Millstone Trails - Barre, VT

Last weekend we brought Harry up to his first sleep away camp in Sharon, VT. We were dropping off Sunday afternoon, but went up Friday afternoon and made a weekend of it. I decided to bring my mountain bike to get some miles in to prepare for the Vermont 666 race this weekend. We stayed in the Stage Coach Stop Hostel in Vershire, which was pretty close to Harry's camp. I'd not recommend this place. It was $45/night which was great, but you get what you pay for. A little out of date. No wi-fi. No cell signal. And the bathroom was just dirty enough to make me want to wear sandals into the shower.

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.

Two Rides: Flat and Fast

I did two rides last week.  Nothing monumental, but I'm starting to ramp it up a bit to get ready for the Buzzards Bay Triathlon, which is coming up in September.

My first ride of the week was hill repeats.  My friend Wendy and I were scheduled to ride up and down Thompson Hill 2 or 3 times.  So I headed out towards the dam.  Just as I was starting to cross the dam, I heard the dreaded sound.  Hissssssss.  No, not snakes.  A flat tire.  Ugh.  Big confession.  I don't know how to change a flat.  I don't even have any equipment to do it.  I carry a spare tube.  So I called Rob and he came right down to rescue me.  While I was waiting for Rob, I texted Wendy to let her know I'd be late.  The dam is narrow.  It is one lane in each direction with absolutely no shoulder.  Quite the opposite, it has a guardrail with a steep drop off on both sides.  I was smack dab in the middle of the dam.  So I just sat down on the guardrail and waited.  Many cars drove by and no one stopped to offer help or see if I was okay.  That seems normal to me.  But then a state police officer drove by.  Nothing.  Not are you okay?  Do you need help?  Can I make a call for you.  Nothing.  I'm still stewing about it now (a week later).  Wendy rode up to the dam to make sure I was okay.  And of course, Rob changed my tire for me.  Wendy and I still got in the hill repeats.  All good.  Lesson learned:  don't ever forget your cell phone on a ride!  Or bring a person who can change a tire.  Or learn how to change a tire.

This is where I got a flat tire.  No shoulder, steep drop off.

My second ride was fast.  I rode with my friend Ken.  We did the same route that I did recently in the big ring.  But faster.  It didn't feel crazy strenuous because we were chatting the whole way.  I was packing up Harry for camp that day and Ken had just gotten back from touring college campus' with his daughter.  Oh the parallels I was drawing between the two situations.  Soon Harry will not be going to camp but will be off to college.  It happens that fast.  I know.  But back to the ride:  it felt good to go that fast!
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Stats:  (I forgot to clear out my computer between rides, so these are both rides combined)
22.32 miles
13.1 average MPH (Ken tells me our ride was a 14.9 average, so those hill repeats did me in!)
30.7 max speed
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Take care and keep pedaling!
~Cori

Thompson Kids' Ride Program Recap

Last Thursday marked the final week of the kids' mountain biking program in Thompson, CT. Last year I had strung together some kids' rides with friends, but thought I'd try to do something more formal this year. Renee Waldron from Thompson Rec happily obliged.

We did an eight week program at the West Thompson Dam, although two of those weeks were rained out. Another one of my Wednesday night crew, Dave Violette, was kind enough to assist with the program. It would have been impossible without another volunteer. Big props to Dave for coming through, especially when he didn't even have a kid in the program. Thanks Dave!

The program had ten kids signed up, including my son Harry. All were between nine and 12 and they were equally split between boys and girls. Most of the kids were pretty consistent in their attendance, although summer vacations and baseball playoffs definitely took their toll.

We had a great summer of rides. Starting with just a little single track and rides of less than 2.5 miles to the last ride we did which was almost all single track and was nearly five miles. Several of the kids showed significant growth in skills and endurance. By the end a few of the kids were approaching some of the tougher obstacles with an eye on getting over them rather than with an eye of figuring out where they should get off their bikes.

The penultimate week we had Ben Stone show up from Bicycle Concepts in Putnam to give the kids a quick bike clinic. Super awesome. Thanks Ben!

The Thompson Villager also showed up that week and did an awesome write up that appeared on page A-9 in last weeks' paper.

The program was only $10 per child and all received a water bottle and a t-shirt. The kids really seemed to like it. In the end we rode a total of 19.89 miles together.

Harry talked to a ton of kids at camp today that had read the article in the paper. I think he liked that quite a bit. Hoping to do the program again next year.

Quick Ride

I had a superbusy day today but decided I really needed to get back in the saddle.  I hadn't ridden since Grey Fox, which is the third weekend in July.  While Rob and Harry were off on the kid's mountain bike ride at the dam, I decided to do a quick road ride.

I took a right out of my driveway and found I was already in the big ring.  I thought of Beckie and all the training that she has been doing for the Pan Mass Challenge.  She has been training for a 120 mile ride.  That Lance Armstrong is also doing.  To crush cancer.  She and 5,000 cyclists are riding this weekend.  I decided right then and there that I would ride this entire short loop in the big ring. 

I took a right onto a windy country road that also happens to have some rolling hills.  I was just starting to get in my head, thinking how hard some of these rollers would be without my middle ring when I came around the corner and saw a beautiful deer just standing in the road.  I unclipped and stopped in an effort to not spook him.  Got out my phone and started to take some pictures while the deer just stood there and stared at me.  When a truck finally came along and stopped, the deer still just stood there motionless.  Both of us were talking to it trying to coax it off the road.  And then some idiot cyclist came up behind the pickup truck and passed it on the left narrowly missing the deer and just pedaled away at full speed.  He never even looked at the deer or acknowledged the people standing in the road.  Sometimes you have to take time to observe the beauty.  This was one of those times.

It's a little hard to see, but there is a deer in the road ahead.

Here's the deer starting to scamper away.

When the deer finally ran off into the woods, I continued on my way.  And suddenly, those rolling hills seemed easy.  Big ring and all.  I turned left to go up by Roseland Park.  I had to stand up a bit to make it up that hill, but I never dropped gears.  And the rest of the ride home was uneventful.

Beautiful night for a ride!  I'm so glad I got out again, even if it was a short ride.
Good luck and happy pedaling to all who are doing the Pan Mass Challenge this weekend!

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Stats:
8.42 miles
14.00 MPH average
26.7 max speed
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~Cori

Recycling: Our July Stats

Well July has come and gone.  Rob decided mid-month to abandon his marathon training which has freed up his time for riding.  So our numbers are on the rise! 

Our Mileage:  222.16

1. Rob rode 43.5 miles on the road and 110.77 in the woods.
2. Cori rode 50.67 miles on the road and 4.1 in the woods.
3. Harry rode 13.12 miles in the woods.

How far is 222.16 miles?  Well, if we started at our house in Thompson, CT and went north-ish for 222.99 miles, we would be in Stowe, VT!  But you wouldn't want that.  Because we wouldn't come back.  Ever.

Random Stats:

# of races - Big fat zero. 
# of states ridden in: 4 (CT, MA, RI, NY).
# of states ridden in 1 day:  3 (Rob rode to the tri-state marker where MA, CT and RI meet).
# of bike commutes - Big fat zero.  It was too damn hot!
# of tires changed - Big fat zero.  Woo hoo!

Coming in August:

Rob is racing the Vermont 30 and the Treasure Valley Rally
Harry is doing the 4 mile Youth/First Timers race at the Treasure Valley Rally
Cori will be starting to do some training rides to get ready for the Buzzards Bay Triathlon in mid-September.
The last Thompson Rec-sanctioned kids' ride at the West Thompson Dam will happen 8/4.  
Hopefully, we will have time to post more than twice!  But rest assured, we are out there pedaling!

Week in Review - 7/10-7/16

Douglas Impromptu Epic.  7/10/11.  Rob Paton, Jonathan Modig and Nathan Butler
So I met Jon Modig and Nathan Butler for a Sunday morning Douglas ride at the Wallis Street lot for 7:00 am on 7/10.  We just wanted to get some miles in before it got too late as I had to get back to the house to make it to the beach later in the day so Cori could ride and swim with her sister.  We started in through the gate and down the fire road to Glenn's Optional (2nd left).  We headed up across 16 to the trail leading into the Laurel Trail.  Did the intestines on the right.  Hit the newer single track through the clear cut on the north side of White's Highway and then across into the Horse Trails.  All going very well.  We're all doing well at this point, but when we come out of the Horse Trails, Nathan flats.  Jon and I do a couple of short laps around a loop while he changes it (quite adeptly I might add).  We head down the trail that hits the SNET. We get down to the spot near the Coffeehouse where the beavers have worked the trail into a small lake. Nathan at that time said he thought that he was leaking air and decided to turn back, leaving Jon and I to go one alone.  At this point we have 9+ miles on.  We headed around the Coffeehouse and decided to hit the Tri-State.  On the way there, we meet up with Nate (Hawkins?) and Paul Lussier.  They are just coming off the Tri-State.  They're not grimacing too much, so we continue onward and upward.  Bony!  But I cleared it.  Entirely.  Yee haw!  Jon does nearly as well.

Headed back up the rest of the Coffeehouse and picked up the Midstate to TBD (also technically the Midstate).  Still fail to clear the hill on TBD.  Never made it.  Not once.  Stupid hill.  I'd say it's all in my head, but it looks pretty real when it's in front of you.  Went across and did the Midstate on the other side of 16.  Beavers have done a number there as well.  Needs a work around.  Somewhere around here we encountered another group of mountain bikers, who Jonathan and I later comment had ridden with us at Mendon last year, but who we don't really know.  Continued up the bony section of the Midstate to get the trail that goes down Double Hills to the rope swing.  Then around to the waterfall and hit Pine needles backwards to Glenn's Optional backwards and out.  All told, 27.502 miles at 9.2 MPH average.  Jon's longest ride.  Ever.  My longest mountain bike ride this year.  I quit marathon training after this ride.  I want to ride like that on Sunday mornings.  Not run 16 miles.  Maybe I'll do a half marathon instead.  We'll see.

Buzzards Bay Triathlon Bike Course.  7/10/11.  Cori Paton and Melanie McSally
My sister and I are doing the Buzzards Bay Triathlon this September in Dartmouth, MA.  We wanted to test out the swim course during high tide and preview the bike course.  We parked at Demarest Lloyd Park in South Dartmouth and headed out of the park.  It is a slight uphill to leave the park.  I need to remember to leave my bike in the middle ring.  Once you leave the park, this is a big ring ride.  The entire ride.  And let me tell you, this is a gorgeous ride!  Picture country roads, rolling farm land, salt marshes, old stone walls, historic houses, etc.  Gorgeous.  Of course, this area is full of nostalgia for my family.  Two of the houses that we lived in while I was growing up are along this course.  So is the strawberry field where I got my first job.  And the full serve gas station where I would buy $1 worth of gas everyday when I first got my license.  Ahhh, memory lane.   It was great to see it all again with my sister.  On top of it all, this ride was a huge confidence builder.  No big hills.  Pavement in great condition.  Some shady areas.  I think we finished the ride with just over 15.5 miles with an average of 14.9 MPH. I didn't get any pictures during the ride, but if you click on the Buzzards Bay Tri link above, there is a video of the bike course.  It is a gorgeous area, so if you are ever down near Horseneck Beach you should bring your road bike!!

Bigelow Hollow.  7/12/11.  Rob, Cori and Harry Paton
Cori and I decided to incorporate a trip to Bigelow Hollow for some riding and swimming before heading to Yankee Spirits to load up on spirit for the bluegrass festival. 

We loaded up our suits, our bikes, our empties and our kid and headed to the park.  It was promising to be a hot day.  We arrived around 10 am and after securing a parking space near the swimming area, got straight to the biking.  Harry rode around on my 29er as I finished getting stuff together.

As we headed in, we saw these weird purple kite looking things.  Turns out there basically giant spinning sheets of fly paper for determining whether those wood boring beetles are in the area.

We decided to keep it simple and just headed into the fire road to Breakneck Pond.  Wasn't too bad, although there was one area of the road that was flooded.  Bigelow is notoriously wet down near Breakneck.

Once we hit the pond, the trail became quite a bit more technical.  Lots of water crossing.  Plenty of rocks and plenty of hills.  We took a moment on the way in to play around on a log on the side of the trail.

Once we hit the lean-to we took a family photo, had a quick rest and headed back from whence we came.

I've got to say, Harry was doing a great job cranking up some of the hills.  He's really improved a lot this year.  Don't let his mom see this, but he was making it up a lot of stuff that she was walking.

We finished up the ride, heading back through the puddle and I dropped Harry and Cori off at the beach. 

We had 4.1 miles at that point at 6.8 mph average.  I continued on and went over Rabbit Rock and back around Breakneck, putting on another 7.4 miles at 8.2 mph average. 

Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival Road Ride.  7/14/11.  Rob and Cori Paton
For the past twelve years, Rob and I have been going to this particular bluegrass festival.  We used to be slugs the entire time we were there...you know, drinking, eating, sitting around listening to great music.  But last year we started bringing our road bikes to leave the venue and explore those foothills of the Catskill Mountains in the morning hours before the music starts.  This is no easy ride.  Beautiful, yes.  Easy, no.  We started out at our campsite (which is in a hay field) in full spandex.  It's a little sketchy on skinny tires and we got some looks from people!  From the festival, we took a left and then a quick right onto a main road.  It was about 85-90 degrees out, but this road was mercifully shady.  But then I take back the mercifully, because it kept climbing up and up and up.  Finally, we found the aptly named (for a bluegrass festival ride) Old Plank Road and took a right.  We went by some farms, got some beautiful views of the mountains and were treated to some superfun rolling hills.  Big ones.  I think Rob maxed out at 38.7 MPH.  I kept my max around 30 MPH.  At some point we turned onto Red Mills Road where Rob encountered a mean dog in the road.  Rob had to get all mean back and yell for the owner so that we could pass.  Here is where we had our second Bluegrass Festival reference.  The house that the owner came out of was all boarded up, had a no trespassing sign and the man had no teeth and a wrench in his hand.  Pedal faster...I hear banjos.  But he was nice and gathered his dog so that we could pass.  All in all, we ended up with 18 miles on the nose and an average of 13.4 MPH.

Busy Week!

Sorry we were so quiet this week.  Summer is here in full swing and we are taking every advantage it has to offer.  Here is a brief recap of our biking adventures this past week.

Friday - Rob rode Huntington State Forest in Bethel, CT.  He went out to check out the course for a trail run that we were doing the next morning (Rob did the 10K and I did the 5K).  He started following the trail markings going backwards but eventually found an intersection to start following the course forwards.  It started off really nice - swoopy, flowy single track that was a BLAST!  If you haven't ridden Huntington State Forest before, it is worth checking out!  Rob eventually started following a trail that he had never ridden, and that is when things got interesting.  Definitely encountered some good climbs in Huntington before, but he came around a corner on a trail that was new to him and the downhill was so steep that his rear end was way off the back end of the bike and still felt like he was going over the handlebars.  It was only at the bottom that he could take his eyes off the trail immediately in front and saw it...the giant hill just as steep and probably longer in front.  He knew there was trouble when he saw the big chalk smiley face on the ground marked for the race.  Maybe it was mocking him.  He went at it pretending he was going to ride it but knowing there was no way in hell.  He did stop at the bottom to take this picture. 

So up he trudged, barely able to push the bike up the hill.  He reached the top and found the exact same down and up in front again.  What the heck?  On top of being nigh  impossible for mountain biking, this did not bode well for the running of the trail race the next morning.  Eventually things calmed down and he started following some nice single track and fire roads before the final ascent to the parking lot.  Rob insists on pointing out here that he rocked the final ascent, a way narrow trail through dense brush forming a tunnel and popping up countless really difficult water breaks.

Monday - We both brought our road bikes down to the lake to get in a road ride together in the area around Candlewood Lake and New Fairfield.  I, however, opted to spend my Monday noodling off the back of the boat on the lake, having told Rob that we could ride bikes any old time, but it's not every day we can noodle off the boat.  Rob thought I was wimping out.  He went out anyways and did a 25.5 mile road ride.  He took a right out of the Knolls and headed down past Squantz Pond and then started hitting the hills.  There is one hill in particular with a B-I-G climb and then a really nice descent.  Only trouble is it's a 30 MPH zone coming down because of all the curves.  Plus the road was still damp where the trees overhung.  Heading down this at 45 MPH is super-sketchy to say the least!  And then the 1.25 mile climb back out.  Ugh.  Anyhow, he finished with 25.5 miles at 16.6 average (did I mention it was REALLY hilly).  I think in the end, I made the right choice by opting for noodling over riding.

Thursday - Rob and Harry did the Thompson Recreation Kids' Mountain Bike Ride at the Thompson Dam.  Rob leads a group of about 10 kids (and some parents) on some of the carriage roads and single track.  It was an awesome ride this week.  A few of the kids, including Harry, are showing some real skill.  We still have kids showing up for the first time and that is throwing them off a little in terms of being able to stick together.  Everyone seems to be having fun though.  We were able to throw more single track into the mix this week.  We finished this ride with 2.75 miles.  At the same time, Cori went out with her friend Michelle to do a bike/swim/bike brick.  They biked 8.33 miles up to Quaddick Lake and then swam the length of the beach 4 times before riding home again.  It was a hot night and the swim in the middle was fantastic!


So that is it.  One busy week, with plenty of bike miles in the Paton household. 

~ Keep Pedaling