After an idyllic stay in lovely East Thetford, our bellies were full from homemade breakfast dishes from the cutest town ever - i.e. 'Heaven on Earth'.. We crossed a covered bridge and into a steep hell to wake our legs up for the day.. GOOD #@!# MORNING LEGS!!!!!
Hills kept coming all morning and by the time we stopped for lunch - I was hungry!
We heard rumors about what was in store for our last climb of the day. One of the route leaders said it is 6% grade until the last two miles which are 12-16%+...when she did it last year, it took over 40 minutes to cover the last two miles...
Molly screamed out of town just after we finished lunch. Many of us lounged a bit, filled water bottles and camelbacks, stocked up on snacks and mentally prepared for a blistering afternoon of climbing.
70 + degrees that afternoon.... It was tough - lots of encouragement from cyclist to cyclist as we ascended - a proud accomplisent to climb to Bread Loaf....Popsicles for everyone after sumitting!!!
The descent through the trees went on for miles and miles - I can describe the feeling as being on a crazy roller coaster while your head is tingling like a menthol cough drop...guessing I clocked mid 40s on the descent - exhilarating!!!
When we got to Middlebury,VT.... our wonderful group celebrated our 69 mile climbing day with ice cream sandwiches and a movie...and beer - Magic Hat, please! Also some interesting yoga poses....
I am hearing that these past two days will be the toughest of the trip until the Rockies...stay tuned...
Ben arrived around 7 that night and Molly, Sony, Ben and I went to dinner before Ben took Molly back to NH for her flight the next day. Tough to say good bye to Ben again...
.....and even tougher to say good bye to Molly!
Magoonda - I cannot thank you enough for your support and coaching during this first week of this once in a lifetime adventure. I learned SO much about riding from you this week and I will miss you terribly. I will also miss your crazy tweet stream of random pictures from the road! Hope to see you again when we hit Glacier...and if not, for the last weekend of the ride into Seattle.
XOXOXO, your big sis :)
No comments:
Post a Comment