Northern Tier Day #5 North Haverhill, NH to Rochester, VT

Northern Tier Day #5

May 24, 2019

North Haverhill, NH to Rochester, VT 74 Miles

Ride Time 5:28

Tour Total 377 Miles

details at: https://cyclemeter.com/058ffe3224dd3702/Cycle-20190524-0717-37757

I slept well last night inside my tent on the lawn besides the pond at the River Meadow campground in North Haverhill. The flowing sound from the pond’s fountain made things rather urgent this morning. Throughout the night I couldn’t distinguish between the fountain and the rain. Fortunately it wasn’t raining when I got up.

My Hubba two-person tent is way better than the one-person tent I toured with last summer. It’s spacious inside, and I have both front and rear ‘porches’ to store my bags and helmet. The soggy tent weighed considerably more this morning after the rain. The end of my sleeping bag was also damp. I hate packing up wet gear, and wasn’t looking forward to crawling back into it at the end of the day.

As I pedaled through town I saw kids waiting for the school bus. I rode down State Route 10 following the Connecticut River and the I-91 corridor. My next state, Vermont, was just on the other side of the river

It definitely smelled like animal poop around here. I noticed it last night at the campground as well. This morning I passed cows and goats and some beautiful barns, two of them round. I passed a porch with fresh eggs for sale.

I’m feeling a little sore after the Kank yesterday. I’ve still got a lot of hills ahead of me before I get to the flats of the Erie Canal in New York.

Last night in my tent, after I had turned all my photos upside down in preparation for the Crazy Guy upload, I realized after a painstaking upload, on a single bar, that the bug had been resolved. So I had to delete all the photos from the site, re-orient the photos on my camera roll, and then upload them again, on a single bar. Nothing like burning the candle at both ends. I appreciate the comments on Blogger and the guest book entries on Crazy Guy. Thanks Frank and Steve. Please keep it up! It means a lot.

I stopped in Harbor Hill at Four Corners General Store. A worker, who was cleaning outside with a garden hose, offered to spray down my bike, and I declined. Did it look that dirty? Inside I purchased a Starbucks Frappuccino, a pack of small white-powdered donuts, and an orange juice. I talked with two gentlemen out front who asked me where I was going. I replied Vermont, maybe Middlebury. They said it was a long way away, and I added, “probably with a couple of climbs”. They both chuckled. “Those are the green mountains”, one of them said. “There’s not a straight line in Vermont”.

I was coasting down a hill and I saw an east bound cyclist stopped across the road with a sandwich stuffed in his mouth. Greg was a character! Originally from Idaho, he now lives on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He’s finishing up the second half of the Northern Tier, having done the first half last year. He started this leg of tour in April. Greg said that the Erie canal trail was soggy, muddy, and slow. He’s had about six flats this trip and is doing around 50 miles a day. All Greg’s friends were sending him the pool noodle story as well. He got caught in a hailstorm last night. What a great guy with a fantastic attitude. I told him to say hi to Amanda when he passed her. His excellent and up to date blog can be seen at: https://ramblingsfromtheroad.blog/

I continued down the road and passed a lot of cattle. The sweet smell of flowers was in the air. Flowering trees including cherry, crabapple, and dogwood.

When I saw the welcome to Lyme sign I looked at my ACA app and realized that I had made a mistake. I had to backtrack a mile and a half. I must have had a tail wind earlier, because it was now definitely in my face. I had to fight the wind to get back to the route. The error cost me three miles. When I got back to the fork, I could see why I made the mistake. River Road was inconspicuous. I’m glad I went back though, because River Road was a gem. It was tree lined with green pastures beyond.

I was treated to my second covered bridge traverse in two days. This brings the total to four covered bridges seen so far on the tour. So beautiful! The River Road asphalt surface turned to gravel, my first gravel road of the tour. I was under a forest canopy with ferns on either side. A chipmunk darted across the road in front of me.

I finally crossed a bridge over the Connecticut River bringing me into Vermont, the third state of the tour. When setting up the official documentation photo I was lucky to stumble upon an official old-school state border marker.

I’ve decided that I‘m going to be Jewish while I’m here in Vermont to be in solidarity with my main man, idol, and hero- Brooklyn‘s own and hopeful next President of the United States Bernie Sanders. Bernie and I have a lot in common. We both have Brooklyn roots, we believe that universal healthcare is an entitlement and that wealthy people should be taxed, and we’re both Jewish. I’m feeling the burn!

Vermont greeted me with Thetford Hill. Afterwards, as a reward, I stopped at the village store in Thetford for a blueberry muffin and a Starbucks Frappuccino. It totally felt like Vermont here. There were quilts for sale in all the stores, and everyone was wearing LL Bean or plaid.

I crossed my first covered bridge in Vermont bringing the tour total to five. It gets no better. I was seeing lots of Bernie bumper stickers and I was totally feeling the burn. I climbed a wicked steep hill that reminded me of eastern Kentucky. A passing motorist gave me the thumbs up.

Vermont is absolutely gorgeous to cycle through. It’s forested with green pastures, stone walls, moss, ferns, green mountains. It’s lush and verdant everywhere. As much a pain as the hills are to climb, they're such a pleasure to bomb down. I do the tuck and I fly. Years ago, I cycled the hills of Vermont with my good friend Rodney when we were both at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson VT.

I joined up with state Route 132, following a stream to the left. The sun came out along with crisp fluffy clouds similar to the sort in Maine but a little whiter, a little lower, and a bit puffier. It was windy with a crosswind. I wouldn’t have minded a tailwind.

When following a river, it’s always useful to know whether you’re going upstream or down. I was, of course, going upstream. I’ve seen a lot of maple syrup for sale but it was also for sale in New Hampshire and Maine.

Riding into Strafford I passed by one of those ‘Know Your Speed Limit’ displays and I registered 16mph- the first time I’ve activated one of those on the tour. Vermont DOT has top-of-the-line equipment.

I saw a Black Lives Matter sign in somebody’s front yard. That’s the difference between starting a bike tour in Maine versus starting in Virginia. I also saw numerous solar farms. The Northern Tier rocks!

I was flying down a hill at 35mph and had to slam on my brakes for the 25mph zone in Sharon. I took a left and crossed the White River over a bridge onto River Road which I suspected was going to be another treat. I was following a railroad track and was paralleling I-89. I saw a flock of ducks on the far bank of the White River.

A big ferocious white Pit bull viciously barked at me from a chain linked pen. It was racing back-and-forth smashing it’s head against the fence on both ends. It brought back terrifying memories of the dogs in Kentucky- which are not in pens. I have pepper spray fractions of an inch from my right hand. I’ll probably never need it.

Since it’s Friday and I’m Jewish while I’m here in Vermont, I’ll be observing Shabbos tonight. It’s important to get to my destination and set up my tent before sundown. I stopped at Village Pizza in Royalton and had a small margherita. It was nice to be seated inside at a table. The pie was cooked to order and was straight-up wholesome Vermont.

I took State Route 107 out of Royalton following the White River. Numerous motorists passed me with bikes on their cars. A lot of people gave me the thumbs up. I passed a couple out for a ride on a recumbent tandem.

The weather forecast called for rain tomorrow afternoon and thunderstorms on Sunday. It’s like threading a needle. I left State Route 107, crossed the White River, and began my pleasant pedal on Blackmer Boulevard, a small country road with green pastures and trees with hills in the distance. It was a gorgeous valley. The White River was now to my left.

In Stockbridge, Blackmer Boulevard became State Route 100. The snake-like twisty slow climb was even, allowing me to crank out the jams. It was a beautiful valley, but dark clouds were overhead. It became completely overcast. My fingers were crossed. Tonight was Chabbos. I heard from Amanda. She made the same mistake and had missed River Road, riding all the way into Lyme before realizing her mistake. Ouch. 

I raced to Rochester to get to the Green Mountain Cyclery before they closed. Amazing mechanic Dillon fixed my rear derailleur and sold me a new inner tube. He gave me the full tour of the facilities. The building was erected in the 1800’s, and they’re currently doing a gut renovation to create an expansive new show room up front. The shop has 3 mechanics working on 3 separate stands. They have jammed packed storage on 3 different levels, with an assortment of cool bikes on the premises, including a tall bike and a swivel bike. The shop sports a chain operated draw bridge out back to the shop. A huge pizza oven is in the backyard, and Bread and Puppet Theatre performs here in the summer. They let me camp in the backyard, and I went across the street to the laundromat. Dillon let me try an e bike while my clothing was being washed.

For dinner I went to Maple Soul, a total Vermont farm-to-table experience. My burger and everything I ate was sourced from within a mile of here. I love this place!

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