Anyhow, we went to Woodstock on Saturday afternoon and I asked about local trails near Vershire at the LBS. The guy working the counter thought there were some, but didn't know anything about them. He recommended shlepping over to Barre to hit Millstone.
I did try to find some local stuff Saturday afternoon riding out of the hostel and was successful in finding the Cross Rivendell Trail which runs 36 miles across a number of towns. It was billed as foot traffic only, but it had been pretty dry and I decided to check it out. I took it toward Flagpole Hill. I probably got a 1/2 mile, but it was up and Up and UP. It definitely wasn't made for bikes (just like the sign said). It was pretty smooth single track, but the climb was so unforgiving. I turned around and bombed down. Wound up putting on 14.5 miles, but mostly dirt roads and some paved road. Not what I was hoping for.
Cori, super wife extraordinaire, suggested maybe we could drop me off at Millstone Sunday morning before we headed down to Camp Downer to drop Harry off. Arm twisted, I agreed to suck it up and ride Millstone. I've been hearing about it for a while now.
It was about a 40 minute ride up from where we were staying in Vershire. We stopped at the Soup N' Greens Restaurant for a really good breakfast in Barre. I had the chipped beef over toast with home fries. Awesome!
We located the Touring Center for Millstone with a little work. Bought my $10 day pass from a super friendly attendant, albeit one who was quite obviously not a mountain biker. She asked me my level and I decided to say advanced. She suggested I go right out the back and start following the red arrows. That was supposed to tie together two and a half hours of their premier advanced single track. She also mentioned a bunch of new trails - Roller Coaster, Screamin' Demon, Harrington Heights, but said they weren't on the red loop.
I decided to take the 2:30 hour lap. Cori agreed to meet me 2:45 later. Despite having been told that Millstone was more about the flow than big ups and downs, I felt like I was climbing out of the gate. I was heading up to the Grand Lookout, from which I was told I'd be able to see all the way to Canada. It was a steady climb on a fire road with deep quarries on both sides, but the climb was not too steep. I knew from what I'd been told that I'd hit the Lookout and head right back down. About 2/3 of the way up I was summoned off the red loop by the Sirens' song of Roller Coaster summoning me to my left. So much for the red loop.
I started into the Roller Coaster following right beside a three million foot drop into a water filled quarry. There were some cut slab of granite at the end that had a wicked cool series of bridges down them. The bridges were very well built. They were kind of like if you put your fingers together interlocked knuckle to knuckle and tilted into the center. That made it so if you slipped, you'd slip toward the center of the bridge.
Within a 1/2 mile of starting Roller Coaster I was again drawn off the trail. This time by Screamin' Demon. This trail was super fun, technical rolly single track. There was one area where I was headed down a rock that was slick and off camber, falling to my right. I was sliding down the slope of the rock and downward at the same time. It was steep enough down that I was thoroughly unable to stop. I saw the dip at the bottom and knew I was going over. And go over I did. That was the hardest I've hit my helmet on a rock. I got up dazed, shook it off and took a physical inventory. I was all there. Time to move on.
After some fun bridges and wooden planked berms covered in chicken wire, I was back on Roller Coaster. I got a little stuck after that for about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes. I was stuck in Abbott's Run, Rock and Roll, and Holy Roller. There was a really cool spot called Train Wreck in this vicinity.
But after riding past this four times I still hadn't found my way back to the other trails. I rode back to Roller Coaster a couple of times, but it was a one way down the way I came. Eventually a local came by and explained my best bet was going out to the road and the Touring Center where I started was right around the corner. He was headed to Harrington Heights and was singing its praises. He offered to show me over there, but I opted to get out and back onto the main Red Loop again.
This time I headed all the way up to the Grand Lookout, almost tempted back into Roller Coaster, but I tied myself to my mast and made it past and onward. The view from Grand Lookout was all it was cracked up to be. If you rode past the edge, you were facing a certain death. I was going to say a quick and certain death, but I imagine it would take you quite a while to reach bottom.
I headed back down the trail and picked up Whetmore, staying on the red loop. Some nice single track. Went past a weird area with piles of granite slab and on top of that all sorts of steel cables and on top of that a wind turbine. An old car sat at the bottom of the pile.
I crossed over the road and hit some nice trails. I remember Switchback being a lot of fun. Although I did encounter a family of four riding with a dog that chose to abandon the family and ride with me for a LONG way. Finally, they reclaimed control of Rosie and I continued on my way. As I'd wasted too much time when I was side tracked on Roller Coaster, I wasn't going to be able to finish the red loop. I headed back from whence I had
come. Made it back to the Touring Center area with a half hour left and decided to hit Roller Coaster and Scremin' Demon one more time.
So how was Millstone. Hilly. Fun. Infuriating (when I was stuck). I'd really like to get back there with a full day to explore. And maybe some locals to show me around. Definitely worth the trip and worth the $10 fee. Do it.
Final Stats: 12.491 miles at 7.4 mph average.
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