About 50 days ago in a series of interviews we were consistently asked the question; “What do you think the hardest part of the trip will be?”. Without hesitation I always answered “Day 2, the elevation profile tells me that day 2 will be the hardest.”. My hypothesis was correct for the entire trip all the way until today. I don’t know how or why, but somehow today unexpectedly turned into a BRUTAL day. Brutal in the best way possible, though. This morning we grabbed a great bakery breakfast at Otter Creek Bakery in Middlebury, VT. Working behind the counter was an SPS grad of 2010 who recognized us as the SPS cyclists right away! It was crazy to run into someone familiar with the school and who we were. The breakfast panini’s and blueberry scones were on point as well.
The day of riding began with an absolute BANG up and over the Middleburg gap. We kind of forgot what a true climb feels like. The 10 mile climb was a quick reminder. Actually climbing the pass wasn’t all that bad, but the 70 miles afterwards were a challenge. The flat parts through and around the green mountains were absolutely beautiful (although a bit of a nostalgic trip to day 3 in the Cascades), but then all of a sudden the flat parts weren’t so flat anymore.
At lunch we all sat down absolutely wiped, but also with a weird tingle of excitement running through our veins as we ate on the New Hampshire border! Finally in New Hampshire… unreal. We didn’t actually have an official route from our lunch stop to Grantham, NH so we pulled out google maps and a few other resources to start brainstorming. We quickly realized that there like wasn’t technically a way to get to Grantham, NH without taking interstate’s or dirt roads. Our 18 miles remaining quickly turned into 25 miles remaining with a hefty elevation factor. As the Buddhists of the flock would say, we’re over it. Right before the base of our first climb we caught up with a guy from New Hampshire named Robin. He does a ton of cycling including a bit of local racing. He didn’t have a set-in-stone plan for his afternoon ride so he joined us for the climb. He raised his eye brows when he heard that we were approaching Methodist Hill. Yeah, that scared us…. for a good reason. Methodist hill was absolutely savage. 1.2 mile climb with segments of 17-18% grade. I think we all climbed in disbelief that our legs were actually still pushing up this hill. We got to the top and all reached a state of runners high like euphoria. It was awesome. Drenched in sweat and exhaustion we pushed on for the remaining 14 miles. Incredible descent (55mph!!!), an incredible overgrown bike path following the interstate, and an exciting sign with the actual Concord, NH on it. All was great and happy (and tired) until we reached the base of yet another hill with an absurd grade. With 1.6 miles remaining we looked up at a hill that was probably 1.4 of the 1.6 miles remaining. We laughed. a lot. and then absolutely powered through up to the beautiful King Blossom Farm, our lodging for the night. We were greeted by the most hospitable people ever along with the local fire department and some cycling/veteran friends and neighbors. a great crowd of great people. Great showers, great food, great night. Thank you King Blossom Farm!!
These kinds of days are the absolute best and they really are what makes this trip memorable. I love that we have the ability to end a very hard day (totally unexpected) with laughter and genuine smiles. I can not believe that we are in the state of New Hampshire this close to our final destination!!! Tomorrow we meet up with some people from all sorts of different connections to ride with us into SPS and then the next day is the final 60 mile push to the real East Coast! We’re so darn close!!!
xoxo,
JT
The day of riding began with an absolute BANG up and over the Middleburg gap. We kind of forgot what a true climb feels like. The 10 mile climb was a quick reminder. Actually climbing the pass wasn’t all that bad, but the 70 miles afterwards were a challenge. The flat parts through and around the green mountains were absolutely beautiful (although a bit of a nostalgic trip to day 3 in the Cascades), but then all of a sudden the flat parts weren’t so flat anymore.
At lunch we all sat down absolutely wiped, but also with a weird tingle of excitement running through our veins as we ate on the New Hampshire border! Finally in New Hampshire… unreal. We didn’t actually have an official route from our lunch stop to Grantham, NH so we pulled out google maps and a few other resources to start brainstorming. We quickly realized that there like wasn’t technically a way to get to Grantham, NH without taking interstate’s or dirt roads. Our 18 miles remaining quickly turned into 25 miles remaining with a hefty elevation factor. As the Buddhists of the flock would say, we’re over it. Right before the base of our first climb we caught up with a guy from New Hampshire named Robin. He does a ton of cycling including a bit of local racing. He didn’t have a set-in-stone plan for his afternoon ride so he joined us for the climb. He raised his eye brows when he heard that we were approaching Methodist Hill. Yeah, that scared us…. for a good reason. Methodist hill was absolutely savage. 1.2 mile climb with segments of 17-18% grade. I think we all climbed in disbelief that our legs were actually still pushing up this hill. We got to the top and all reached a state of runners high like euphoria. It was awesome. Drenched in sweat and exhaustion we pushed on for the remaining 14 miles. Incredible descent (55mph!!!), an incredible overgrown bike path following the interstate, and an exciting sign with the actual Concord, NH on it. All was great and happy (and tired) until we reached the base of yet another hill with an absurd grade. With 1.6 miles remaining we looked up at a hill that was probably 1.4 of the 1.6 miles remaining. We laughed. a lot. and then absolutely powered through up to the beautiful King Blossom Farm, our lodging for the night. We were greeted by the most hospitable people ever along with the local fire department and some cycling/veteran friends and neighbors. a great crowd of great people. Great showers, great food, great night. Thank you King Blossom Farm!!
These kinds of days are the absolute best and they really are what makes this trip memorable. I love that we have the ability to end a very hard day (totally unexpected) with laughter and genuine smiles. I can not believe that we are in the state of New Hampshire this close to our final destination!!! Tomorrow we meet up with some people from all sorts of different connections to ride with us into SPS and then the next day is the final 60 mile push to the real East Coast! We’re so darn close!!!
xoxo,
JT
Breakfast panini's at Otter Creek Bakery
New Hampshire border
Cheers to being this close to Concord
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