Day 39- Troy, NY > Brattleboro, VT (81 miles)

 June 19

I was able to have a couple of beers with an old friend from high school last night...Bryan B and his wife have a place at Lake George, and he drove down last night so we could catch up. Bryan was a seriously good soccer player with the rest of us flunkies at Walton High School. We had a great time last night, and I appreciate him coming to the bizarre town of Troy.

Bryan and I showing off all of our gray hairs...hard to believe that we graduated high school almost 40 years ago. You can see that sunscreen is not enough for my nose on this trip!

The route for today:

Gradient:

I forgot the quote of the day yesterday, and it was specifically chosen based on what awaited us today. John Muir: "The mountains are calling, and I must go..." We climbed in the Green Mountains of Vermont today, and they are truly beautiful. We participated in a running relay up here many years ago and remembered how long and steep some of the climbs are here. We had a great day in spite of the heat. You can see on the gradient chart that we were climbing over 5k feet and 1/3 of that was on the 9.5 mile climb you see around mile 32. The great news was we had some huge descents that were a little scary and hard not to go fast. I topped out today at 43.4 mph, which I hope to never do again; I think Bill was close to 50 mph for perspective.

Photos from the day:

We hit the Vermont state line around mile 27 and had a group shot to commemorate it.

Cool shot taken today of our group.

I would call this a 'big arse' chair. See the chair in the chair? It is a regular size chair.

This was a great descent, and you can see what we had in front of us...

We followed this river for about 25 miles.

Easy to see why they are called the Green Mountains.

Today's quote is another from The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese: "when it's all done, when life is almost over, what do you want to remember?" Yep, this one is also timely as this trip has been so full of scenery, laughter, challenges, and memories that describing each day is difficult. I feel like we are figuratively eating a buffet of stuff every day, and it will be interesting to see what survives the filter of time. 

Tomorrow is the last real day of riding...we have 91 miles to Burlington, MA; the ride to the beach on Friday is ceremonial (19 miles). Talk tomorrow!