Riding after the Storm

 

Unbeknownst to us, as 4th of July celebrations were kicking off and intense wall of thunderstorms, wind and rain ripped through the area. This part of Connecticut seems to be a magnet for intense weather that results in downed trees, blocked roads, and the power being out for days. We didn't lose power in Sandy Hook but large swaths of Newtown did. 

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade

Due to a midday appointment, I was working from home today and as I was 30 minutes into something I had to get done and then the Internet goes out! I called my Internet Provider and they gave me an 11 AM ETA so with nothing better to do, I went for a bike ride.

Pick Up Scripts

 Apr 24, 2025

After a grueling six-plus months in the shop, my Yamaha Wabash is finally back where it belongs. I picked it up last week, but between work and life, I hadn't had a chance to really open it up. Today, a work-from-home day built around a doctor's appointment gave me the perfect window for a lunchtime test spin—and a chance to see how my new pedals felt.

Lunartic Dirt

Another cold spring Saturday morning and what was supposed to be a Newtown Lunartics ride to OOF became a push back and then most guys bailed, except Scott and I. Instead, we met up with Brad and to hit some dirt roads and single track around Newtown.

New Kit Day: Joseph and Technicolor Dreamcoat

 

I got this new thermal jacket over Christmas but it was kind of small so I sent it back for the next size up. It's from Twin 6 and I was very skeptical on whether it would be warm enough for anything below 50 degrees. The colors spoke to me but I still questioned the material.

Nice Weather brings out the nice Ass!

 

The mercury was in the 60's today so Scott and I headed out at lunch time for quick rip around town.

Boxing Day Ugly Christmas Sweater ride

Day after Christmas was a bright sunny day and I had to get outside instead of riding the trainer no matter how cold it was.  Scotty met me at the Flagpole and we did a ride outside my comfort zone - we overlapped! My mental routing OCD was going bonkers but it made sense and I need to more of this.

12 Hills of Christmas

... and ugly Christmas Sweater Ride

I got this idea from someone in my Tuesday night ride group who rode 12 hills last Christmas. I knew there were quite a few roads in Newtown with the word Hill in their name so I went about identifying all of them. Turns out, there are 38 through roads and three of them are dirt. I mapped all the roads out on a Google Map called Newtown Hills and then came up with a route.

Sunday Afternoon Delight

My original intention for Sunday was to go on a big ride but that meant waking up early and instead I decided to sleep in. I procrastinated all morning: updated my blog detailing issues of riding this past week, drank a lot of coffee, and put away some laundry. Sometimes, you need to do just that. Finally, I headed out at around 2:30 PM after making some final adjustments to the Jamis - I decided to go with a Fizik road saddle.

Bouncing on pavement

 

I headed out Tuesday on the Jamis for a little test ride after finally getting around to installing a few upgrades, namely an 11:34t cassette and a Shimano 105 medium cage rear derailleur. I also picked up a new front blinky that I got that mounts between my garmin and the GPS mount.

Walkin' the Dog

Cows are essential to good rides

You couldn't ask for a better day to ride

Morgan Pond Trails after work

On Friday, I rode Wednesday's route in reverse and came in on those trails off of Maltbie Road.

Exploring singletrack in Southern Newtown

I headed out after work to explore some roads and a trail system in the souther part of Newtown that I had seen on one of my prior rides. As I riding on Sanford Road, though, I found a tree blocking the road and the way it was wedged into another tree, I couldn't move it.

With my mountain bike out of action due to the fact that the rear wheel finally died and couldn't get a replacement due to the Pandemic I have been riding my CAADx more as a mountain bike now.  I figured the dirtiest way to get to Aunt Pat was to climb up Deep Brook, cut through Bentagrass, then take Beaver Dam to Ox Hill, which lined me up perfectly.

Ride after Work: Dirty 30

I headed out of the Bat Cave on the CAADx to Pond Brook Road and then made my way south through Bethel by way of Cod Fish Hill. My goal this evening was to hit Old Poverty Hollow. There aren't many dirt roads in between unless you want to ride through Huntington State Park.

Old Poverty Hollow is a gravel paradise. It's mostly flat, rarely do you see anyone else on it and there is a really nice place to stop towards the end with a nice view of the stream running through.

Riding through here is one of the two routes that I for bike commuting. On the way in, if I am riding this way I can get three dirt roads in on my way to work: Head of Meadow, Old Forge and Old Poverty Hollow. I seldom come back this way because it's longer and usually I just want to get home after work.

Looking back toward Mountainside Rd

Working my way back towards Newtown, I went up Mountainside Road which turns to dirt half way up the road. According to the old topo maps this road used to go through to Jet Brook Road in Newtown. While the old ROW is nearly impossible to ride, that is if I didn't have road gears on my cross bike, there is a nice little trail system off to the west. It looks like a dirt bike track and what I found is it too comes out on Jet Brook. Have to try it in the other direction some time.

Looking up hill

Jet Brook pops out onto Castle Meadow and the next abandoned road I wanted to try was Maltbie Road.

On the way up Maltie I noticed this sign which is kind of a conundrum. Does this mean that you should slow down because there are Yuppies about or this is an area for slow Yuppies. Very similar to all the Slow Children at Play signs.

The Maltbie ROW is a hidden gem that I can't believe that I have overlooked for so long.  Looks like it gets some horse traffic, too.

The north side is bordered by Newtown Open Space and I didn't see it but apparently there is another abandoned road that intersects it as well.

 

And then there is a stream running through the middle of the trail.

But since it's open space to the north (left of the picture) there is the possibility of building a reroute.

The climb out doable but a little sandy.  Eventually you come out on to Hundred Acres Road. From here you have a couple of dirty choices to choose from: ride around to Mt Nebo and then come down Ox Hill, ride through Cherry Grove, or ride to Beaver Dam. 

I took the latter route and did my normal route home: Beaver Dam, Bentagrass, Point of Rocks, Deep Brook, and then Old Echo Valley to Sanford Road. 

Scrabble Cross

I dusted off the CAADx this weekend and decided to take it out on a ride after work. This bike has primarily been my commuter bike but since I am no longer commuting I figured it needed some loving. Of course having fatter tires meant that I should try and hit all the dirt roads that I possibly could this evening.

On my last mixed terrain ride through this area I found Sturges Road impassible so I took it off my map (Roubaix to Brew) and I had once prior looked for the Wildcat Lane ROW but didn't find anything at the end of the Bobcat Lane cul-de-sac but I recalled looking at the town GIS map and seeing that is still listed as a ROW and now that I know where to look for it, I found it this time and gave it a shot. One note, the trail starts on the other side of the grass. 

There are few trees down that interrupts the flow. Some you can hop and others are too big or too high. Might have to ride through again with a hand saw and cut a few so that you can at least bunny hop them.  Once I was on Plumtrees I started looking for a trail to access Newtown Forest Association's Brunot Preserve but didn't see anything. I did find a somewhat obscured entrance to the neighboring Bethel Land Trust and it's buff trails were easy to ride. 

The separation between the BLT trail and the Brunot Preserve is the yellow chain stretched between two trees.  The Brunot Preserve was donated by the James Brunot's family in the 1970s and he was the guy responsible for introducing the world to Scrabble.

I rode here 15 years ago and it was absolute crap. The trails were savaged by ATVs however, what I found today was a much more improved trail system that I think another visit, this time with the mountain bike would be in order. Trails were pretty buff and no longer rutted out by ATVs. I remember losing the trail once out of the fields but now they are clearly visible and blazed, as well.

The main trail that dumps you out to Taunton Road goes through a hollow and at the center of it is big mud bog. There appears to be another trail that entirely bypasses this area but its fall line and hike-a-bike. Probably better on a Mountain Bike. The map on the NFA website is absolute crap. 

Next I rode to the top of Holcombe Hill which commands one of the best views looking north towards New Milford.

One thing I realized about the CAADx is that it is geared 11-28t, which is not the best gearing for riding trails, something I will have to rectify soon.  From Holcombe Hill I rode down Scudder Road, across Head of Meadow and then up Shepards Hill. Once on the Fosdick trails I noticed that appeared someone had put sticks and leaves on the trail to deter bikers? Didn't deter me at all but its good way for a walker to twist an ankle.

I looped around to the back side of Mt Nebo Road and then road a series of dirt roads that I ride regularly: Ox Hill, Beaver Dam, the Bentagrass connector, Point of Rocks, and Deep Brook. 

Closer to home, I cut over towards the State Forest on Echo Valley and if there is time will take the Brody Forest Road back to Hanover Road but othe temperature was dropping fast and I was starting to get cold. I took Sanford Road instead.

Christmas Day Ride with the Cows

I decided a needed a new route that's easy to add or subtract miles depending upon time. So I headed down to Walnut Tree Hill and then over to Glen Road to Rt 34.  From there I road down Oak View to Wasserman Way. Riding this way gives me the option to cut in at Fairfield Hills towards Dog Pound to lessen the climb.

Video: Cyclist getting buzzed by Newtown, CT Police Officer

As a Newtown resident and a cyclist, getting buzzed by cars is common. The law says that you have to give at least three feet of clearance when passing a cyclist. On many of the town roads there are even signs to remind drivers of the law.

Unfortunately, these reminders don't seem to be getting through because I am often buzzed at least once every ride if not more. A friend of mine was riding through Newtown on Wednesday, November 27th when he was buzzed by someone who is supposed to uphold and enforce the law. This video demonstrates that the Police Officer not only shows no regard for the law by passing the cyclist too close, when called out, threatened to cite the cyclist.      

The police officer said he gave him way more than three feet and yet the car's left tire didn't even cross over the the double yellow line. I thought I would run the numbers and see if the officer was telling the truth or not.

  

1.  The width of a standard lane is 10 feet but lets assume there is also a 2 foot shoulder so you have 12 feet to play with.

2.  I am going to assume the cyclist's wheel is 2 feet or so from the edge of the road, and the handle bars extend another 9 to 12 inches from the center of the bike, so let's call it 3 feet to the outward edge of the cyclist.

3.  Add another 3 feet for the law and that's 6 feet into the lane. That leaves 6 feet remaining for vehicles to safely pass this cyclist. 

4. The width of the Ford Explorer with mirrors is 7.5 feet wide. Seeing that the tire of the vehicle is basically in the center of the road that leaves less than 3 feet clearance between the vehicle and the cyclist.

5. In order for the officer's claim of giving the cyclist way more than 3 feet clearance to be valid, the vehicle would have to be basically traveling down the center of the road. Which it is was not.  

Doesn't look like the Office gave way more than three feet as he claimed.

Tour de Dirt & Destruction

I took a little ride around the neighborhood Friday after work. 

 Everyone north of Route 84 is still out of power.  Wires are still down all over the place but it looks like most of the trees have been cleared.  However, I didn't ride up Butterfield or Georges Hill.  Even the Taunton Lake area and Taunton Hill Road still seemed to have a lot of power outages, still.  You could still hear the din of generators running.

I rode to the top of Holcombe Hill but I missed the sunset

I have to say, I really love riding this bike. I am still making tweaks to it. I think might get a Brooks saddle and try a seatpost with a longer set back.



Rode over Castle Hill.  The Newtown Flag is once again at half mast due to another school shooting and yet our government who is supposed to protect it's citizens does nothing.

It was getting dark so I headed home



The telephone pole at the intersection of the Boulevard still hasn't been dealt with.

And there is still a tree on the wires on Tamarack Road

Eine kleine Dirt Musik

Waking up Saturday morning to a brisk wind and light drizzle I said to myself, no way am I going to ride before my son's 8 AM Soccer game.  The weather during the game was even worse but by early after there was a break in the weather so I jumped on the CAADx and went exploring.

Thinking that it was going to be raining the whole time I went out with my neoprene gloves and rain jacket but quickly shed both after I jumped off the old NY & NE Right of Way onto Al's trail.  It's funny, how in the past I would only ride my mountain bike on this trail and now all I do is ride it on my cross bike.

Heading down old Black Bridge Road I noticed that it appears to have been widen, perhaps by some 4x4 usage but anyone driving this way would simply have to back out once again due a pretty sizable widowmaker laying across the road.  the Black Bridge looked pretty sketchy being wet and with some leaves so I walked it instead of riding it.

RAW: Ein sehr guten Freitag

Got out of work early on the Friday of the Easter Weekend and with the weather being so so nice I got home as quick as possible and headed out for a ride.