Ann & I loaded up the camper Saturday morning and then drove over to Hubbardton to the Lake Bomoseen KOA where me our friends from Sandy Hook who also have a camper and we set up camp together. We did a little sight seeing in Brandon and then returned to the KOA. Ann wanted to take a nap so I headed out on the bike. I set out riding counter clockwise around the lake, following no particular route, to just explore around the lake a bit.
Turning onto Float Bridge Road, I was wondering if there really was a float bridge there but all I found was a real bridge. According to the Internet:
Float Bridge Road in Castleton, Vermont, is named after a historic bridge built in the 1870s that literally floated on the surface of Lake Bomoseen to let travelers and horse-drawn carriages reach the farms and early resorts on the north end of the lake
Float Bridge turned to dirt with no sign saying Dead End or No Outlet so I decided to explore further. The road ended at this gate and the little white sign that was barely readable said No Motorized Vehicles and open to hiking and cross country skiing. Nothing was mentioned about bikes. It was barely legible but it looked like it said Slate Valley Trails, and I associate that with mountain biking so I took that as an invitation to press on.
The road went from gravel to dual track in a few hundred yards and then started to climb. It was steep but I was able to make the climb without stopping.
There were some single track off shoots along the way but the trails were barely discernable and I really didn't want to ride a mountain bike trail on the Surly. At an intersection there was sign indicating that the right road, if you could call it that, went to Lily Pond, so I decided to check it out. It was nice and it would be cool to get a canoe in here sometime and do a little fishing but a better route in would be needed.
I guess it was a road at one time but it was so choked with vegetation that it was more of a trail. I started descending and I was wondering if I might have bitten off more than I could chew. Between my phone and GPS I wasn't lost but bailing on this route wasn't really an option. After that descent, I didn't feel like back tracking, either. Eventually I came to some signs that were pointing in different directions. One said Keets Road but when I checked Trail Forks and Google Maps I didn't see anything. The trail in that direction was single track and it looked like a rake and ride trail.
There were two roads, gravel beds covered in low growing grass and weeds, one straight ahead and another to the left. I went straight but it was just a little out and back so I went left. If was good for awhile but then it turned into a trail that went straight up a fall line. As I hiked my bike up this I could see where someone armored the trail. That was interesting because the trail was really, really steep.
At the top of trail I found some red blazes so I started following them. At this point there was no way to ride and a Napoleon's Death March had begun. The blazes finally took me to a primitive road that I was able to ride. I took a little off shoot trail that took me to someone's driveway and finally I was back in civilization again!
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| Slate mine tailings at Cedar Mountain |
The West Castleton Railroad and Slate Company was a 19th-century industrial operation in Rutland County, Vermont. Established around 1850–1852 on the shores of Lake Bomoseen and Glen Lake, the company powered a bustling, self-contained company town that quarried and processed prized green and purple roofing slate. The enterprise turned West Castleton into a thriving hub complete with a mill, a company store, a schoolhouse, and distinctive stacked-slate duplex homes built by Welsh immigrants. The Railroad Connection: A localized rail line and branch network moved heavy slate from the quarries down to mills and connecting regional transport networks.
I rode down to Cedar Point to see if I could see the slate slag pile from the road but all I found was stone wall on both sides with an opening. It was really buggy so I didn't explore further. I did a little querying on the internet and various map outlets that I use and I couldn't any evidence of a spur line out to West Castleton. If there was one, it would have had to have skirted the shore line.
All I could find on the internet about the railroad line was this blurb from a newspaper article:
The West Castleton Railroad and Slate Company moved its quarried slate from the operations around Cedar Mountain and Glen Lake via a dedicated 1.51-mile regional railroad branch line running south toward Castleton along the eastern shore of Lake Bomoseen, connecting directly to the Rutland and Whitehall Railroad for broader distribution.
If you look on a map, 1.5 miles from the main line north along Lake Bomoseen put the terminus of the spur line at Point of Pines, although there is no mention of where the line actually terminated.
I rode Cedar Mountain Road back towards the former West Castleton with stunning views of the Taconic Mountains off to the east.
Here is the West Castleton School House that is indicated in the map above.
Heading back towards Fair Haven I rode along Creek Road which had to be the road bed for the West Castleton Railroad.
At the end of Creek Road, I turned east and followed Rt 4A until I found a road that would take me north without having to ride on Rt 30. Along the way I passed by these enormous Honey Locust trees.
Rode by the Bomoseen Lodge looking back at Cedar Mountain.
and then I was back at the KOA.
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