Thetford, VT to Middlebury, VT
Day: 69.94 miles, Trip: 404.99 miles
Not only did the town of Thetford, VT provide us a place to camp and a wonderful dinner but they had stuff for us to have for breakfast. As much as we said this at the time, we were all very grateful.
After breakfast I hit the road. The route started by turning onto "Tucker Hill Road". I really don't like when roads with the word "hill" in them, especially first thing in the morning. Sure enough this one was quite steep but this was nothing compared to the climb we had later to South Stafford. At least the larger climb was followed with a great downhill for a reward. We always say the reward makes the climb worth it, but some of the downhills are pretty weak and not worth it at all.
We took our first rest stop in Royalton, VT. June is here and the days are getting hot. I started riding out with Bethany towards Bethel but as usual I couldn't keep up. The climbing rolled on until the second rest stop even though the climbing really hadn't even started yet for the day. We stopped again in Rochester, VT for a second rest break and had lunch in a great little cafe. I downed the food quickly it was delicious. Then the climbing began. It took me awhile to get to the top of Middlebury Gap (Bread Loaf). It got very steep in sections (up to 15% grade) and I thought I would never get to the top. What really helped were the King of Climb markers with distance to the summit so I knew I was getting there. We were suppose to have a rest stop at the top but when I got there, the trailer was no where to be seen. So I figured I was just that far behind. I was wrong, as I was flying down the hill I came across the trailer and slammed on the brakes and I really didn't think I was going to be able to stop. I did and they had some popsicle for us. The rest of the decent was also extremely fun. I am limited on my speed do to my beastly tires but I still manage to get 45 mph on these tires.
Unfortunately though, we were expecting downhill all the way to town and this was not the case. We headed downhill until outside of East Middlebury and then it was more or less flat. We arrived in Middlebury, VT (population 8,250) Home of Middlebury College (but all the students are gone) so its pretty quiet here. We are staying the night St. Stephens Catholic Church for both tonight and tomorrows rest day.
A Sad note of Middlbury is that we lost two of our riders today. Both Molly and Chris have to return home to the real world. They will both be missed by us all.
On our way to dinner we were heading to a tavern and started crossing the street and a police office came pulling up and yelled at us and made us walk the rest of the way down the block to cross at the cross section. Either they take jaywalking seriously here or more likely the cops are really bored with college being out of session.
