It is coming down in sheets so we need to delay the final leg of our travels. We finally get out of the motel a bit after 9 am and settle down for a great breakfast at Deb’s Place. We linger over our omelets as the rain picks up. Around 10:30 we are on the trail leaving Morrisville.
It’s a quiet morning with little noise around us. The Lamoille River winds about the trail providing cool comfort as a breeze comes off it. It is a spectacular river with many and varied scenic points. We never really appreciated the river before pedaling in the opposite direction.
The views imparted to us compensate for the weather: it is hot and humid. The air is thick with mist. It feels worse than yesterday. That combined with the fact that we are going uphill looks like it is going to make for a hard ride.
I feel like a windshield on a summer’s evening, my body coated with bugs and detritus. Each day on the trail I have ingested at least two bugs; yesterday it was four. We experienced lots of insects but ironically have seen few birds though their chirping is apparent.
This river is similar to many we have traveled to on our bike trips. Look in one direction and cascading waterfalls deliver a soothing sound and vision. But turn your head a bit and rusting buses, trailers, cars and other discarded possessions line this waterway.
A lumber mill near Hardwick kicks out the smell that only sawdust provides. The blades cutting through wood dominate. Across the street is a newly constructed wooden bridge that has faux train timbers and steel rails running through it.
Stopping for lunch at the Village Restaurant, we take a well-needed rest and fuel ourselves for the final push this afternoon. Rejoining the trail, we start to tackle the final 23 miles. The last 16 have been uphill and at least another 10-15 will follow suit.
The scent of honeysuckle follows us though a cavern of trees with dappled light. The Lamoille is running very low now revealing its rocky bottom and trees that have been swept away and now left in a myriad of places and positions.
We had hoped to stop for ice cream at Kingdom Creamery, but alas it is only the factory. Reaching the top of the Greensboro loop we turn into an even steeper incline. Legs don’t fail us now!
Passing Fradette’s Maple Syrup sugar house, we stop and look to buy some maple syrup. In this part of the state, you can’t throw a rock and not hit a sign selling or extolling the virtues of this elixir.
Ted and I are warmly greeted by Mary Jane, one of the owners, who tells us that this ‘hobby’ of hers entails the tapping of over 11,000 trees! We walk into her storeroom of syrup and it is like a bank of sweet amber liquid. I grab a quart of Grade A, Dark to take home to Juana.
Continuing upward. Certain parts of the climb feel potentially dangerous as there is no fencing on either sides of very steep drop-offs. Our uphill battle is draining our tanks and our pace slows.
Just as we are about spent after 30 miles, we start downhill. We are reenergized, making good time, closing in on Danville to finish our journey.
2 Comments
Love all the old train stations the barns. And tiny bridges. Weird that the confederate army tried to invade vVermont . There is a part of civil war history you never hear about. Glad to read your heading home,
Wonderful photos of water, moving and still.