Touring in Vermont
with John and Pamela

We decided for our summer vacation to explore in our own back yard and head to Vermont. Our initial plan had been to take the train to St Albans and cycle back, but just before our departure as I was making reservations, we learned that the Vermonter no longer has a baggage car and would not take our bike. This came as a surprise, since when the train first started ruinning it was promoted as a way to get you, your bike and skis into Vermont! So we investigated alternatives like buses and such, but then just decided to ride directly from home and stay further south in Vermont.

Our first night - an inauspicious start?

We got a late start on Friday. We first attended John's company summer outing, and thusly began our first day of riding around 4PM with an 80+ mile ride to a reserved B&B in Orange. The next morning we walked around the area and found this slightly humorous sign.

As I alluded earlier, the trip didn't start out smoothly. At some poin t we noticed that my suspension seatpost wasn't working so well,
and discovered that the elastomer had completely distentigrated. This might be a sign I should lose some weight, but I don't think so. The post was actually fairly new. Seems we got a bad elastomer. Of course no replacements could be found, so we finally got to a town with an open bike shop, Brattleboro, and bought a new (non-suspended) seatpost.

Once we had a seatpost, we headed North toward Putney but took a slight detour to check out Naulakha, Rudyard Kipling's home.

Thus began our tour of mostly dirt roads. One of our goals for the trip was to ride lots of dirt roads, and do lots of climbing.

We stayed the night in Putney, but the next morning found a welcoming B&B that we will check out on a future trip.

We might need to consult a map?