David Molnar reached out saying he would be in the area visiting his folks over Thanksgiving and I suggested that we meet on Black Friday for gravel ride in Castleton.
The route that I planned was 81% gravel and utilized some of the D&H Rail Trail but what I didn’t realize is some of the roads on this route were Primitive roads and I should have checked the Vermont Roads Database first. Town Highway 29 in Poultney, VT, as we later discovered was very primitive. Since I am still learning the area, the Vermont Roads Database is a must have tool for planning rides.
We started out on the rail trail and then on to Staso Road and started climbing
Then we turned onto Pond Hill Road and continued to climb.
Kept climbing until we stopped at his parent’s place, really their driveway, it was more climbing to the house which we passed on.
After descending Pond Hill, we turned onto RT 4 and then turned onto Birdseye Mountain Road.
and the start of a 3 mile, 1000’ climb
Bird Mountain is a prominent geologic feature in the Taconic Range
It's the product of thrust faulting 480 million years ago from an ancient seabed that covered this area
The higher we climbed the colder it got and more snow had accumulated on the road
and this is what we found at the top, no longer a Closs 4 road, but a primitive one
Dave and I didn't have time for the Napoleon's Death March that would have ensued so we turned around and headed back.
Another view of Bird Mountain
The descent was brutally cold
Once down, the waning afternoon sun provided a little warm
It was a cold slog back to the cars with a headwind slowing us down and sucking the life out of us.
The grimy aftermath
My noble steed = 2010 Surly Cross Check, 2nd edition
Loaded back in the truck for the drive back to Rutland
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