Thetford, VT

Day 05 (01 June 2014)
Jigger Johnson Campground, NH - Thetford, VT
Day: 75.60 miles, Trip: 335.05 miles

The route leaders prepared some breakfast in the morning. It is actually a chilly morning but it warmed up quick as we climbed Kancamagus. As mentioned this section was much steeper than yesterday. I quickly dropped back to the back of the pack and just spun up it. At the top there was a rest stop / check to make sure everybody survived the first big climb of the trip. This was followed by the reward of the climb.

The decent down to Lincoln, NH was a lot of fun. However, this was followed by a beastly climb out of North Woodstock, NH that has several false summits and seemed to be going on forever. There were points of the climb that were hitting grades of 13%. These grades and false tops were given some very choice words as I was riding that won't be repeated. Most people stopped for lunch in town and I just stopped and grabbed a bagel before pushing on. I finally reached the top for the next rest stop. The rest stop was next to a beautiful pond and I was actually early on in the group. I was exhausted but at least we got another fun downhill as a reward. In Piermont, NH I had some ice cream but decided not to hang out and instead pushed on.

The Ride after the last rest stop was really enjoyable but I was getting tired. I reached East Thetford where we were suppose to be staying but nobody was there. I tried texting people to find out where were were staying and road around the tiny town but nobody replied or came. So I enjoyed a cold drink from the convenience shop and waited. Eventually the group caught up and I found out that we were Staying in Thetford not East Thetford (whoops they posted the wrong town). This meant doing a pretty large climb to town.

When we arrived in Thetford there was a welcome party there for us cheering and clapping and they gave us cold, wet towels to wipe the sweat and grime off. They ushered us into the community center and provided us with a pot luck dinner which was absolutely amazing. People from the community took us home and allowed us to use their showers and a few people helped us do laundry. I didn't get much in the pile so will have to wait and do mine in Middlebury, VT. The support was organized by Meg who has MS and she shared a little with us about her experiences with MS.

Tonight we are camping next to the community center in Thetford, VT (population 2600). A few of us were in the community center working on journals or just talking. It is well past bedtime and we are all tired. Eric added a GoPro to his bike and it stuck up between his inverted drop bars. It looked a bit ridiculous and he said to call it Unicorn or Uni for short. So from this point on Eric's bike shall be known as Uni.