It was a beautiful 70 degree Sunday in Plymouth, VT. My wife and daughter agreed to drive me up and back from home in Quincy, MA, to some crazy ride in the woods. Not a race, Pavé Madness was, in fact, Madness. 23 miles of Vermont Class 4 'roads', unmaintained washed out skid roads, and river riding. Yep, actual riding down and across river beds at least a dozen times. Some of the aforementioned roads were in fact rivers as well. One road had even been flooded by a beaver dam--but it was part of the course! The only way to get to the other side, was yep, ride through the flooded dam. The first section was ok, relatively easy ride through thigh-deep water, just keep pedaling, never mind what's at the bottom, it was abit mushy, but rideable through. The second part was more like chest high. Peter Vollers, the ride promoter himself, was at the entrance of it all, giving us all the options and encouragement we needed to get through the dam without life preservers or a kayak... So the chest high section options were: you could wade through and risk losing a shoe in the muck, all while holding your bike over your head, take your shoes off and carry them and your bike overhead, or to carry your bike while walking/balancing on the spongy edge of the beaver dam, trying not to fall over into the deeper water. I opted for the latter, and actually made it over to the other side without falling in! As it turned out, the submergement of the legs in the tepid water was very refreshing. This was the wettest section of the ride, but there was also the mud. Ankle deep good ol Vermont mud. Just ride through and hope it's not too deep...Lots and lots of muddy, puddly/muddy sections, followed by rocks. Lots of slippery rocks.Just hurl yourself down them and hope for the best. I think the best word to describe the state of the route was 'unmaintained'....but I will say, there was nary a deadfall across the trail, and the foliage on the sides of the path was cutback at some time of the year, to allow for Jeep and LandRover travel. Even for the motorized, this terrain was not easy. Vermont Overland, the ride entity, had several strategically placed LandRovers in case of emergency, and/or to make sure we didn't make a wrong turn....I'm assuming that this particular course was designed only with this event in mind, not someone's daily loop. But those Vermonters are a tough breed....
In the days preceding the ride, emails were sent out to those registered that this would be a 'full suspension recommended' ride. since I don't own one of those, I was among only a handful of people riding a hardtail. Like I always say, "if the wheels go 'round, ride what ya got!" A kid named 'Ansel', obviously a local and renowned for his skillz, was purported to have ridden the course on a Cannondale Slate, basically a gravel bike with drop bars. Rumor was that he finished in just over 2 hours. Did I say he's a kid? Pretty young anyways. They said in the promo that everything was 'rideable' by somebody. Fairly sure they were referring to this young stud. The rideable sections were rideable. I did a lot of walking/slogging through the mud and slippery rocks. Probably 20% off the bike. My motivations to keep going were that nice clear river at basecamp, where I was gonna strip naked and jump in, fresh brewed beer from River Roost Brewery in White River Jct, and to finally reunite with some of my fellow riders and share stories...
Then there were the hills. The first 2/3 of the ride was uphill. The last third was mostly downhill, except for the long, grinding ups. Nothing flat or dry about the ride, except maybe a few 30 foot grassy meadowy sections, where I imagined a bear may cross my path looking for the blackberries on either side, and some old overgrown ponds/reedy deadhead bogs where I was on the lookout for Moose... No speedy wide-open ballsy downhills. Not until the very end, where the route spilled out onto a real maintained Vermont gravel road for a couple of miles which took us back to the start/finish at Vermont Overland's basecamp (house).
VO did a great job of support, especially with the sag stop at about 14 miles. They said to stop there, not to blow by it, we would NEED this stop. They weren't lying. It was at the bottom of a nice downhill section, at 'Five Corners', apparently a ghost town intersection. the stop came also just after 'The Crack', an old road so badly washed out that the reroute around it was 30 feet above it. "Don't look down", Peter had cautioned us at the start, as well as warned us that the edge of the runaround could be spongy and unsafe. It actually was not the worst part of the ride, and probably the driest and softest part of the entire beatdown. But only maybe fifty yards long.
At the sag stop , Peter's wife and family welcomed us with fresh water, SkratchLabs powder, bananas, peanut butter and oatmeal rollups, and homemade dark chocolate bars with dried cranberries and nuts....I thoroughly enjoyed the stop, caught up with a few riders who I met in the first few miles... Then it was time to slog on. Like one of the support riders said, the last 1/3 of the ride was downhill. I didn't believe him even though he was totally serious. There was still a lot of climbing.Maybe I'm just a Flatlander, but I finally leg cramped up near the top of one of the last hills. I was able to stretch it out fairly quick and soldier on.
To be fair, as I mentioned, the last 2-3 miles WERE downhill, with that last screamer back to basecamp. Glad there were no cars, I hit close to 40, swinging wide turns all over the road. The beer and food was great, and so was the river. I had accomplished what I intended to: exhausted myself but made it through, mud-covered yet relatively unscathed. Luckily I had that ride back home, and all day Monday to recover.....I'd say I got my 45 dollars worth!
Checkout my google photos album...Monday, July 17, 2017
Madness!!
It was a beautiful 70 degree Sunday in Plymouth, VT. My wife and daughter agreed to drive me up and back from home in Quincy, MA, to some crazy ride in the woods. Not a race, Pavé Madness was, in fact, Madness. 23 miles of Vermont Class 4 'roads', unmaintained washed out skid roads, and river riding. Yep, actual riding down and across river beds at least a dozen times. Some of the aforementioned roads were in fact rivers as well. One road had even been flooded by a beaver dam--but it was part of the course! The only way to get to the other side, was yep, ride through the flooded dam. The first section was ok, relatively easy ride through thigh-deep water, just keep pedaling, never mind what's at the bottom, it was abit mushy, but rideable through. The second part was more like chest high. Peter Vollers, the ride promoter himself, was at the entrance of it all, giving us all the options and encouragement we needed to get through the dam without life preservers or a kayak... So the chest high section options were: you could wade through and risk losing a shoe in the muck, all while holding your bike over your head, take your shoes off and carry them and your bike overhead, or to carry your bike while walking/balancing on the spongy edge of the beaver dam, trying not to fall over into the deeper water. I opted for the latter, and actually made it over to the other side without falling in! As it turned out, the submergement of the legs in the tepid water was very refreshing. This was the wettest section of the ride, but there was also the mud. Ankle deep good ol Vermont mud. Just ride through and hope it's not too deep...Lots and lots of muddy, puddly/muddy sections, followed by rocks. Lots of slippery rocks.Just hurl yourself down them and hope for the best. I think the best word to describe the state of the route was 'unmaintained'....but I will say, there was nary a deadfall across the trail, and the foliage on the sides of the path was cutback at some time of the year, to allow for Jeep and LandRover travel. Even for the motorized, this terrain was not easy. Vermont Overland, the ride entity, had several strategically placed LandRovers in case of emergency, and/or to make sure we didn't make a wrong turn....I'm assuming that this particular course was designed only with this event in mind, not someone's daily loop. But those Vermonters are a tough breed....
In the days preceding the ride, emails were sent out to those registered that this would be a 'full suspension recommended' ride. since I don't own one of those, I was among only a handful of people riding a hardtail. Like I always say, "if the wheels go 'round, ride what ya got!" A kid named 'Ansel', obviously a local and renowned for his skillz, was purported to have ridden the course on a Cannondale Slate, basically a gravel bike with drop bars. Rumor was that he finished in just over 2 hours. Did I say he's a kid? Pretty young anyways. They said in the promo that everything was 'rideable' by somebody. Fairly sure they were referring to this young stud. The rideable sections were rideable. I did a lot of walking/slogging through the mud and slippery rocks. Probably 20% off the bike. My motivations to keep going were that nice clear river at basecamp, where I was gonna strip naked and jump in, fresh brewed beer from River Roost Brewery in White River Jct, and to finally reunite with some of my fellow riders and share stories...
Then there were the hills. The first 2/3 of the ride was uphill. The last third was mostly downhill, except for the long, grinding ups. Nothing flat or dry about the ride, except maybe a few 30 foot grassy meadowy sections, where I imagined a bear may cross my path looking for the blackberries on either side, and some old overgrown ponds/reedy deadhead bogs where I was on the lookout for Moose... No speedy wide-open ballsy downhills. Not until the very end, where the route spilled out onto a real maintained Vermont gravel road for a couple of miles which took us back to the start/finish at Vermont Overland's basecamp (house).
VO did a great job of support, especially with the sag stop at about 14 miles. They said to stop there, not to blow by it, we would NEED this stop. They weren't lying. It was at the bottom of a nice downhill section, at 'Five Corners', apparently a ghost town intersection. the stop came also just after 'The Crack', an old road so badly washed out that the reroute around it was 30 feet above it. "Don't look down", Peter had cautioned us at the start, as well as warned us that the edge of the runaround could be spongy and unsafe. It actually was not the worst part of the ride, and probably the driest and softest part of the entire beatdown. But only maybe fifty yards long.
At the sag stop , Peter's wife and family welcomed us with fresh water, SkratchLabs powder, bananas, peanut butter and oatmeal rollups, and homemade dark chocolate bars with dried cranberries and nuts....I thoroughly enjoyed the stop, caught up with a few riders who I met in the first few miles... Then it was time to slog on. Like one of the support riders said, the last 1/3 of the ride was downhill. I didn't believe him even though he was totally serious. There was still a lot of climbing.Maybe I'm just a Flatlander, but I finally leg cramped up near the top of one of the last hills. I was able to stretch it out fairly quick and soldier on.
To be fair, as I mentioned, the last 2-3 miles WERE downhill, with that last screamer back to basecamp. Glad there were no cars, I hit close to 40, swinging wide turns all over the road. The beer and food was great, and so was the river. I had accomplished what I intended to: exhausted myself but made it through, mud-covered yet relatively unscathed. Luckily I had that ride back home, and all day Monday to recover.....I'd say I got my 45 dollars worth!
Checkout my google photos album...
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