Leaf peeping the lex way!

Friday evening, a friend and I drove up to Vermont so that we could participate in a 100 mile bike ride through Northern VT. The ride was a "charity" ride for a ski resort run by the Cochran family (as in Jimmy of this day and age). The whole family has seen success in the World Cup and the Olympics. This little family run resort has three surface lifts run by tractor motors. The vertical seemed decent for only 350 feet of drop and the scenery was gorgeous. So what is with the fundraiser? This is the only non-profit ski resort in the east and possibly in the nation so the lift tickets are super cheap: $18 full day and $12 half day. This was the fourth of these rides. From the first three they were able to fund snow making which is just being finished and are hoping to pay it off very quickly. Unfortunately it IS a bit far for me...3 hours or so, but it would be fun to go up and see it in the winter. The lodge, if you can call it that has bibs and trophies showcasing the family's skiing experiences and successes, which was a neat thing to see (see pictures). Apparently, this family is the skiing family of the East Coast and it was pretty cool to meet them, ride with Jimmy, eat dinner with them and see a bit of East Coast skiing history.

So, let's get to the ride! We were supposed to leave at 9 am. So, I waited with my friend and about 15 others. Not a large turn out you say? Well, about 30 people left early and about 50 people came later and only did the 50mile loop which left at 12. This was a charity ride right? So, we all took off together, just talking, enjoying the beautifully perfect morning in Northern VT (Just east of Burlington, according to my GPS the locale says jericho, but we started in Richmond if you want to see where it was. We rode up through Jeffersonville, up to Waterville, down through Elmore, over to Montpelier and back to Richmond.) Anyway, we rode about 9 miles just great, nice and easy. Then we started climbing and my friend was leading us up, maintaining a nice pace that should have been great for everyone. Then some middle aged men started from the back "challenging" the young bucks. It was at this point I said to myself, "no, sir, I'm not getting involved with the testosterone battle...I don't have enough! Go ahead boys, kill yourselves for 'fun'!" So, I got dropped. But I was there for fun, I have had a really rough summer for training, and I was really excited to be in Vermont, that I really didn't care. So I continued the ride by myself and loved it. The Cochran's had painted at the important intersections which way to go and they had a nice hand out that helped us if we got lost. So, it was no biggie to be in a strange land by myself.













Besides, as you all can probably see, the view was great and I had no problem stopping and taking pictures. I stopped several times, but I'm only posting a few pics because as you can probably tell, the weather started to turn on us. I was so pretty in the morning then the storm moved in faster from Canada than was expected and it got cloudy and by the end of the first half it was dark but not too cold. The Cochran's also had three feed stations very well stocked and timed that riding alone was also not such a big deal because you checked in somewhere every 25ish miles. I admit that I stopped at the second stop longer than I normally would have but that was only because there was an adorable dog there that I just had to play with.
And as you can all see, we did have spectators. Along the way we had many sheep, dairy cows, and horses, but these ducks were so funny to me I had to take a picture. I watched them "run" from one end of a large field to the other towards a lone duck on the other side of a wire fence. I'm not sure what it was telling the flock, but they were surely listening and following the command! :)












The final stop was at the capital building in Montpelier.The city is actually really small and there was an amazing church that I was going to stop and get a picture of but I was in "traffic" (the most I had seen in 4 and a half hours of riding) so I just decided to ride thinking it was safer for me. I never really grabbed much food, but it was nice to get water and gatorade. Between the second and final stop it rained on me a bit but it was more refreshing and inspiring to me, since I usually ride better in the rain even if it was windy. Then after the final stop, about 5 miles into the final 24, it started raining, then hailing, then pouring and it poured and was REALLY windy (a head wind of course) the rest of the way. I have to admit, even though it is bad for the bike, I loved riding in the rain. Could have done without the wind though. The worst bit though was that I didn't really have much in the way of "extra" clothes because we were all expecting the storm SUNDAY! oops. I got as dry as possible and stayed inside until the rain stopped in time for us to reload the car and head home. Even with the wet and windy end, the ride was great. There was 7550 feet of vertical in 100 miles, great views of the mountains of VT and the colors of the east, an average of 62 degrees with 89% humidity, and it was a great way to "end" bike season and "begin" ski season.

Well we may have pushed that transition a bit more. First on the way home we drove down 100 which is the way one would go to many of the ski resorts in VT. We finally go to Killington as it got dark. I really didn't get to see much of it, but the "bases" were pointed out to me and WOW that place is HUGE. Sorry DV, PC and the Canyons, you don't know big until you have seen Killington. Since it was dark we really didn't have much to do, so it was a quick look. But I have to say, it is very difficult to get to any of the "resorts" so they offer many things to do because people really won't be going anywhere else. I also thought that these places were not really places one would go for "the day." After we left Killington, my friend who went to school in New Hampshire, wanted to stop for some dinner in Lebanon, NH. So we crossed over the border and the Connecticut river in to NH. For those of you who don't know "Lebanon" (as I didn't) it is the home of many ski companies distribution centers. Some have moved to CO or to UT (like Atomic), but this is apparently still the center of skiing in the US. So before we went to dinner we drove up by the airport and saw the buildings. Big deal you think? Well, maybe so, but I was excited, especially when I thought, "my new skis might be IN THAT WAREHOUSE RIGHT NOW!"

So, even though this area has been so dry the colors weren't great, it was still beautiful; even though I wasn't my best on the ride, I was good enough to have a fun day and enjoy the experience and not feel worthless afterwards; even though it is autumn and not winter, it is beginning to feel like ski season is around the corner. So much of life is about perspective and a great part of it is that we can look at things how ever we choose to. Sometimes I don't practice that talent, but for one day I did.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles. Emily Dickinson


(oh and by the way, "leaf peepers" is what the "natives" to the North East, especially those from VT and NH call those who drive up on the weekend to see the colors. So instead of driving up just for the colors as other tourists, I rode 100 miles around VT to see them...still a leaf peeper, but not a normal one! :)!!)