthly App Gap record intact), so it was a not-so-quick run to the top, the obligatory snapshot, then back down before heading home on the Huntington Rd.

The D2R2 website recommends training with centuries that include 10,000' of climbing.  This ride was 110 miles with 9,300', which seems fine, considering that some of the roads were actually worse than anything on the D2R2.  I think I'm ready for next Saturday's fun!

I posted these photos and more to Picassa