Today would have been a 50 mile day, but I missed the bike shop where I wanted to stop, so I had to backtrack. What's two more miles in the overall scheme of things? It turned out to be a beautiful riding day. It was pretty cool to start, and the sky was very gray. Mark said it was fog, but it sure looked like clouds to me. The sky finally cleared at noon, turned into a bright sunny day, then faded to clouds again at the end of the day. Based on the weather report, it's very likely that I'm going to get wet in the next day or two. It took me a while to get my butt in gear this morning, but once I got rolling the riding felt really good. The morning was flat to rolling uphills.Then there were two serious hills this afternoon - a two mile climb out of Jamaica, and a 4 to 5 mile climb up Bromley Mountain. The climb out of Jamaica seemed harder to me with the grade ranging from 5 to 10% with a good deal of it at 8%, but the climb up Bromley was what concerned me this morning. It also had steep parts, but it seemed to be steep followed by a flatter stretch so I could rest. And it had a screaming downhill on the other side, a nice reward for the climb. I'm happy - my first mountain of the trip is behind me. And considering the uphills, I think my average speed of 9 miles per hour was pretty good.
I saw my first wildlife of the trip today - other than chipmunks and birds, that is. I saw two deer bounding across a field just outside of Brattleboro. Beautiful.
Mark and Griff told me that what worked well for them last year was to eat a light breakfast in camp and then eat a second bigger breakfast on the road after riding about 20 miles. I think I'm going to try that. I'm still trying to figure out food on this trip so I have enough energy and so I don't lose weight. Didn't do the second breakfast today because when I stopped for Gatorade after 12 miles, the store had some great looking - and great tasting - chocolate swirl pound cake. After my pound cake snack, I didn't want another breakfast when I passed a diner - but I did stop at the general store in Jamaica for a sandwich. That worked OK. Weight - before I forget - when I left home I weighed 115 pounds, and according to my scale I am at 18% body fat. I don't know if the body fat percentage is accurate, but it will do for a comparison point when I get home. It's going to be interesting checking both weight and body fat at the end of this trip. I really don't want to lose weight on this trip, but I certainly didn't figure out how not to burn so many calories (or how to eat more!) on either of my previous self-contained tours. Hopefully I'll figure it out this time. We'll see.
Today also felt more like I expected this trip to feel. Whenever I stopped for food, I ended up talking with people about my trip and about where they lived and what they did in the area. That was very different from the first day when I was still fairly close to Boston. I had some people give me funny looks, but they didn't want to talk. I think part of the magic of bicycle touring is meeting and learning about people.
I feel so lucky that I was able to stay in Brattleboro yesterday. The weather was a huge contrast from Tuesday when it was in the 90s. Yesterday it was in the 50s, raw and rainy, so it was a good day to kick back and do not much of anything. It reminded me of the first week of my Pacific Northwest tour in 1999 - not pleasant riding conditions. Mark, Griff, and Zoe shared a lot of tips from their Transamerica ride last summer. That should help me to decide on good places to stay once I join the Transamerica route in Missouri. We also spent a bit of time looking at my route through Vermont. I changed my plans to ride a route that they did back in 2000 - backwards, since I'm heading north and they were heading south. Mark was able to tell me where to find 2 good campgrounds, which was a nice security blanket for me. I'm staying at the Dorset RV Park tonight. There's a beautiful tenting area, and they play country music in the bathrooms.Very funny. There apparently is a swampy area near here filled with frogs - so I hear frog noises interspersed with all of the birds. With the change in route, I'll be joining up with the Northern Tier route on the ferry across Lake Champlain going into Ticonderoga, NY. I'm hoping to make it to Andy's Campground in (near?) Sudbury tomorrow, which means I should get to New York state on Saturday.
And we ended my rest day yesterday by going to see Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood. A good movie..
I stopped at the Battenkill Bike Shop in Manchester this afternoon. I wanted to double-check that the headset on the bike was tight. Things seemed loose this morning (rocking feeling to the handlebars). I tightened the stem and handlebar bolts and that seemed to take care of it, but I figured I'd better check the headset out too. It turned out that it was fine. But by the time I made it down Bromley Mountain I had lost the taillight I had mounted to my rack. I suspect it shook loose on the downhill. So - I needed a new light. I picked one up, and one of the mechanics helped me mount it to the rack. Instead of using the hardware that came with the light (probably my problem the first time), he used a super long bolt. And he put Locktite on it. I had checked the bolt on the old light this morning, and it was tight. But the bolt was much shorter. Hopefully it will take longer for this one to work it's way out, and if I remember to double-check it every couple of days, maybe I'll hold onto the new light for a bit longer! While I was at the bike shop a couple came over to look at my Air Glide. Turns out that they are planning to buy Bike Friday Pocket Rockets. It was fun to talk with them about the bikes - and since my other Bike Friday is a Pocket Rocket I was able to talk to them about the differences between the bikes.
It's really a small world. I'm sitting in the rec room at the campground writing my journal - I thought I'd take advantage of electricity, and more importantly the lack of bugs. Just talked to another person camping here - and she and I both graduated from the same college. Eight years apart, but still...
Forgot to mention yesterday - even though I'm still trying to figure out what I have with me that I don't need so I can lighten my load - I picked up a companion / mascot for the trip. Rover is a mini-Beanie Baby, a bright red dog with flying ears. I have his big brother at home. When I was walking by the drugstore in downtown Brattleboro and saw him in the window, I knew he was asking to come on my trip. (OK, so I'm a little crazy. But I wonder how many of my fellow touring cyclists have similar "companions" with them?)
