Quechee to Bethel: In Vermont You Earn Every Descent

We rented a place in Quechee Vermont for Memorial Day weekend.  I did a bunch of digging ahead of time trying to find a good road loop in the area.  In the end I just popped open Google Maps, picked a destination, and hit the cycling directions option.

Vermonting in Vermont

The town of Bethel was 25 miles away.  It looked like it had a bakery and a market. The right distance.  Places to get some food & water.  All side roads.  

A Dam On The Quechee River 

50 miles in Vermont means a lot of ups and downs.  It's hilly there!  Well, quite a bit hillier than eastern Massachusetts, anyway.  And gorgeous.  Most of the route paralleled a river, but getting into the valley meant riding from one river valley to another.  

The roads had fairly light traffic and almost as a rule the drivers gave me oodles of space when they passed.  It seemed to me that the Vermont version of the "punishment pass" was only giving me four feet.  As I left the Quechee River Valley, I realized there was a long climb followed by a LONG descent down to the White River.  I realized it was going to be an interesting return trip if I chose to do an out and back along the same route from Bethel.

Regardless of the climbing and descending, the area was simply gorgeous. The route was nicely simple.  From one valley to another.  Ride along a river.  Take a left and ride into a town.  

The weather was perfect.  Sunny.  Maybe even a bit warm.  I was carrying three water bottles on my bike.  I had my trunk with me with some extra food, a cable lock, and some spare clothing in case the forecast was wrong (vest, arm/knee warmers).  You never know.

Finally I got to Bethel.  As it turned out it was not a very big town at all.  And most of the shops were closed for the holiday weekend.  Fortunately, the little market with the very friendly people staffing it was open.  I bought some water, Gatorade, Coca Cola, and a packet of peanuts.

I popped open Google Maps to see what my options were going back.  I picked an alternate route back.  Unfortunately, when I remounted I rode in the wrong direction and then circled back.  When I did that Google Maps re-set me to its preferred cycling route back to Quechee -- the same way I came.  I really had wanted to go another way just to experience some different terrain.  It would have taken me on the other side of the White River.  Additionally, the route would have passed closer to Woodstock where my wife & daughter were spending part of the day.  I thought that I might have been able to meet up with them there.  Oh well.

There were a few historical markers along the way detailing incidents around the Revolutionary War and Lafayette's visit/return later in life. 

Along the way there was a little backup in traffic while someone backed his boat into a driveway.  Oh, I should mention there was tons of spots to pull off and go into the river.  If I were the swimming type, I might have taken advantage of it.  I also had a nice conversation with a motorcyclist while we were rolling slowly in traffic.  There were lots of motorcyclists out enjoying the day.  Had I gone through Woodstock I would have seen more cyclists.  My wife told me there were lots of people out riding on the other side of the river.  I saw a scant handful all day.

Finally, I got to the bridge over the White River.  And the climbing began.  And the climbing went on and on and on.  I just got into a comfortable gear and ground away.  Up and up.  Periodically I had to stand up in the pedals just to stretch and vary the stresses on my body.  On the way up I passed a group of hikers with fishing poles.  I wish I had stopped for a minute to hear that story.  But anyway, the endless climb just continued endlessly.

Until it was finally over and I crested the climb.  There was no way I was going to touch my brakes going down to Quechee.  I couldn't believe how shot my legs were.  I soft pedaled on the crazy descent, just to keep the blood moving in my legs.  After bottoming out at the Quechee River I had a couple small climbs up to my rental.  My legs just felt dead.  It was great.  Anyway, I finished up.  Texted my wife and sat at the table for a good ten or fifteen minutes before I moved again.  

It was a tremendous ride.  About 51 miles and it felt tougher than a lot of 100 mile rides I've done.

Thanks for reading.  Keep the rubber side down.

No, It's Not Your Grandpa's Bike Ride

 Richard, Jay, and I have been ramping up the mileage for Outriders.  A one day 128 mile ride from Boston to Provincetown. Just. For Fun.  No fundraising.  The past couple weeks we've intended to go out for about 65 miles.  On both weekends we ended up doing just 54 miles.  This weekend, though we were determined.  The first weekend we cut it short due to bad weather.  The second weekend, we had to change the route due to road construction.  This weekend? Marlboro Man.  No, we weren't going to smoke a pack and call it a day.  The route goes out through Marlborough.  I was sure it was about 65 miles in its shortest variant (I do have a longer 90 mile ride built off it).

Meanwhile, somewhere in Sudbury

This is kinda sort the route, but not quite.  Oops

We met up around 9:30 AM.  It was a little chilly, but sunny.  So I decided to go with a vest, jersey, arm warmers, thermal bib tights, and wool socks.  It worked out pretty well for the day.  I wore a cycling cap under my helmet and had a thin gaiter in my back pocket in case I did get cold.

Getting ready to roll out

We spun out easily from Brookline.  I think there was a bit of a tail wind.  I had taken the day before as a rest day off the bike and got an excellent night's sleep, so my legs felt really fresh.  In Weston we hopped on the MCRT rail trail where we were passed by an absolute lunatic yelling "on your left" at the top of his lungs.  I was embarrassed as a cyclist, an American, and as a human being.  He scared the bejesus out of a pedestrian.  When we passed her I said in as a conversational tone as possible "uh, we are not with that guy.  Sorry about that."  While we were hanging out at the MCRT, Richard revealed he had done a 72 mile ride earlier in the week.  I think he's ready for Outriders already.

Snack stop at the end of the MCRT in Wayland

Riding out through Water Row were were overflown by an incredibly majestic bald eagle.  I've never seen one that close up before.  It was amazing.  I immediately thought how very wrong Benjamin Franklin was to have preferred the wild turkey as our national bird.  Weather wise, it was an odd day.  If the sun was out, it was warm.  If it was behind a cloud, it was cold and you wanted your arm warmers on.  While riding down Water Row we saw a right hand drive range rover with a dog in the passenger seat.  It totally looked like the dog was driving the car.  Don't drive angry, Rover.

126 was a mess -- they're prepping it for repaving.  It was a relief to bang a left on 117 and take it west.  It was also quite scenic.

We stopped at a convenience store/Dunkin Donuts in Sudbury where Richard finally released an inchworm that had hitched onto him in Newton.  We split a gallon of water.  As we continued on through Stow, Maynard, and Bolton, traffic was pretty heavy at times.  Finally, we got to the intersection with route 85.  One of the things I like about "Marlboro Man" is how simple a route it is for such a long distance.  126 to 117 to 85.  Then take the Marathon Route back into town.  For the 90 mile version, just keep going on 85 to Milford.  Then jump on 16 into town.

Always salacious Betty Boop

After passing through Hudson we stopped at a gas station/convenience store for more food.  Jay seemed to be very hungry.  I'm not sure he'd been staying on top of eating consistently due to food fatigue.  You can get sick of eating the same bike food all the time.  It can make it difficult to take on enough calories to keep going.

All along 85 we were generally going up.  Sometimes the ascent was steep, sometimes, less so, but the general trend is up up up.

The old DMV building. As seen in the film Knives Out

After passing through Marlborough, Northborough, and Southborough, we finally got to Hopkington, 50 plus miles into the ride.  At this point I realized it was going to be quite a bit longer than 65 miles for the day.  I forgot that it was an earlier version of Marlboro Man that was 65 -- that one went out via Watertown.  By going out to Wayland and Sudbury, we'd tacked on quite a few miles.  It was also apparent that Jay was having a difficult day.

It's a steep long climb up to Hopkington from Southborough.  Jay was not having fun.  

Jay is not having fun.

Welcome to Hopkinton

The good thing about arriving in Hopkinton is we'd finished with all the tough riding.  While there was still about 20 miles left, it wasn't going to feature much significant climbing.  Also, since it's along the marathon route, it's a bit of a known quantity.  We rested at the gazebo.  Richard & I made sure to eat.  Finally, it was time to fly down the big descent from Hopkinton into Ashland.  At this point I kept seriously gapping Jay and Richard.  After a bit I rode along side Jay and found out he hadn't eaten in Hopkinton!  We pulled over and I gave him my Skratch Labs drink mix.  We weren't too far from Natick and we planned on stopping at a bakery there.

Scones!

At the bakery we got some scones and filled our water bottles.  There was a young girl in the bakery looking at us through the window.  I waved hello and she came out with her father.  He said she was calling us "the grandpa group".  Honestly, my day would have been better if I hadn't heard that.  The grandpa group.  Ooof.

Anyway, we saddled up for the last 12 miles of the ride.  A segment I know extremely well since it's my normal bike commute route.  It kind of flew by and we were done.  78 miles.  oops.  I felt really bad about it, because clearly 65 was the right number.  And a better increment from the 54 mile loops we'd been doing.  Oh well.

Inside of 128.  Finally

Back in Brookline after 78 miles.

We'll probably do another 78 mile loop, likely the same ride.  And then try to squeeze in a 100 mile ride before Outriders.  As always, you learn every year the importance of eating and drinking.  A couple weeks prior I had really bad leg cramps after riding.  This time I had stayed on top of hydration.  I weighed the same after the ride as before.  So, no leg cramps.

Anyway, thanks for reading.  Keep the rubber side down.

2024 Midnight Marathon Ride: We've got both kinds of fun here.

The Midnight Marathon Ride is the first event of my cycling year.  It's unfailingly one of the most intense.  Riding late at night out & back along the Boston Marathon course with a couple thousand other cyclists is pretty special.  There are also people running, roller blading, and riding those bizarre electric unicycles with glowing helmets.  I've seen groups of people who are running out so they can run back in the morning!

Meeting up to ride with Andy & Richard

I had a couple friends bag out ahead of time.  One was in Vermont for a bar mitzvah and the other had to start a new job on Monday.  Then at the last minute I had another friend, Andy, decide to join me.  My buddy Richard was going to ride regardless.  Last year Richard was just getting into cycling.  This year he's a seasoned veteran.  So we had a group of three.  There was also a group put together by coworkers, but they were starting later than I wanted.

Just a few days earlier I had returned from Israel where I was visiting my daughter.  So jetlag was a real thing.  As a result I wanted to go on the early side.  Maybe 7 PM.

In the event we spent much of the day worrying about weather and trying to decide if to ride at all.

I was really leaning towards bagging out entirely.  I get plenty of rainy cycling done while commuting by bike.  Also, jetlag.  Fortunately, Richard wasn't going to have any of that and got us out of the house and meeting up around 8 PM.  Kudos to Richard for getting me off my couch.  The toughest part of any ride.

It was in the low 50s (about 10C) with some rain in the forecast.  So I wore my new waterproof Pearlizumi jacket, insulated bib tights, shorts, jersey, and arm warmers.  I also carried hand warmers, space blankets, three water bottles, and food.  In case it got cold, I also had a fleece gaiter & helmet liner.

Some of the snacks I carried, three water bottles in the background

We had a nice easy spin out of town.  Since it was a bit early in the evening there was still a surprising amount of traffic until we got past Newton Center.  

Ten miles in we stopped to eat & drink a bit.  And some light rain started.  Andy didn't really have a whole lot of miles in his legs for the year, so we wanted to make sure we kept the pace down -- and that we stayed on top of eating & hydration.  52 miles with no official pit stops is something.

The rain continued on and off.  We made some porta pottie stops.  When we got to Framingham Richard had a puncture.  Fortunately, this was right by a gas station, so we were able to get under cover in a well light area to work on it.  When the roads are wet it's easier to get a puncture.  We were joined by another group who had a puncture as well.

Tubeless tires, still unfamiliar to me

While we were stopped there Andy took advantage of the break to buy a snack and a sports drink.  This was the first time Andy had done the Midnight Marathon Ride.  It seemed like he was having a blast.

After getting it all sorted out (I was vaguely freaked out when I realized I forgot my mini pump at home), we resumed heading west.  We very carefully went over the two sets of train tracks -- as close to a 90 degree angle as possible.  The importance of doing this was underlined by seeing someone take a spill on the other side of the road.  He was in a big group that stopped for him, so we pressed on.

After Framingham it gets very rural in Ashland.  We could hear the frogs making a racket.  There were also people who had come out of their homes to have a bit of a party/cheer on the cyclists.

We took another break just before the really steep bit of climbing up to Hopkinton.  

This year my friend Tyler was away on vacation, so I didn't have anyone to meet with at the marathon start.  We made it up the big climb -- and there were a ton of cyclists up there.  We took a short break to eat & drink some more.  Amid the huge crowd of cyclists there was a group of roller bladers in the gazebo.  On the climb up to Hopkinton we had been passed by the group of my coworkers, but there was no chance of finding them in the dark.

If it had been a long climb up to Hopkinton from and through Ashland, it was going to be a fast dark descent back down towards Boston.  I reminded Andy and Richard to set their headlights on high if they could.  I had two headlights.  A 1200 lumen Magicshine as my main light and a PlanetBike Beamer 700 as a secondary light.  Normally on a nighttime commute, I run the Beamer on blink and the MagicShine on high.  Since the Midnight Marathon Ride is a long ride entirely at night, I was using the MagicShine on low to conserve battery.  Only turning it on high on descents or when the rain picked up (as it turned out I finished the night only having used half of its rechargeable battery).  The Beamer I had left off to use in case of a problem with the MagicShine, though I would turn it on during descents when I wanted extra coverage of the road.  Towns along the route generally clean and patch all the Marathon roads, but you just can't be too sure.

Andy, Richard, and I walked over to the start line mounted up, and began the zoom downhill.  I kind of outpaced them here and had to slow down a bit after a while.  At this point, late at night, on very quiet roads, we should have ridden side by side to talk, and no single file.  Being in front I also couldn't gauge what was a comfortable pace for my friends, so I kept creating a gap.  Pretty dumb on my part.

We got passed by some of the roller bladers, who were not enjoying the wet roads.  Apparently, roller blades aren't particularly grippy.  Can I do a shout out to my Specialized All Condition Armadillo tires?  They may be slower than race tires, but they are tough, and they grab onto the road even when it's wet.  

We crossed back over the sets of tracks in Framingham without incident.

Shortly thereafter my rear shifter cable snapped.  My bike is overdue for a tuneup.  There was about 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of shifting on that cable, including lots of crap weather cycling.

Landry's Bikes removed this from my shifter

When your rear cable goes, the derailleur loses tension and goes to the hardest gear.  I still had the front rings to shift it, so it was a choice between tough and super tough gears.  Any incline at all felt like a huge hill and I had to get up out of the saddle to keep turning the cranks.  On flats & downhills I had to go faster so I could ride with a comfortable cadence.

I pulled over and tried to figure out some way to jerry rig the bike into a better gear to no avail.  Now I was going to have to ride faster than Richard and Andy were comfortable with -- and do my best on the hills.  We talked about it.  There was some thought to have Andy grab a rideshare home and circle back with his car and its bike rack.  Meh, I thought. Meh!  While I was not going to do Heartbreak Hill in the decidedly wrong gear, I was pretty sure I could do my commute route home.  That would mean Beacon instead of Comm Ave.  So, still a few hills, but I thought I had a shot at it.  We agreed to stay in touch via texts and split up.

Going up hills was tough.  My back was already hurting from the effort.  Still, I was managing to do it without walking up anything.  I got into a largish group while going through Wellesley -- I was still on the Marathon route.  My split off it wasn't for another few miles.

I talked to another cold, tired, and hungry cyclist about the route.  He wasn't sure where the next turn was.  It turned out he was one of my coworkers!  Though I didn't realize it until he pulled away and I saw he was wearing company branded cycling kit.

Going down the descent from Wellesley to the Charles River there was a cyclist on a mountain bike holding a phone making a video of the plunge.  I was not happy.  We were in a big group, so I couldn't hit the brakes to back off or pedal harder to get away from him.  Late at night on wet roads in a mixed group is not the time to ride with one hand on the handlebars not paying close attention.  Once we leveled off and slowed down a bit I gave him my open and honest opinion ("Put the f'ing phone away, jackass").  

And here is where I had to split off the Marathon route.  I rode along the Charles on Quinobequinn Road.  The hill up to Beacon Street in Waban is so steep that I did have to walk.  Kind of a bummer.  There were lots of rabbits out and about, though.

The rest of the way I was able to ride in the pedals.  Cranking up hills somehow and deeply thankful that I had hit the weights over the winter.  I would not have had the leg strength without those heavy squats and deadlifts.  

Well, it was worth trying

In Newton Center I saw that the Hubway/Bluebikes were out, so I grabbed one and tried to ride a bit in the parking lot holding my bike with my left hand (uh, it's not a phone, I guess and I wasn't in a pack).  It was no go however.  So I put the bikeshare bike back in its rack and kept going. It was something else to climb up out of the saddle standing in the pedals.  I usually spin up climbs, I don't jam on the pedals.  

In Cleveland Circle I rejoined the Marathon route.  There were just tons of cyclists on the road. Finally, I got to Coolidge Corner where I was going to end my night.  Riding on a single speed in the wrong gear just isn't my thing.  And I was hurting (the next day I was amazingly sore).

I took a few photos and then rode home.  46 miles instead of 52.  Oh well.  Still I had both kinds of fun.  Type 1: fun-fun.  Riding with my friends, kidding around with other people, taking in the spectacle and the scene of the Midnight Marathon Ride.  And then Type 2 fun: it hurts in the moment, but you look back on it with a sense of accomplishment.  I confirmed that Richard & Andy were almost home too.  So, it was all good.  Anyway, thanks for reading and keep the rubber side down.

Roll Up, Roll Up for the Magical Humidity Tour

 "Hey guys, you up for a short ride this weekend? Around 50 miles?"  Sort of a humblebrag, but also a measure of how much riding Jay and Richard have been doing this year that anything under 60 miles really isn't a major ride.  Unless it has a mountain pass, I guess, but whatever.  That was the plan.  Some kind of weekend ride.  As we got closer to the weekend the forecast looked a bit worse for the afternoons -- thunderstorms both days.  We shifted to a morning ride, hoping to beat any rain.  Then Richard noticed that there was an official Harbor to the Bay (H2B) training ride scheduled.  The ride to & from the start of which would come up to about 50 miles. As a bonus the ride was organized by my friend, Tina.

I've kind of felt bad that I haven't run any organized training rides for the H2B this year.  Part of that has been due to the bigger miles we've been doing all summer long.  Anyway, we decided to do the H2B training ride.

Jay, Richard, and I met up in Washington Square to ride to the start/finish at Cold Spring Park in Newton.  It was cloudy and HUMID.  Really gross.  I took my Diverge in case of rain.  It has full fenders, disc brakes, and I could throw some rain gear into the trunk bag.

There were A LOT of runners out.  We wondered if they were trying get their workout in before it got hotter and/or started raining.  Suddenly I realized there was something sticky on the back of my left leg. It was really gross and distracting.  At the time I thought it was chewing gum kicked up off the road, but in retrospect I think it was something that was on the bench I was sitting on while waiting for Jay and Richard.  This doesn't make it any less disgusting.  After trying and failing to wipe whatever it was off while riding, I pulled over.  Amusingly, I did this right by my friend Jesse's house.  He was walking out to go to shul and said hello.  Jesse used to pass me every day on my bike commute in his minivan.  He'd wave hello, we'd talk at red lights, and eventually, we rode together while he biked his daughter to daycare.

We were also passed by this recumbent duo while stopped

After getting sufficiently cleaned up, we resumed our ride to Cold Spring Park.  We had a ton of buffer time, but I forgot to ask the guys if they wanted to stop for coffee or something along the way.

We were the first people to arrive at the start/finish.  After a bit people started showing up, including a largish group that started from the boathouse in JP.  One of the riders included my friend Ji, who I had first met while I was doing a solo ride to Ptown on zero sleep last year.  He's super fast and I knew I'd pretty much only be able to say hello at the start.

After some pre-ride instructions from Warren and Tina & a go round introducing ourselves we broke up into smaller groups.  A woman named Pennie joined Jay, Richard, Tina, and me.  The route for the day went out to the Weston/Lincoln/Sudbury area but often on roads that I don't usually take.

I was in the lead and was trying to set a very moderate pace.  As it turned out it was far too fast for Pennie.  We were going up the long steady climb on Newton Road to Weston Center when I heard Jay & Richard shouting for me to stop.  Pennie had been riding well above herself.  Additionally, the sun was kind of burning through the clouds making the sticky humidity feel even heavier.  We'd been riding for maybe 30 minutes at this point.  Even tougher, Pennie was wearing a reflective vest and a cotton t-shirt.  

Cotton is really bad for exercising.  It's heavy, it doesn't really breath, and it doesn't dry quickly.  Pennie also about three liters of water in two bottles in her pannier as well as a heavy bike lock.  In some ways this was good news as it offered a few ways we could make things easier for her.  She doffed the vest and t-shirt (it's OK, folks, she had a jog bra), so that helped the cooling situation very quickly.  I took one of her water bottles and we distributed parts of the U-lock between Richard and me.  This meant she'd ditched quite a bit of dead weight and would cool down once we started moving again.

These are just very typical mistakes people make when transitioning from short city rides to long distance endurance rides.  I remember riding out to Cape Cod with my wife back in the late 90's while wearing a very heavy cotton top and super overloaded panniers.  I did my first century rides wearing sneakers.  

We all learn not to do long rides in cotton t-shirts. Note the U-lock on the handlebar and heavy backpack too! Ouch!

Everyone starts in sneakers. From my first 100 mile bike ride. 

Anyway, after Pennie had a chance to drink, eat something, and catch her breath, we re-mounted and continued on.  Wow, the cooling effect of getting moving again felt great.  We had stopped just shy of the top of the climb, so we also got to do a bit of freewheeling.

Gotta dig those stone walls. Olde New Englande, baby!

Jay and Tina chatting behind me

Riding through some really lovely side roads we approached the first official stop of the day at the scultpure garden at the DeCordova Museum.  It turned out they had bathrooms and a water fountain (a bubbler as we call it in eastern Mass).  I downed a whole bottle of water on this break.  I also ate a Clif bar.  The cloud cover kinda varied through the morning.  I was just grateful it wasn't raining at all.  Though it did get a touch misty after we left the museum.  Tina joined another group as an effort to mix up the groups socially at this point.

Pennie was doing a lot better with the lighter load on the bike.  We took some time to chat while riding.  Learning to back off the effort while going uphill is an important skill for really long distances.  There are times when you want to burn those matches on hard efforts, but generally, you just want to spin it all out.

We stopped by a store in Sudbury and then continued on to Ponyhendge.  We also rode past Sherman's Bridge, a rough wooden bridge which I love to jam over for effect. Somehow we got in front of Ji's group and he and I got to ride together very briefly.

I think one of the rules is you have to take photos of sunflowers if you see them

Got to ride with Ji. A brief treat.

Ponyhenge.  

Tina, Ji, Jason, Pennie, and Jay

The groups had all come together at Ponyhendge.  At least I think it was all the groups.  We split up again letting the faster groups go ahead of us.  We took an off route longish stop at Brothers supermarket in Weston.  It was great to sit down for a bit.  We got a gallon of water, some gatorade, iced coffee, and snacks.  I tend to think it's important to sit down when you're at a stop on long rides.  

Our group at a stop light

After the Brothers stop, we had the always fun plunge down Newton Road.  This was the same long steady climb that caused so much tsuris earlier in the day.  Now it was not only downhill, it was all in the shade.  Zoom!  After that, still more descending after we passed over 128.

The heat and humidity were getting to me, folks.

It was less than ten relatively easy miles back to Cold Spring Park.  At this point it was a new personal record for Pennie with each pedal stroke.  

Pennie at the finish, justifiably proud and happy

After congratulating Pennie, Jay, Richard, and I rode the five miles back to Brookline, with a nice just under 50 mile ride in the books.

As always, thanks for reading.  Keep the rubber side down.