Northeast - Vernon to Vernon Century

Anyone else doing the Vernon, VT to Vernon, CT century on Sept. 17th?

I did it last year and doubt if I will do it this year.

Is it a "bad" ride/route?

I would do it if it went from Vernon to Vernon but since it is going from Vernon to Vernon I do not want to drive all the way to Vernon to ride to Vernon to take a bus back to Vernon to drive back to Vernon....get it....Maybe when I have more time....

Edit...Wait....I have the ride backward. I would have no way of getting back to Vernon after riding to Vernon....Still no time...maybe another time...

Is it a "bad" ride/route?

No. it is a good route and a good ride. I would recommend doing it.

Four things- one is that you have to leave the bike the day before, which is OK if you live close by but for me it was hike and I am not in want of doing it again.

Two, it rained last year for almost the entire ride. On Saturday when I dropped off my bike, it was a great day but on Sunday, on the bus ride to VT it started to rain and it was wet all day. Once your bike is on a truck to Vt you can't just not go.

Three, It was not what I expected, not sure what I expected, having never rididen the CT River Valley in Mass before, but it wasn't a lot of riding along the river with few roads right along the river.

Four, was the bus ride. Tough to prehydrate when the pre ride routine includes a long bus ride on a bathroomless bus. One guy couldn't take it and had the bus stop at rest stop on Rte 91 and he ran for some bushes.

The ride does go along some really nice farmland and is pretty darn flat for the first 40 or so miles and then becomes slightly rolling.

If I was going to do it again, I would do the 80 mile option (not knowing the area, I heard that the 20 extra miles are pretty much just added on to get 100 miles in) and instead look into doing the Norwottuck Bicycle path. The V to V crosses it and I know nothing about it except that I would have liked to check it out.

So I might do it again some year(to at least to see what it is like without rain) but this year I am thinking of just doing my own ride up and down the CT river valley.

I skipped it when I heard it was a ride on school buses. I'm never comfortable on one of those, and I wasn't going to do it for 2 or 3 hours.

I skipped it when I heard it was a ride on school buses. I'm never comfortable on one of those, and I wasn't going to do it for 2 or 3 hours.

This is the type of bus....not a school bus

http://www.dattco.com/grouptours/charter_at.htm

and map quest gives it an 88 mile trip

That's not too bad. I talked to a guy who did it two years ago and he said it was school buses.

I did it in 2005, still no bathrooms.....

I might be able to make 2 hours without a bathroom, but not much more than that.

Might have to bring spare water bottles and chunk them from the bus.
;)

Fortunately, my buddy is a mechanic at the shop, who I'll be riding "sweep" with. Plus, I have a seasonal site at a campground in the SE Berkshires in MA, which my buddy and I will be leaving from Sunday morning....no bus ride for us :). Girlfriend will be shuttling us up to the drop-off point.

As long as the weather is nice and it doesn't rain, I'll be happy.

Dammit.....girlfriend has to work, so we have to go with everyone else on the bus :(.

Still not feeling quite 100%....my resting heartrate this afternoon while laying down in bed was 100 bpm. Should be an interesting day tomorrow.

Hope that you have a great ride tomorrow, weather looks fantastic.

I kind of regret not doing it now, but might do it on my own sometime before winter:


http://www.ctbikeroutes.org/filter.php

How was the ride?

Hope that you have a great ride tomorrow, weather looks fantastic.

I kind of regret not doing it now, but might do it on my own sometime before winter:


http://www.ctbikeroutes.org/filter.php

Here's the detailed trip report....didn't quite go as I had planned....

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=229172

:(