Saturday's Plan A involved riding in Vermont. Plan A got shot to hell, exigent circumstances. Plan B involved taking the Monster Trucker (Surly Trucker DeLuxe, shod with Compass Bicycle 52mm Rat Trap Pass Extralights) on
a majority-off-road route that strung together some of our own Class 4 roads--Estabrook Road, Old Morse Road, Two Rod Road--along with some frank hiking trails and the dirt-but-easy Reformatory Branch, 47 miles, most on dirt, roots, rocks, with 4452' of climbing. Not Vermont, but it'll do for now.
Made good time on the Reformatory Branch.
Stopped for lunch at the Great Meadows NWR.
Crossed the Concord River over North Bridge. I don't usually do that, but it was the shortest distance between the two points I was concerned with.
Estabrook Road: Mink Pond.
Estabrook Road: Roots and rocks, but I'm getting the hang of that, and the Rat Traps will happily roll over the damnedest things...
Old Home Day, Carlisle Center.
Old Morse Road, Carlisle: this used to be a road. You can find it on Open Street Map, Google Maps has forgotten all about it.
Old Morse Road: romping through the swamp.
Great Brook Farm: Peach ice cream!
Two Rod Road, an 18th Century road through the Estabrook Woods.
rod