Day 3 How bad can it be?

May 17, 2023

Bad enough to wish for a cold head wind.

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Reluctantly, about to head out into some potentially nasty riding. It's going to be difficult leaving this comfy cabin and facing tough weather.

This is the Airbnb cabin that I stayed in last night.

As you can see, it was quite comfortable.

But I did leave after warming up by the wood stove. The temperature had dropped considerably from the day before - it was about 40 and very windy. The wind was pretty steady out of the north north-west at about 16 mph with gusts in the 20s. Unfortunately, north was the direction that I would be traveling all day. If I was going to maintain my strict schedule, l would have to make up for miles lost yesterday, a daunting task considering the temperature and the wind. 70 miles. Good luck with that!

I put on just about every layer of clothes that I had and headed out.

I stopped in for a cup of hot coffee and the owner, Anthony, said it wasn't fresh. But he was ready for a cup himself, so he brewed up a pot and we had coffee and a nice conversation together. Mostly we talked about how lousy the weather was. In the end he didn't charge me for the coffee. He wanted some himself. Nice guy.

I made it to the appropriately named town of Rutland around 3:00, and I had just about had it with the wind. Rutland really isn't so bad, but I was in a rut. The thought of setting up camp with the temperature expected to dip in to high 20's didn't appeal to me, so I tried warmshowers, but had no luck. So I thought I'd give Airbnb a shot again. There was a super cheap room in someone's house in Brandon, another 20 miles north. It was 20 miles further than I wanted to go, but I figured I could make it. So I left Rutland at 4:00.

But a half mile away I did go through this one.

I've read Chris Pountney's book 'No wrong turns', but I probably shouldn't have been thinking about it when I saw the dead-end sign at the start of the road that Google maps was sending me down. I've been on dead ends and roads with bridges out, only to find a minor inconvenience. I was in for a bit more...

This is Town Hill Road, a dead end road according to a sign. It's a lot steeper and rougher than it looks, so once I started down I knew wasn't going to come back up.

Doesn't look so bad. I can make it through that.

And the view on the other side. The GPS said that road continued for about a quarter of a mile, and then there was a right turn. I can do this.

But there wasn't. The hay was almost waist deep in some places, and pushing 90 pounds of bike and gear through it was tough. But it was only a quarter mile...

After pushing the bike for a quarter mile, I saw the road that I had to make a left turn on. Unfortunately, the road was on the other side of the creek and there wasn't any indication that a bridge had ever been there, but Google maps had it. If you expand this image, you can see a yellow sign in the distance indicating where I crossed the railroad tracks. But that's looking diagonally across the field. I had followed a straight line to the river and taken a right when I got to it. The next road to the north, Depot Hill, was still about a half mile away.

I tried to draw my route through the field as accurately as I could, but it doesn't begin to tell the whole story.

After wandering around this immense hay field looking for a road north of where I was and going through stretches where I started sinking into mud, I was finally able to come to a road that would take me over the river. All said, that little escapade cost me about an hour and a half. Not to mention the wear and tear on my body from pulling 90 pounds of stuff out of the mud. And I still had about ten miles to go to get to the Airbnb.

Believe it or not I still had the good sense to appreciate the beautiful scenery of rural Vermont.

I got to my destination around 8:00.

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 184 miles (296 km)

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Cindy KallgrenHang in there Jim! It's got to get easier! Fortunate that there are nice people and lovely scenery along the way!
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1 year ago

William AustinOn the bright side, the Mets had a miraculous comeback.
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1 year ago

Colin BakerJim…that was a really long day. If you hadn’t been bushwhacking it would have been an hour shorter. I think I would have taken my chances camping. You probably have good sleeping bag.
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1 year ago

Jonathan DyerAll this way I’ve been thinking, “I’d like to do something like this”, thenI got to this page 😖 Watching the roads shrink and the trails shrink and the grass get taller and the mud get deeper was brutal. Chin up, you got this, just remember, Google is evil! 😈
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1 year ago