Day 38, August 31, 2016 Claremont, NH to Tilton, NH

The Appalachians have both punished us and made us stronger. Today we went 50 miles, climbed 2,500 feet, and lived to tell the tale. Both John and I felt strong for most of the day. Our climbing skills have definitely grown.

Tilton is due east of Claremont, NH, and today we were actually able to travel in a more or less straight line eastward. Mountains run through most of New Hampshire. Since most of the roads attempt to avoid the peaks, we've been riding northeast and then southeast to get eastward. Our next short-term goal is Portland, Maine, and we will inch closer toward it with a stop in Rochester, NH, for our last night in New Hampshire.

The mountains continue. 

Today we climbed Ragged Mountain. A name that may well have come from the sawtoothed nature of the topography. While that necessitated a lot of climbing it also gave us some great descents. Frequently, we reached speeds in the low 30's, at one point reaching 37mph!

The Winnipesaukee River

One of the main features of Tilton, NH is the Winnipesaukee River. It is a fast running river that originates in the Ragged Mountains.

While there are less than 4,000 citizens in Tilton, it is a gathering point for shopping in the area. Most of the big name stores can be found here along with a variety of places to eat.

Michigan NEEDS this law!

Day 36 and 37, 8/29, 30. Chester, VT to Claremont, NH and a rest day.

YES! Another new state.

Our ride from Chester, VT to Claremont, NH was fairly uneventful. Here is the map for the last two days. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/16145867

Shortly after the ride started, we had our toughest climb of the day. No problem. Here we are just before starting down after the climb.



Down we go.


At the bottom of the mountain was the town of Springfield, a typical New England mill town. The mills are all gone, but the buildings remain, as does the beautiful river that powered them. The governing bodies of these towns have had varying success repurposing the buildings.



Lots of rocks in New England Rivers


This was a gear shaping company; now a medical complex.


Crossing the Connecticut River into New Hampshire.


We arrived in Claremont around noon, got showered and took a walk around town.

Sugar River in Claremont








Church across street from our motel. Corner stone says, "1796"


Our rest day was anything but. Rent a car, travel 90 minutes east to get a new tire for the bike, travel 150 minutes back to Manchester Center to see Hildene House (more later), travel 75 minutes back to Claremont, go to bike shop for new rear light, go to laundromat, replace front tire on bike. I am beat.

Hildene house is the summer residence of of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's only surviving child. He became a captain of industry in the Guilded Age, managing the Pullman Company, the largest manufacturing company in the world at that time. If you are ever in the area, I would strongly recommend a look. Most of the contents of the house are original.



The formal gardens were meant to represent a stained glass window when they were in full bloom.


Web site.  http://www.hildene.org/

Wonderful views from the grounds.






Tomorrow we ride 50 miles to Tilden, NH. In a day or two we will see the Atlantic and Maine.

Day 35, August 28 Manchester Center to Chester Vermont

As we were checking into the Chalet Motel, in Manchester Center two days ago, the clerk mentioned that we were welcome to stay an additional day if we wanted to rest before going on. Apparently, we looked as bad as we felt. We replied that we were headed to Claremont, NH, a 50-mile trip, the next day. He startled and said, "In one day?? Are you sure? The hills down that road are really big." 

Breakfast at Bob's Diner 

During the ride from Schuylerville, I had discovered a 1/8 inch cut in our front tire.  When we got a chance to really look at it on our day off, we found it to be almost through the tread. We used a $1 bill inside the tire to reinforce the area, which seems to be holding. There is a Schwalbe tire dealer in Hillsboro, NH. We plan to use a rental car to go there on our coming rest day in Claremont to replace the tire.

Back to the trip. We came to our senses, and divided the 50 mile trip to Claremont into two almost equal legs of 27, then 23 miles, but it was still a classic future shit¹ event. The 27-mile route to our new destination, Chester, had to go by Vermont's famous ski resorts nestled picturesquely in the Appalachian Mountains. Even with the shortened miles, we were warned over and over, "Do you know how big the hills on that road are?" often adding that their car had a hard time with them. Sigh. 

The day would begin with a 6 mile climb to Bromley Mountain ski resort, lose a bit of altitude and continue to climb until mile 17. After that, we were assured, it would be all downhill. All told, we had 2200 feet of climbing ahead of us, on a busy two lane road, with almost no shoulder. We began to dread the ride.

Those stripes running down the mnt are ski runs.
If you look closely, you can see chair lifts.

Like a lot of future shit events, it turned out to be better than expected.  Not wanting to repeat the exhausting experience going into Manchester Center, we made sure to stop riding before we absolutely had to, and to walk slowly until the hill was less steep, and we could ride again. We had to walk a fair amount, but we found that as long as we kept the pace slow, we could go a long way without stopping. Needless to say, it was slow going. In the first two hours, our averaged speed was only 3 mph. Thankfully, once we passed the Bromley ski resort, the road turned down, and we enjoyed a 5 mile descent into Londonderry where we stopped for a mid morning break next to the West River.

The West River

After our break, we began a 5 mile climb, the last half mile of which was at over 9%. Yeah, we walked that part. Shockingly, the last 9 miles was down hill! The pavement wasn't that good, with dappled sun making seeing the surface difficult, so John often had to brake to keep us below 30 mph, but 9 miles almost all of it over 20 mph. What a gas!

Tonight we stay in the Fullerton House B&B, very nice room. Tomorrow, a short ride will bring us to Claremont, a new state, and a rest day.

¹ In my experience, there a 3 kinds of events that we all experience:

 1. Future Shit - by far the scariest shit of all. Its worry keeps you up at night and makes your stomach upset.

2, Present Shit - you just have to get through present shit. Nose to the grind stone, problem solve, you know what I'm talking about.

3. Past Shit - the best shit of all. It's the stories you get to tell about the present shit you survived, and the circumstances that got you there in the first place.

Day 33 and 34, 8/26-27 Schuylerville, NY to Manchester Center, VT, and a soft rest day.

For those who do not know, a "soft" rest day is an unscheduled rest day. If either of us wants a rest day,  for any reason, a rest day happens. More later.

Today's map.  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/16126623

The day began in a drizzle, not a bad thing, and we were only riding 38 miles today. We turned left in town to get onto NY 29, and crossed the Hudson River.


The river is a lot narrower this far north.                                                   

That is when the road turned upwards, just one mile after we started.



Ride with GPS says this is a 9.9% climb. We had to walk the last third. We talked about stopping and restarting on the hill, but did not want to spend all our legs on this first climb.

Well, we figured we were going to have to climb out of the Hudson Valley, and once we were up that hill, the road leveled out, following the Batten Kill River for a while. Pretty ride.




We turned off NY 29 onto County 61 at about mile 10, and a little over a mile later, we were confronted with the killer climb of the day. It was over a mile long. Margaret has a grade sensing app on her phone. It said the grade was over 14%. Imagine walking your bike up a hill, and having to stop and rest several times during the climb. We did.


Looking back on first part of the climb.


The car way down below is just starting to descend the first part of the climb.


Kind of pretty all the way up here.

At any rate, we are now in the mountains. We rode some very nice roads today, NY/VT 313 was particularly nice. We also had our first flat, and on the trailer no less. We repaired it on the NY-VT state line. There was no "Welcome to NY" sign when we crossed into NY state in Niagara Falls, so Margaret figured she'd get a picture of one when we left the state.


Mountains.


NY 313.


Little wheel.





Lots of covered bridges in New England.



This one came with instructions.



Our last eleven miles today were on VT 7A. Yes, more 6 and 7 and 8% grades. We rode into the parking lot of our motel, and were greeted by the manager who was watching his nieces in the pool. As we were checking in, he volunteered that our room would be open the next night. Just in case we wanted to stay. We looked like, and felt like, dog meat. We are taking a rest day.

Day 30 to 32, 8/23 to 25. Johnstown to Schuylerville, and a double rest day.

Another beautiful day. The weather forecast even characterized it as "delightful." Our route today looked simple: turn right out of motel, turn left at second light on NY 29, turn right into motel in Schuylerville. Turned out to have a bit more to it than that, but overall we had a "delightful" 44 mile ride.



In Saratoga Springs we stopped at Spa City Bicycle Works looking for some energy chews and a pump to air our tires. The shop was in the first floor of the owner's home, and had two, calm black labs roaming the place. The owner had our energy chews, air pump, advice on where to have lunch (The Barrelhouse, WONDERFUL sandwiches), and also advice on how to avoid NY 29 for the rest of our day. The state road had gotten busier and busier, and its shoulder more uncertain as the day progressed, so we welcomed his local knowledge. The balance of the ride was on quiet roads, and we arrived in Schuylerville without further incident.


Saratoga Monument.

Schuylerville is on two NY highways, and also on the Hudson River. Nice little town, several nice restaurants, and most importantly, a laundromat. We were out of clean riding gear, and the already worn stuff would actively resist any attempt we would make to wear it.

We had chosen to take an extra day in Schuylerville so that we could go back to Saratoga Springs and the Saratoga Raceway. Why not stay in Saratoga Springs? Motel rates at $400 and up. This coming weekend is the premier weekend for the entire racing season at Saratoga. We even heard stories of $700 one night stays. Our motel in Schuylerville at $80 looked pretty good.




 Nice houses on Union Ave in Saratoga Springs.


This was inside a grocery store in Saratoga Springs.


 The oldest sports venue in continuous operation in the United States.

  

 There is a ton of history and culture in Saratoga Springs. We just went to the race track, contributing $12 towards the health of the ponies, but as we have said so many times this trip, "This place deserves a return visit."


This is a horse winning a race. Needless to say, not one we bet on.

Tomorrow we cross the Hudson River, and head into Vermont, our second new state after New York.

Day 29 - 8/22/16 Little Falls to Johnstown 30 miles

We began the day in Little Falls, NY is a quaint little town, built into a mountain side right off of the New York State Thruway in the middle of Nowhere, Upstate NY... actually it is on the Erie Canal, specifically Lock 17.

Less than 6,000 people live in Little Falls, but it has all the normal amenities: supermarkets, drug stores and the like. Historic brick buildings line the steep streets of the downtown.  I love old brick buildings: masonry work, in all its intricate forms, the tall windows and columns are a snap shot into an era I can only imagine.

The forecast today was "sunny and delightful" with a high of 70 degrees; and delightful it was. The terrain between Little Falls and Johnstown required a lot more climbing, but gave us long descents and beautiful vistas. Acres of fruit trees and vineyards became rolling pastures with dairy cows and horses. The farms are smaller and roadside fruit and vegetable stands more plentiful. Just delightful.

Yes, we just climbed the hill. It was as steep as it looks!

 Getting closer to Johnstown, NY, the hills grew larger and the scenery "delightful".






We arrived in Johnstown too early to check into the motel, so we stopped at the Vintage Cafe for lunch. If there is a friendlier cafe in New York, we haven't found it. The owner and waiter had many questions for us and could not believe we came all the way from Michigan. We had a great lunch and headed to our hotel for a well deserved shower.