Triple state day...

Life and the time demands of the tour kind of got in the way of the blog the last couple of days. We had our first taste of rain - which demands a visit to the hotel laundry - and a couple of days of heavy duty climbing which is a big motivator for an early bedtime.
In any case we left Albany with a cue sheet that promised some real hills on our way to Vermont. Once out of the city - always a fun time given our 7:00 AM departures - we were back into the rolling Northern NY landscape although it was muted just a bit by a lightly falling rain. And that rain would follow us just about all day. Fortunately it was warm and to be honest the overcast sky kept the sun from pounding on us going up the hills. Our first SAG was one of the best - they set up at a Dunkin Donuts and much as I know that the Dunkin product is not exactly the best fuel for cyclist consuming in excess of 5,000 calories that lemon cream filled creation sure tasted good. We hit the Vermont state line at about 30 miles and could almost feel the difference. The green was greener, the terrain more hilly, and the views more sweeping and grand. Our first major town was Bennington and what a lovely little New England city it is. High spired churches, old houses for the most part loving kept up, and of course a monument on the village green in the center of town. Among other things we stopped at marvelous old church graveyard ("old" as in easily dating back to the early 18th century) and visited the grave of the poet Robert Frost. His epitaph: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
Much of the rest of the day was spent in heavy duty climbing that began with a 7.1 mile climb with a grade that ranged from 12 to 16% almost the entire way. There was an incredible descent on the other side that, had the highway not been so wet, would have lent itself to record speeds. My best for the day was 40mph but I was feathering the brakes all the way down. That, of course was not the end of the climbing. Our next big one was Hogback Mountain, the site of one of Vermont's many ski resorts. The photo from the top is below. Again, a fantastic descent that was long and fun but done with much caution. We ended in Brattleboro, another neat little town that also has an artistic, almost hippie kind of subculture. The sun finally came out and we had a marvelous dinner at a roadside bar-b-q overlooking a small lake and gorgeous view of the value and mountains. For the record it was 79 miles with 5,600 feet of climbing - not too difficult to fall asleep that night.