Friday, August 03, 2007

Day 5 - Shelburne, VT, to Crown Point Bridge

SCHENECTADY, NY - So much for a late start! Woke up way too early and had trouble getting back to sleep. Finally gave up, and wound up hitting the road at 6:45 am. Leaving VT7 was a pleasure when that time came, and the rest of the ride was mostly on back roads. There was a stiff and steady south headwind of about 15-20 mph, so I wound up spinning a lot in much lower gears than I would have otherwise. North of Charlotte, I decided not to take 3 sides of a rectangle as shown on the Champlain Bikeways route, but instead took the direct route, saving myself a couple of miles, but climbing an extra hill in the process. Good riding and good roads, aside from the wind, and the fact that my legs somehow felt like they didn't want to play today. On to Vergennes, where I grabbed an OJ and a breakfast sandwich, visited a park below a waterfall in town, as much for the rest rooms as the view, and then climbed up out of town. East of Vergennes, there's another inexplicable large rectangle that the route wants to do 3 sides of, while the direct route to Panton would save about 6-7 miles. Kind of a no-brainer there, since I wasn't interested in visiting the state park or museum on that longer loop anyway. Finally reached Lake St/Rd, and continued south to West Addison and VT17. I was only about 2 miles from the Crown Point Bridge at that point, but had stopped for a drink and a short standup break. A touring couple from Montreal came along, and we had a nice chat, comparing notes about many of the places we'd both been. They offered to pull me along and break the wind until the bridge, which was most welcome. They accidentally started climbing the bridge, until I brought to their attention that they wanted to stay in Vermont, turning before the bridge, if they were continuing to the Ticonderoga ferry to NY. We said our good-byes, and I finished climbing the bridge, fighting a crosswind but no traffic, and reached the car at the Visitors Center around 10am.

The Numbers:

Distance: 32.89 miles
Rolling time: 2:36:50
Elapsed time: 3:15
Avg speed: 12.5 mph
Max speed: 28.0 mph

TOTAL DISTANCE: 237.95 miles

2 Comments:

At 4:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You didn't do an extra climb to Charlotte as the other route comes in on the steep hill you saw to your right in town. However, going the other direction this is a very scenic loop and worth the extra miles.

 
At 8:54 PM, Blogger Rich said...

All true, I'm sure, but given the wind, my low energy level, the threat of storms, and the mere fact that it was my last day and I could taste the finish, those extra miles just weren't worth it on that day.

 

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