So, last week I headed up to central Vermont with my girlfriend for some camping, hiking and riding. It was better than our last camping trip (temps in the teens is not fun in a tent
)
I went to school up there, so I know the area well enough and I still have a few friends up there to stay with. We spent one night at my friends place and the rest camping. Since I constantly forget to even take the camera, we didnt have many pictures, but some were decent.
First campsite. I always try to camp for free, so this was a small clearing near Ripton, VT in Green Mountain NF. Stayed 2 days.
View from the site.
Snake Mountain in Addison.
Swimming at Falls of Lana. Small, but one of my favorite spots. We swam there, watched fireworks at Lake Dunmore for the 4th and then hiked up 2 mi to camp at Silver Lake (fun hike at 11:30 pm .)
We picked a bunch of blueberries and raspberries.
Hike up Mt. Abe. A nice short climb that gets you pretty high up.
Does get a tad rocky, though.
Campsite on the last night right near the New Haven River. It was a good one.
View from up top.
Other unphotographed highlights: sitting by the fire, good beer, flatbread pizza with lamb/chantrelles/kale/cheddar/asparagus (amazing ), swimming every day but the one it rained, great weather overall, girlfriend not killing me.
I decided to do a long ride this weekend. Ive been riding consistently this season, but only in the 1.5-2.5 hour range. I needed some kind of big mileage. So, I rode from my house in New Haven to West Rock park, did some trail riding then rode up to Brooksvale Park/Naugatuck State Forest and rode there, then back home. No idea on total mileage, but it took about 6.5 hours with a couple short breaks and has about 25-30 miles of road riding to get to the trails and back. A long day alone.
The bike. Definitely better than the Prophet for this kind of length and with this much road. I usually have it set up SS, but put gears on to try it out.
East Rock, right down the street. Thought about going up it quick this morning, but decided I should save it. Nice, short road climb, though.
Shortcut. This cant be lucky.
West Rock
New Haven from the top.
East Rock (near where I started).
Got a little rough.
Ohhh, now whats this .
Score! Not many, but these two were huge for wild ones. Delicious.
One of the numerous short slickrock parts.
Thirsty?
Trail by Lake Wintergreen.
Decisions ..
Bit of a tricky spot on the hardtail
Nice spot for lunch. Too bad the swing that was on that tree broke I dont know why they mow the grass either. It looks nicer and has wildflowers with the tall grass.
From West Rock, I went over a bit and took the Farmington Canal Trail to Brooksvale. Basically, it looks like this for the entire time.
Local wildlife at Brooksvale.
This was key in the middle of the afternoon. Nice and cool. Also, the bugs here were AWFUL.
State forest .fun riding .
Steep gas line trail, hit a stream and go up the other side.
Started the trek home .hammered down the Canal Trail .
My school
More school...getting close to home....
Home!
All in all, a great ride with no major problems, crashes or terrible bonk moments. My ass is a bit sore from riding an HT over rough ground for so long, but whatever (well, I did have the tremendous cushion of the Sid up front and the Python Airlight 2.0s beneath me
). I had to force myself to eat and drink as usual and I still managed to lose about 5-6 lbs on the day. Drank over 3L of water and iced tea with some juice (had it in one of the bottles). Good times.
I went to school up there, so I know the area well enough and I still have a few friends up there to stay with. We spent one night at my friends place and the rest camping. Since I constantly forget to even take the camera, we didnt have many pictures, but some were decent.
First campsite. I always try to camp for free, so this was a small clearing near Ripton, VT in Green Mountain NF. Stayed 2 days.
View from the site.
Snake Mountain in Addison.
Swimming at Falls of Lana. Small, but one of my favorite spots. We swam there, watched fireworks at Lake Dunmore for the 4th and then hiked up 2 mi to camp at Silver Lake (fun hike at 11:30 pm .)
We picked a bunch of blueberries and raspberries.
Hike up Mt. Abe. A nice short climb that gets you pretty high up.
Does get a tad rocky, though.
Campsite on the last night right near the New Haven River. It was a good one.
View from up top.
Other unphotographed highlights: sitting by the fire, good beer, flatbread pizza with lamb/chantrelles/kale/cheddar/asparagus (amazing ), swimming every day but the one it rained, great weather overall, girlfriend not killing me.
I decided to do a long ride this weekend. Ive been riding consistently this season, but only in the 1.5-2.5 hour range. I needed some kind of big mileage. So, I rode from my house in New Haven to West Rock park, did some trail riding then rode up to Brooksvale Park/Naugatuck State Forest and rode there, then back home. No idea on total mileage, but it took about 6.5 hours with a couple short breaks and has about 25-30 miles of road riding to get to the trails and back. A long day alone.
The bike. Definitely better than the Prophet for this kind of length and with this much road. I usually have it set up SS, but put gears on to try it out.
East Rock, right down the street. Thought about going up it quick this morning, but decided I should save it. Nice, short road climb, though.
Shortcut. This cant be lucky.
West Rock
New Haven from the top.
East Rock (near where I started).
Got a little rough.
Ohhh, now whats this .
Score! Not many, but these two were huge for wild ones. Delicious.
One of the numerous short slickrock parts.
Thirsty?
Trail by Lake Wintergreen.
Decisions ..
Bit of a tricky spot on the hardtail
Nice spot for lunch. Too bad the swing that was on that tree broke I dont know why they mow the grass either. It looks nicer and has wildflowers with the tall grass.
From West Rock, I went over a bit and took the Farmington Canal Trail to Brooksvale. Basically, it looks like this for the entire time.
Local wildlife at Brooksvale.
This was key in the middle of the afternoon. Nice and cool. Also, the bugs here were AWFUL.
State forest .fun riding .
Steep gas line trail, hit a stream and go up the other side.
Started the trek home .hammered down the Canal Trail .
My school
More school...getting close to home....
Home!
All in all, a great ride with no major problems, crashes or terrible bonk moments. My ass is a bit sore from riding an HT over rough ground for so long, but whatever (well, I did have the tremendous cushion of the Sid up front and the Python Airlight 2.0s beneath me
). I had to force myself to eat and drink as usual and I still managed to lose about 5-6 lbs on the day. Drank over 3L of water and iced tea with some juice (had it in one of the bottles). Good times.
