21 June 2012
Stats for the day:
Depart Tilton 7:30 a.m., arrive Quechee campground 7:15 p.m.
Trip mileage – 163.2 miles
Today’s mileage – 64.24
Time on bike – 6.30.25
Average speed – 9.8
Max speed – 39.5
The sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds even as we played
hide-and-seek beneath the canopy of trees along the Northern Rail Trail. Our journey today brings us from
Tilton, NH to Quechee, VT. It was
a pretty good ride along the trail, off the road, quiet, sometimes seeming very
rural, especially when you see a bear just off in the woods lumbering
along. We chose not to try for a
picture opportunity for that, but the turtle on the trail posed nicely.
We found that the surfacing of the trail was not always what
we would have wanted. Quite a bit
had soft stone dust, making it difficult to ride in, as well as covering us in
a layer of it. By the end of the
day, we were covered, head to toe, in the stuff. Getting a shower never felt so good!
It was a long hot ride, and Google seems to have a few flaws
when it comes to their directions for biking. The first came when we realized the road they wanted us to
take was a dead end, making us retrace our steps back up the steep hill we had
just come down. Had to walk that
one. Then, instead of taking us
along Route 4, it sent us up, and we mean UP, a side road requiring yet another
walk. At the top of that one, it
was sending us up yet another side road, so we decided to just stay on Route 4
and get to the campground on our own.
Why does it always seem the worst hills are the ones towards the end of
the day.
So we are headed for Proctor, VT, to stay with friends and
take a day off from biking. Both of us are looking forward to that, especially
after going up over Killington.
Come on back to read about that one!
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