Not an official brevet - but I'm hoping to turn this into a permanent... a ride from my home to my in-laws.
Burlington, VT to Utica, NY.

In short - rain, climb, rain, climb, climb, climb, rain, repeat, rainbow.

Amazing ride.
194.5 miles. ~16.5 hours total time. ~13,000 feet of climbing.
Sore. Minor issues with chafing. Going to ride tomorrow.

Full ride report later...

I had an easy early morning... Charlotte, VT - relatively flat in the Champlain Valley.

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Crown Point Bridge to NY. The fun (climbing) will soon begin.

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Creek Road - climbing to Paradox. It follows a creek.

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Eagle Lake on Rt. 74

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Paradox, NY - ever since using this route to get to VT to visit (before I moved here) I've wanted to ride this...

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Atop the road near 11th mountain. This was not the highest point on the route - but it was close - and it was the toughest climb on the route. My wife caught up with me just as I snapped the photo - and she delivered a PBJ sandwich and took a pic. (we were heading to Utica for a family event...)

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Sacandaga River, on the descent from 11th mountain. What I rode up and over, I now had to climb again to Speculator.

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West Canada Creek, on the way in...

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Just finished a century, in the middle of my ride...

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Weather moving in somewhere between Piseco and Poland.

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Double Rainbow - mile 180. The most amazing thing while climbing up the last of the substantial climbs to Utica. (yes, you have to go up to go down...)

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that is a great looking ride. I know Vermont is beautiful but I don't know much about New York.

I'm hoping to be able to ride 300k someday.

nice report, looks like a cool ride.

are you riding back too?

nice report, looks like a cool ride.

are you riding back too?

thanks!
debated it - but the family schedule won't allow, and i don't want to keep my already wonderful wife stuck in the car with our 6 month old for the return trip.

we travel further west to cleveland for another family event, then turn around and head home.
next year i hope to be doing the full ride from BTV to cleveland - ultralight camping along the way, ~150 miles a day.

and i have several overnight trips to the ADKs from VT planned. should tackle one of them this fall when the color starts to change...

Awesome ride report. The photos/bike are lovely.

Nice reflection of rainbow on the wet road . . .

Nice report bmike

I have to admit I covet your bike. It seems to be the perfect setup. Seriously considering that frame for my next bike.

By the way, what is the roll on the front rack. And what light is that on your helmet.

-D

Great report on a beautiful ride!

I only have to point out one thing...

These are definitely NOT eagles! :D


Eagle Lake on Rt. 74

http://lh6.ggpht.com/mike.beganyi/SJZZJjpJTMI/AAAAAAAAFxU/ARKi4OJsPkM/s800/IMG_5235.JPG

Nice report bmike

I have to admit I covet your bike. It seems to be the perfect setup. Seriously considering that frame for my next bike.

By the way, what is the roll on the front rack. And what light is that on your helmet.

-D

thanks!
i've been getting alot of questions about the bike - i'll post more info on my blog when i get back home.

www.littlecircles.blogspot.com

the bike is perfect for this type of riding. i've been very happy with the way it is setup - sometimes i debate whether or not i should have put on canti's so i could run wider tires... but whenever a friend of mine complains about squealing i think i made the better choice with the long reach. my day to day tire is a 28 conti. for D2R2 (http://newhorizonsbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=347) i'll run some 32 pasela's - if we aren't expecting a full day of rain.

the roll on the front rack is my carradice duxbak rain cape. i wore it for about 15 minutes near the end as the sun went down and the temp dropped. i was worried about rain and temps in the mountains. my wool jersey and second layer worked perfect. i doubt i'll carry the cape again on ride like this. it works great in spring / fall. with larger temp swings. i debated bringing my 'breathable' lightweight hiking jacket instead of the cape. probably should have - that cape is pretty heavy.

the helmet light is a danolite (http://www.danolight.com/). 4 aa rechargable batteries in my jersey pocket. just before the rainbow i suited up for night riding.
super lightweight.

Great report on a beautiful ride!

I only have to point out one thing...

These are definitely NOT eagles! :D

no, definitely not!

http://lh5.ggpht.com/mike.beganyi/SJZZI85DuwI/AAAAAAAAFxM/Yr-cBZoQJWw/s800/IMG_5234.JPG

I ate:
2 Clif bars
2 Luna bars
1 Mojo bar
6 packs of Clif shots
4 packs of Sport Beans Jelly Beans
1 bag of salty potato chips
2 PBJ sandwiches

I drank:
12 large bottles of water
1 Canada Dry ginger ale
1 bottle of Powerade (disgusting!)

I saw:
Family of Geese
Osprey
Rednecks
Harley Davidson motorcycles
Logging trucks
Mountains
Coyote
4 bike tourists (fully loaded!)
Rain, Rain, Rain, Clouds, a bit of sunshine!

Great looking ride!

I've posted my Monday ride here- http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=450838

Thanks for the tip about the D2R2 (http://newhorizonsbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=347)

I've registered and, hopefully, work schedule permitting, I'll see you there!

Great looking ride!

I've posted my Monday ride here- http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=450838

Thanks for the tip about the D2R2 (http://newhorizonsbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=347)

I've registered and, hopefully, work schedule permitting, I'll see you there!

cool!
not sure yet on my accommodations. might be camping at the fairgrounds...

i've tried that velo-routes page - but i don't see how to 'undo' the last point you input. sometimes i mis click or it routes on a road i don't want... and the elevation data didn't work for my route. :(

cool!
not sure yet on my accommodations. might be camping at the fairgrounds...

i've tried that velo-routes page - but i don't see how to 'undo' the last point you input. sometimes i mis click or it routes on a road i don't want... and the elevation data didn't work for my route. :(

If you use the autoroute beta version it has no "undo" feature at the current time. I like that version because for longer routes it's much easier and probably more exact but I make goofs too and have to undo so I did my last route the original way ("create a route"). Also, the elevation feature had been problematic as well but seems to be working again.

Because I was less exact with my route points I ended up with 196.4 as my total mileage on my last ride according to veloroutes but my cyclometer read 201.4.

Am I correct that BF member MattM is the creator and webmaster for veloroutes? In any case, I've been using the site and am appreciative of being able to store my routes at all and being able to share them. Are there other sites with similar features, like elevation gain, that are easier to use?

If you use the autoroute beta version it has no "undo" feature at the current time. I like that version because for longer routes it's much easier and probably more exact but I make goofs too and have to undo so I did my last route the original way ("create a route"). Also, the elevation feature had been problematic as well but seems to be working again.

Because I was less exact with my route points I ended up with 196.4 as my total mileage on my last ride according to veloroutes but my cyclometer read 201.4.

Am I correct that BF member MattM is the creator and webmaster for veloroutes? In any case, I've been using the site and am appreciative of being able to store my routes at all and being able to share them. Are there other sites with similar features, like elevation gain, that are easier to use?

mattm is the techie behind it.
i've been using googlemaps and delorme topo. not exactly shareable. googlemaps will not do the elevation chart, but topo does.
i've played with mapmyrun, bikely, etc.

the autoroute feature is key - as most times i am on paved or dirt roads. being able to turn it on and off like in mapmyrun is really handy - but their elevation info is not very useable.

yup, i'm the one behind veloroutes.org!

i've been meaning to fix the undo button on the auto-routing page (http://beta.veloroutes.org/bikemaps/), but the times i did try to fix it i had no luck. damn javascript..

btw would a one-point undo be good enough? what i'm shooting for is to undo the whole last section of the route mapped out - with so many points, one point at a time might be too slow (but easier to code).

thoughts? i guess any undo is better than none at all.. i really should fix that.

yup, i'm the one behind veloroutes.org!

i've been meaning to fix the undo button on the auto-routing page (http://beta.veloroutes.org/bikemaps/), but the times i did try to fix it i had no luck. damn javascript..

btw would a one-point undo be good enough? what i'm shooting for is to undo the whole last section of the route mapped out - with so many points, one point at a time might be too slow (but easier to code).

thoughts? i guess any undo is better than none at all.. i really should fix that.

i think it needs to undo the last point you input, which creates the potentially wrong auto-route, and clears the auto-routing it creates when you enter that point.
does that make sense?

(i'm assuming that when you auto-route the software automatically creates points for you - so if i autoroute from cleveland to chicago and then to memphis - but i didn't like how it got me to memphis - i'd want to be able to undo the last point i entered and have the leg to memphis wiped out - so i could try again.)



also - take a look at mapmyrun - you can turn on the 'follow' roads option whenever you need to. this is handy for short stretches on a long route that you take a bike path - or if you ride down a street that is closed to cars but has an opening for bikes and peds...

i think it needs to undo the last point you input, which creates the potentially wrong auto-route, and clears the auto-routing it creates when you enter that point.
does that make sense?

(i'm assuming that when you auto-route the software automatically creates points for you - so if i autoroute from cleveland to chicago and then to memphis - but i didn't like how it got me to memphis - i'd want to be able to undo the last point i entered and have the leg to memphis wiped out - so i could try again.)



also - take a look at mapmyrun - you can turn on the 'follow' roads option whenever you need to. this is handy for short stretches on a long route that you take a bike path - or if you ride down a street that is closed to cars but has an opening for bikes and peds...

what he said ^^^^^^;)

and Matt, the site is great and if you can get it even smoother all the better. Thanks for the efforts.:thumb:

i think it needs to undo the last point you input, which creates the potentially wrong auto-route, and clears the auto-routing it creates when you enter that point.
does that make sense?

(i'm assuming that when you auto-route the software automatically creates points for you - so if i autoroute from cleveland to chicago and then to memphis - but i didn't like how it got me to memphis - i'd want to be able to undo the last point i entered and have the leg to memphis wiped out - so i could try again.)



also - take a look at mapmyrun - you can turn on the 'follow' roads option whenever you need to. this is handy for short stretches on a long route that you take a bike path - or if you ride down a street that is closed to cars but has an opening for bikes and peds...

yup, google's directions API gives me the whole route between the points, i just draw it on the map. i'll take a look at fixing up the undo portion tonight maybe.

as for turning off/on auto-routing, this is something you can also do on veloroutes.org - just uncheck the "follow the road" option on the left.

mapmyride/run is definitely spiffy, i'm guessing they have people that know how to design websites working them. i'm just one programmer/cyclist, who's really not that good at web stuff, but i'm workin on it!

thx for the feedback!

yup, google's directions API gives me the whole route between the points, i just draw it on the map. i'll take a look at fixing up the undo portion tonight maybe.

as for turning off/on auto-routing, this is something you can also do on veloroutes.org - just uncheck the "follow the road" option on the left.

mapmyride/run is definitely spiffy, i'm guessing they have people that know how to design websites working them. i'm just one programmer/cyclist, who's really not that good at web stuff, but i'm workin on it!

thx for the feedback!

pm me if you are interested in web help. i have a cyclist friend who is a webhead.

great!