Day five’s mission was a ride through time from Waterbury to Stowe. Waterbury is a great little town. It has everything: great restaurants, best beer selection and amazing trails. Since we were staying at the Old Stagecoach Inn we were right in the middle of it!
Ryan could only be with us for the first four days of this adventure so early that morning he left to ride directly back to Hyde Park. As for us, we left Mojo in the room for our morning ride and Isa, John, Matt and I geared up and rode to the Perry Hill trails.
We had done so much climbing on the trip so far that for once Perry Hill did not seem that bad.
Up Permission: Isabelle’s favorite climb.
I am always a bit nervous before hitting the slippery ridge on top of burning spear, I once crashed pretty hard here. I was very comfortable on my bike with all the gear on, it seems that the extra weight in the front gives it more traction.
None of us had ridden Six flags and Disneyland before so we did just that. Six Flags was a bit slippery and some of the long slick rocks we did not dare to ride but we had a blast. Isabelle left us to go back to the inn to pickup Mojo and the car.
We rode on singletrack all the way out from Perry Hill and proceeded to get on the road to reach Little River State Park. We climbed the road up to the reservoir. Mojo being injured was really sad. Isabelle and I (mostly Isabelle) had to sacrifice a good portion of the rides to shuttle Mojo. But the upside was regular food and beer stops on the trails! After great sandwiches and delicious Lawson’s Super Session beer we headed back out.
Little River State Park does not have specific mountain bikes trails but it has some magic and historic double track. We rode back in time on old farming roads passing one farm house still standing and many signs telling us the names of the families that used to lived where there are only ruins now.
It was hard to visualize that this used to be all farmland, the forest has really taken back over. We saw many relics of old tools. I think the second one would be perfect to pack fat bike trails! who wants to carry it back?
At one point on the trail we had to choose between a very steep short cut or the gradual long cut. We chose the easy grade of the long cut and when we reached, after 30 minutes, the junction to that shortcut Matt missed the turn for Ricker Lot trail and bombed all the way down to the bottom at warp speed. Noooooo!
In about one minute he lost all the altitude we slowly gained. I went back down for him and we had to climb back up the steep shortcut. What seemed too steep to ride at first was actually OK and we made it back up. I was dead tired and I found a place that seemed like a good place to lay down.
The couple of hours it took us to ride across Little River State Park really sent us through an another dimension. We screamed down the last downhill and had to cross Cotton Brook on this bridge under construction and then we were back into modern civilization.
After exiting the park we were at the bottom of the big hill to get to Trapp Family Lodge. Even if this was our final destination for today we still had some singletrack to ride. The goal of this whole trip was to link all the best singletrack we could manage so we rode to the high school and then hit some of the town loops. At that point we were really tired but somehow riding down Flo made us forget all the mileage we did that day.
In Stowe, we met up with the shuttle crew , Isa and Mojo, had a couple of beers with our good friends at Iride bike shop and then met up with Ryan, his wife Amber and daughter Esmé to eat at The Bench. Dogs and bikes are not allowed so we left them in the parking lot.
With the belly full of good food and beers and even if we had a car at our disposal Isabelle and the crew (minus me the shuttle bitch) put on helmet lights and rode back up to the Trapp lodge. This was our longest day so far and the luxury of Trapp’s felt really good!
TODAY’S STATS
Distance Ridden: 59 km\36 Miles
Altitude Gain: 1,095M\3,592 Feet
Todays Alliances:
Today’s Beers:
The Alchemist Focal Banger & Heady Topper
FULL DIRECTORY OF POSTS FOR THE TRIP
Day 1 – Killington to Pittsfield
Day 2 – Pittsfield to Rochester
Day 3 – Rochester to the Mad River Valley
Day 4 – MRV to Waterbury
Day 5 – Waterbury to Stowe
Day 6 – Stowe to Hyde Park
