There's nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend

Before heading back down to Connecticut for the weekend Ann & I headed out for a ride to Pittsford and back.  There is a great view of Killington Mountain from West Proctor Road. 

Riding with Bruce

 

Ann invited with her Brother Bruce to ride with us Thursday afternoon.  Due to an early childhood accident and not the best reconstructive surgery, it was the 1970s afterall when he had his bike accident, Bruce rides an e-Bike.  He has ridden with us before but has declined more recent invitations due to poor health. Today, however, he was feeling really good and joined us.

Maple Creemee

Ann & I were on vacation for 10 days and severely jet lagged upon our return so we took an extra day off before starting our daily rides again. Our first day back on the bike, we road down to Wallingford and stopped at Kelly's Snack Shack because I had heard they have really good Creemees.

Getting Fat at PHP

 

It's been a month since I was last at Pine Hill Park and after doing work around Ann's house in the morning, making some adjustments to the bike shed I rode out to PHP and the first thing I noticed was the new sign.

Sherburne Trails from Base Camp

 

I had to run an errand up to Killington this morning so I brought my mountain bike to ride the Sherburne Trails, this time from Base Camp. For a blue trail, it was really buff to start, super flowy and some fun features along the way.

Florence Road Ride

 

Tuesday morning we decided to ride out to Florence and Ann wanted to try riding the Ridley. She got this bike from a friend last summer but it didn't fit her well because this particular model, the Helix, had a seat post that was part of the frame. We tried it last fall but it was just too tall for her so I cut it down and put a very large seat post clamp on it.  

TNTT

 

We got up too late Saturday morning to do our customary Wallingford for breakfast ride because Ann had relatives in town visiting. When we got back to Rutland later in the day we headed out for another night ride.

Rutland Gravel Night Ride

I spent Friday running errands around Rutland and was going to ride at Pine Hill in the afternoon but a thunder storm ripped through the area and stayed in and cleaned up the basement.  Ann got home from work around 7:15 PM and she really wanted to ride so we headed out before the sun had even set at 8:00 PM.

Night Riding with Ann

 

Ann got back from work and wanted to ride and who am I to say no to that, even after riding a 40 mile gravel grinder earlier in the day.  The sun had already set and the temperature was perfect.

Some dead ends go through and some do not

Originally I had planned to head out when Ann left for work and I had my smoothie for breakfast but for once I actually fell back to sleep. I wanted to ride the CAADX again but discovered a broken spoke so I waited until the bike shop opened and dropped it off to get it fixed. I finally got out around 12:30 and while it was sunny the temperature was in the low 70s and in the shade it was downright chilly.

Slate Valley Trails - Fairgrounds

 

There are 8 trail systems managed by the Slate Valley Trails organization with 60+ miles of trails. On Friday, Juneteenth, I headed over to Poultney, about a 30 minute drive from Rutland, and parked at the Slate Valley Fairground Trailhead to ride this trail system. 

802 Single Speeding

After working around the house all morning and big storm moved through the area with tornado warnings across the spectrum going out and I slept through it all during a midday nap. A tornado actually struck in Woodstock, VT and caused quite a bit of damage. I awoke to blue skies and sunshine and went out for a ride on the single speed.

Summer Fat Biking at PHP

I had three interviews on Tuesday and the last one went into extra innings. Afterwards I needed to clear my head so I got kitted up and headed out on the Tracker towards Pine Hill Park.  I headed to another entrance to the park because I new there was trail work going on and I didn't want to feel guilty that I was riding and not helping.

We finally made it to Wallingford

Don't Take the Box!

Before leaving Connecticut this week we got in another ride to Woodbury yesterday.  This morning we left Connecticut at 6:30 AM for Vermont and after unpacking and getting some lunch at Gils, we decided to try to ride down Wallingford again. Given that is was later in the day we didn't think there was going to be anything keeping us away from getting there this time.

Resuming our weekly Wallingford Ride

Ann & I went out early Saturday morning before driving to Connecticut to resume our weekly rides to Wallingford - our Vermont equivalent of an OOF Ride. Heading out at 6:00 AM on our quasi gravel route - there is one section of dirt - it was a nice morning and didn't really feel like it was 50 degrees, which was the temperature showing up on my watch. We ride to Sweet Birch in Wallingford for breakfast and then ride back. Sometimes, if we do this ride on the weekend, we might get lunch and then stop at Rutland Beer Works on the way home for a beer.

Green Mountain Trails - Fat Bikes don't Ford well

 

I drove over to Rochester (VT) on Friday to pick up my fat bike after I had it tuned up and some issues fixed and then on the way back to Rutland stopped off at the Green Mountain Trails. I should have checked their website first to see what would have been the best approach for a first time ride because the route I took wasn't the one.  Starting off, I looked at the map it said there was a ford you had to cross to get to the trails. I figured there would be rocks everywhere and crossing would be easy.  Much to my surprise it was not.

Hubbardton Battlefield Roubaix

 

One of my bucket list items when I first started coming to Rutland was to ride the dirt roads in and around Hubbardton and to visit the battlefield. It's the only battlefield of the Revolutionary War that is on Vermont soil.  There was another one called the Battle of Bennington but it was actually fought in Hoosic, NY. What interesting to note about the Hubbardton Battle, though, was that it was more of a delaying action so that the main body of the Continental Army could reorganize and eventually defeat the British at the Battle of Saratoga.

Back to Pine Hill

 

Got back to Rutland yesterday and couldn't wait to head over to the PHP on the Cujo after getting the rear wheel fixed by JT at Rutland City Bikes. Originally, I was going to convert the Cujo back to tubeless last year but then I got sidetracked and bought the fat bike.  The last time I rode at the Park I had to take the full susser because I re-discovered that I never did anything about it.  

Spring Double Header

 

I got in line before Superstar started spinning this morning and I brought my mountain bike because today was Killington's Mountain Bike Park pre-season opener.

Mother's Day at The Beast

Ann & I were running late Sunday morning and missed first chair by 15 minutes but we still got some decent parking.  Superstar was mostly groomed and it looked like it was going to be a great day of spring skiing.