Been exploring the local woods these last couple weeks of ‘stay at home’. Feels great to get back on the bike and get to know my neighbourhood.
A Ride
Morning Routine
Local beans, freshly ground + Chemex
Cotton Brook for Pie
A ride in Cotton Brook for homemade apple pie. The plan was to ride in from the Stowe side and sit out the rain at a lean to in Little River State Park. With a late start and decent weather as the afternoon wore on we just sat trail-side and enjoyed home made pie and fresh coffee instead of riding downhill for 1.6 miles only to have to climb back up…
~20 miles
~2600′ of climbing, ~1600′ in the first 9.7 miles
Rain, chilly, home made pie
Greg’s Mukluk, Wil’s Ice Cream Truck, and my Pugsley
We saw a bear!
Cotton Brook and Little River
Greg, Wil and I did some exploring last weekend up to and through Cotton Brook. On our way into the park we met up with another Will, who I know from a MTB forum and through email chatter about gear and riding in VT. Will slept out the night before, and rode down to meet us at the park entrance. Greg was riding his new-to-him Mukluk – so he took every opportunity to ride up and over logs, rocks and roots.
Cotton Brook is a drainage east of Bolton and north of Little River State Park. Its all good fun – lots of terrain that I’ve explored on the bike and on skis. There is also alot of history here – old farmsteads, cemeteries, a sawmill, and lots of logging roads.
There was some snow on the ground up high, and we encountered some soggy sections of trail – but overall we had a good time exploring. Through some pre-planning on my GPS we found a few ‘missing link’ trails that might yield some Type 2 backcountry exploring / overnighting – its a goal of mine to link Nashville Rd, the trails at Libby’s Lookout, and Bolton Notch over to Cotton Brook / Little River. We added another small piece to the puzzle – and now need to confirm how gnarly the terrain gets, and see how we can tap into it from the Bolton side.
We covered about 16 miles and climbed 4100′. And I brought my stove, so we knocked out Coffeeneuring Ride #… 6 or 7. But I didn’t take any pictures of our rest stop – so it never happened.
Coffeeneuring 2014
Going to add my 2014 Coffeeneuring reports to one post, and update them all here.
Week #1
Coffee outside. Invtervale trail riding, fall colors, and hanging out the day before my birthday. Coffee was Starbucks VIA Columbian, for ease of brewing. Investigating a more mobile coffee setup… but for bikepacking / camping – nothing really beats the VIA and some hot water.
