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| Me (Dave Alden),
Mike Lawless, Doug Salb, Jason Byrnes, Roz Puleo, Nathan
Smith, and Arsen Sheraj |
On August 24th, I was able to round up six
peeps to get up to Vermont for a day-trip of some of the best
riding on the planet.
Unless you were there—or home because
of knee pain—you missed an AWESOME ride. (Of course,
it wouldn't have been half as good of a ride without the home
made muffins Jean made at 5:30 that morning before we hit
the road!)
Jean and I first rode here a couple of years
ago, and I have been addicted to its hundreds of miles of
singletrack ever since.
After a long summer of no riding (school
& surgery rehab), I was desperate to get up there.
 Nathan
(who drove out from NY), Jason and Doug had been there before,
but this was the first time for Mike, Arsen and Roz.
We met at my house at 6:30 and were on the
road by 7:00. After a couple of stops for gas or bathrooms,
we got to East Burke by about 10:30. We got our trail passes,
maps, snacks and prepared to ride. We were on the trail by
about 11:15.
It was all about the singletrack for the
next four hours.
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| The ditch that
swallowed Arsen. |
Arsen was the first casualty when his front
wheel slid out while he was avoiding a huge ditch that crossed
a trail. The trail zigged, he zagged and ended up in the hole
anyway.
The only other “rider down” was
me. Somehow I ended up on the ground, with the bike totally
upside down (on the seat and handlebars), still clipped in.
Nathan was fast draw on the camera, but Mike (firefighter
and EMT) pulled me from the wreckage before Nathan could get
the shot. I’m *almost* disappointed.
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| Hmmmph? |
We stopped for a quick lunch after a couple
of hours and while most if us enjoyed Clif Bars, Arsen whipped
out a spinach pie. On another ride, last year, he and his
brother had tuna sandwiches in their packs. Strange neighbors
indeed.
None of us had a cycling computer, so I don’t
know how far we went. It doesn’t really matter though,
after about 4 hours on the trail, we were running out of water
and running out of energy.
We got back to the cars, loaded up, stopped
back in town for some “road food,” and started
the three and a half hour trek back home.
Weekend traffic on 93 south kind of sucked,
but the trails are soooo worth the trip.
I don’t know
if I’ll make it back up there this year, but either
way, I can’t wait until I do...
Misc pics below...
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| Arsen (top) and Doug (right). |
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| I think Roz is hooked. |
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|
| I hate captions. Always
have, always will. This is Mike (top) and Jason (right). |
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| Yeah. That's Nathan... |
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| How's that spinach
pie working out for you? |
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