Spring Centuries

The cliffs along Appalachian Gap were shedding chunks of ice onto the road.

Rode a couple of centuries in May so far, just six days apart.  The first was a Gap-Notch ride.  I had a delay after glancing back to check for overtaking traffic before moving out to round a curve.  I was going about 45mph and the wind caught my glasses and tore them off. It took me an hour to find them, but I was able to straighten them out and wear them again.

Still snow on the ski trails in Stowe.

The road through Smugglers' Notch is still closed to cars--I found out why!

 I wasn't the first person to go through the Notch this year on a road bike, as I saw a fresh track from some other intrepid cyclist.  Neither one of us can say we actually rode the Notch, though, as that would have been impossible.

This spring was incredible in the way it was gushing out the side of the mountain, creating an instant brook.

The Notch had over a foot of snow on the road in several places.

This is a shot looking straight down at the Brewster River from the Edwards Rd bridge.  Most people in cars never even know this amazing scene is there, beneath them.

Beautiful view of Mt. Mansfield from Upper Pleasant Valley Rd.

 On May 6th, I reprised last year's century, riding to the VT Design Technology Education Assosiactions spring conference at VT Technical College in Randolph.  I got a bit of a late start this year, not leaving until 5:45am (I should have left at 5:00, but we had attended an excellent concert by Quartetto Gelato in Stowe the night before).  I rode the 50 miles to the conference and back, adding in a hilly little 20-mile loop with "the gang" after the conference.

The early morning mist along the Winooski River reminded me of cycling through Savanna.

I love this view of Rte 12 at Baker Pond, perhaps because it means the long climb is almost done.

These geese must have been nesting on the little rock in Baker Pond as they honked up quite a racket when I looked their way.

The tiny church in East Braintree.

The short church was built in 1817, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in the state.

I decided to try taking Howard Hill Rd from Rte 12 over to the Ridge Rd this year, not having any idea of how incredibly steep it is.  I stopped to take this photo of the stream that runs alongside the road, partly because it indicates the pitch of the road.  To make things worse, the grader had just gone up the road--I caught it at the end.

The entire South Burlington team did the après-conference ride this year.

Bob Lindemann, Olaf Verdonk and our old friend and now VTC guy, Andy Myrick, joined us for the ride, giving us a great crew.

Jay rides across the floating bridge in Brookfield.

The Rte 66 hill is a real buster, but Erin really wanted to ride it and he cleaned the whole climb, meeting his big goal.

I love this view from the Ridge Rd, with the rolling hills in the background.  Quintessential Vermont.

I decided to go over Moretown Mountain on the way home, for variety and to ride the three covered bridges.  You can just see one in the upper left.

A closer view.  Why truckers don't use more care when they cross these is a mystery.  This kind of damage is so easily avoided, it's a very poor reflection on the professionalism of some drivers.

The lower two bridges use Town Lattice construction, while the third has a Queenpost design.

Cox Brook was running strong and beautiful.

Most of the dirt was quite good, though still a little on the rippled side, after mud season.  Parts of the upper section had been recently graded, but I had the right bike and tires for this kind of work.

The glimpse of Camels Hump tells you you've reached the top.

The historic weathervane on the old church in Duxbury.

I finished up the ride in the dark, with the sound of the spring peepers along the Duxbury Rd so loud it was almost painful.  A very pleasant 200k spring ride.