Last night, Pat (the retired teacher) asked to see the route through Vermont I am riding. I gave him my phone with the map open. He pinched and swiped for a few minutes and laughed to himself a few times as he did so. When he handed the phone back, he looked me in the eyes and said “you have some hills ahead of you.” I said, “I know.” In retrospect, I’m not sure I really did know.
Pedaling began at 6:30 this morning (yes, Karen, you read that right) after leaving the payment for the room plus a small donation. Not 10 minutes in, the hills started, and they lasted for the entire 13 hour ride. One after another after another.
There must be like 6 emotional stages of hilly riding: anxiousness, frustration, disbelief, bargaining, resignation, and, finally, total indifference. I think I got to this last stage before breakfast.
And it’s not just the number of them (look at that elevation profile below, it’s like a freakin saw blade), these things were steep. At least 80% of them included sections with double digit grades.
Needless to say, it was super slow going. Except when it wasn’t. Of course I had to ride down all those hills. Gone are the days of white-knuckled descents hunched over drop bars squeezing the brakes with everything I have. I just bobbed up and down on this cushy new bike as I screamed down dirt roads both smooth and rough, surely going over 40 kph at some points. Unfortunately, these moments were just that, brief moments breaking up the monotony of 3 kph up another hill.
Otherwise, the riding has changed a fair bit. The dense forests have given way to more farms and pastures. It’s still beautiful, if not quite as magical as the first day of riding. I thought it would go the other way, the further north I got the more remote and untouched. Anyway, still some beautiful rivers, waterfalls, forests and covered bridges.
I am now about 100 km from the border to Quebec. There are campgrounds close to it in both countries. I hope to get to one of them tomorrow. Surely the hills will mellow out, right!?!
You need to write a book! I know I’m your mother and may be biased but your daily accounts are so entertaining. I’m wondering during your 6 emotional stages how many F-bombs were spoken?! The food doesn’t look tasty and hope once you get into Canada you’ll have pictures of real food. Once again, great photos. Sleep well. Wish you smooth riding tomorrow.
A biased mother? Nah 😉
Fewer f bombs than you’d think!
That’s a looooong day. Impressive
It was. What I don’t understand though is I was for sure in transit for 13 hours. I did not take 4 hours worth of breaks. So why does my Garmin give me 9 hours of riding time? Rhetorical question.
Just a thought, I had to lower the auto-pause threshold speed on my Garmin because it would pause while going slowly up hills.
I got directed here from the link on the email from Dismount. Also live in the GTA and have a Pinion gearbox bike (Priority 600x). Great blog!
Welcome Allen! I wondered if that’s the issue. I wonder how much distance and elevation I also lost.
Priority bikes are very interesting to me. Not that I’m in the market for another bike right now 😉
The hills were definitely less sever but still fairly constant on the Quebec side of that route, as I recall it. And the roads in the Magog area seemed to be designed by the Anti Destination League.
I know it’s a few days out, but the Montreal area took a pretty big hit from the storm. Are you planning to use the cabal roads southwest of the city?
I think you’ve mistaken me for someone who knows what they are doing. The hill look to end just inside QC. I’ve never ridden I bike in or near Montreal so will probably stick close to the map I posted in the first post. If you have recommendations do share 🙂
First of all, kudos to you on a very long and full cycling day. Second, I am shocked that your mother didn’t comment on the 40kph downhill speeds you clocked and wrote about. Gulp. Happy to know you will be closer to home in Quebec later today. Love your beautiful writing and descriptions. I’m sure everyone reading wishes they were out on the open roads with you.
A little regretful we didn’t stop to see the longest covered bridge in the WORLD, in New Brunswick, when we passed by car twice.
Located in Hartland in the Saint John River Valley, this 390-metre (1,282-ft.) long bridge opened in 1901.