Bike riding down. Car riding, plane riding, and general moving about (along with eating cafe food, drinking too much coffee, and putting on the pounds) is way up. Taught 3 sessions at a conference in the DC area. Incorporated my business. RUSA schedule has been submitted, information on 2012 VT Brevets forthcoming when we have approval.

Been back and forth to Boston (work and visiting my sister who was presenting at a conference), heading to the cape for work, then off to W.NY for work and family. We finally hired painters to tackle a few rooms in our house that we just couldn’t get around to wrapping up. Kitchen, hallways, and bath are now colorful. Added some new light fixtures to the bath while we had the walls messed up.

Fall has come and is nearly gone. Leaves down. Garden prepped for expansion (doubling again!).

Bikes need loving, collecting dust. Legs and lungs need the same. Haven’t felt really good on the bike since my 200+ mile trip through the ADKs in August. Just this week my lungs seem to be full of green slime that I cough up in the mornings, likely caught from a certain 3 year old. Looking forward to getting back to our regularly scheduled program. Focusing on family, work, and daddy time. Need to re-boot.

Wil put up a nice report on our overnight.

I left the house a bit later than I wanted, sipped a coffee and had some breakfast at a local cafe, then took off for higher ground. I ventured through the Intervale, enjoying a glorious and misty sunrise. Stunning, was the sky and the sun.

As I started to climb out of the vale to pavement, I noticed a vehicle stuck on the tracks. I’ve seen lots of bizarre things happen down here early in the morning – so I can’t say I was surprised – but it looks as if someone ‘borrowed’ the truck for a joy ride. Windows were open, with stuff left on the seats. Glove box was closed. I made sure there was no one injured (abandoned) then called 911 and was connected to local police. After a chat I continued on.

From Burlington I ventured off to Richmond via Mountain View and dropping down Governor Chittenden Rd. The Winooski River Valley was covered in a fog, and the light had a silver quality to it. No views to Camel’s Hump, but an otherworldly feeling as I hit the lower dirt road and a horse started running alongside.

Some flat riding out of town to the east, and then I climbed Stage Rd. Wonderful dirt, steep, with only a few cars passing. I saw a Long Trail hiker emerge from the woods, heading into town.

Somewhere nearing the top I turned onto a signed hiking / ski / snomo trail. Some hike a bike for the first 100′ or so, then leveling out on old double track / logging road. I skirted a small pond (north of Preston Pond), dodged some soggy trail, snapped some pics, and pressed on for the overlook.

The overlook trail is a loop, connecting as a U shape to the main trail. I took the first turn for it, riding quite a ways until the roots, rocks, and gradient made it difficult to pedal. Typical of VT trails, this rolled along for a bit, then turned straight up. I’d later learn that I took the longer / harder way up… as my descent from the lookout was equally rocky and rooty, but much shorter, and I think more rideable (for me, with my limited technical mountain bike skills…)

Returning to the double track, I made my way to Notch Rd., where I had hoped to continue on to the Bolton Access Rd. via another set of trails. I was met with some serious ATV rutted double track, and upon exploring a bit found a crew clearing trees. Chainsaws running, and ATVs scurrying up the trail, I assume these folks were prepping the trail for winter snomo use.

Bombing down Notch Rd. led me back to the river valley, where I made my way to the Cross Vermont Trail. This stretch follows the edge of a farm field and a dirt road. In the field it can be wet, and flooding from Irene left the bridge damaged – but it looks like repairs are under way, and the trail was firm.

I followed my path back into town – climbing up Governor Chittenden Rd. past Catamount, eventually meeting up with the family on the waterfront for a fall day out…

~60 miles
~3100′ climbing

Have to find some time for some bike maintenance. The Fargo’s rear derailleur was tweaked somewhere along the Fall Classic. Shifting suffered over the final 12 miles. My chain wouldn’t drop out of the largest cog without some persuasion on the pedals, and it never dropped down into the smallest. Looks like the replaceable hanger is bent – but no adjusting with cable tension nor limit screws seems to help. I’m likely to swap to flat bars and 1×9 for the winter – so it seems this fix will just speed up that process.

The Pugsley is going to get my Titec H-bars. I have cable ready and waiting – just need the time to focus. The bars on the Pugs will go to the Fargo for the winter. Also need to re-pack the rear wheel, and check all the bearings, etc. Want to be ready to roll when the snow flies.

The IF needs a cleaning. And I’ll mount up my spare wheelset with my trainer tires for indoor roller duty. This bike has been ridden maybe only a handful of times since the Fargo arrived. Sad, maybe. But I’m just digging the fat tires now, for pretty much everything…

I’ll let the numbers tell the story:

200k
Pre registered: 11
Did not start: 4
Did not finish: 3
Finished: 4

114k
Pre registered: 10
Registered day of: 3 (brave, to show up morning of!)
Did not start: 5
Did not finish: 5 (completed entire route, but well out of the time limit: 4)
Finished: 3

First 114k finishers in @ 7h20m. (I was lanterne rouge and finished in 7h30m)

First 200k finisher arrived in an amazing 9h30m, which was an incredible ride, under these conditions. A group of three riders made it in just under the time limits @ 13h25m.

I focused on keeping moving to generate heat, and forced myself to drink. Food went down easy. Liquids were tough. The camera stayed tucked away for most of the ride – impossible to operate in my overmitts, and tricky at best in my liner gloves.

I’ve done this ride, and similar loops, many many times, and am always reminded at just how beautiful my neighborhood can be.

Got in a great ride this wet morning, and was treated to another rainbow. The colors faded as I approached the lake – in a matter of minutes a strong full arc double rainbow went to a single band of color looking north to town.

Fall evenings getting cooler. Sky deep and cold blue. Leaves on the ground. Crisp.

First fixed ride in a long long time. Pushing the 2.2 Nevegals is work (while waiting for snow, to mount the Nokian Extreme 294s). Playing in the dirt is a nice change from the skinny tires…

Short fall ride. Busted Time RSX carbon road pedal.

Greg hammered all week to get a roof on a project he was finishing up… so his legs were toast. At the ~35 mile mark he said he felt worse than when we completed the Lake Champlain 200k. Options were to continue on with a major bit of work in front of us, or slowly head back home. He chose to call it, and offered to ride back to my place solo so I could carry on. Not willing to leave him stranded and suffering (and with no way to carry the 10 year old 3 season tent on my own, and manage to still carry my extra layers, food, and stove) – we enjoyed a leisurely ride home.

A bit of a disappointment – but when I woke up this morning to freezing / sleeting rain and took a short ride to the local cafe I was glad not to have spent a night at higher elevation with a 60 mile wet, rainy, 40 degree ride home.

Bike and gear worked admirably. The tent is something I didn’t carry last year. A bivy and tarp setup is in my future for the cold. All in, a good day out.