Ride 4: Montgomery, Lowell, Westfield, Troy, Newport & Jay

It being the Independence Day holiday weekend, this ride had some other events to content with. Not that we were jam-packed with parties, but it’s a long weekend in July, so you want to fit in as much as possible! So the night before, Maddie and I decided to head to the Sunset Drive-in to watch a double feature. Not just any double feature though: it was Jurassic Park and Jaws! How amazing is that! To see those movies on the big screen was so fantastic. However, in order to see those movies on the big screen, it also needs to be dark, which it’s not these days until at least 9:00. So with an intermission break, that meant we weren’t in bed until 2:30. And with the heat coming on Saturday, I planned with Brad to start riding at 8:00. But honestly, it wasn’t all that bad. I just was semi-useless in the afternoon and took a solid nap. Anyway, that was just a lot of preamble to essentially brag that I got to see cool movies at the drive-in and that I did this ride on 4 hours sleep. Sometimes I brag, so sue me.

So Brad and I met up in Montgomery that morning at our friends Jake and Carrie’s place. They were camping at Green River Reservoir, but agreed to let us use their driveway…and pond, but more on that later. Feeling the humididy already, we quickly got ready and headed out. Leaving their house we used Amidon Road as a cut-over to Hazen’s Notch Road (AKA VT Route 58, the only state route I know of that’s dirt for a significant portion). Hazen’s Notch Road rises quickly out of Montgomery Center and with its steep pitches and dirt surface it’s not maintained during the winter. After a hearty climb, we reached the top. Someone had recently rebuilt a retaining wall that contained a spring. There was also an old stone tablet which reads “Terminus of the Hazen Road, 1779” in reference to the Bayley-Hazen Military Road which was built during the Revolutionary War. We enjoyed the views of the sheer walls of the notch and I at least was thankful for the break from the climb.

We then had a cruiser of a downhill following the Notch Road for long enough to dip into the town of Lowell. I try not to just catch a corner of a town, but this is one of those cases where it just made sense for the route, so why not? We then turned north and headed past a campground that apparently hosts something called the “Bare Bones Bash” every year, which is some sort of motorcycle rally. It looks like a rager. The roads trended downwards so we had some rolling hills to Route 100 near the village of Westfield. By the time we were back on pavement, the humid overcast skies had melted away.

After a short dose of pavement, we we back on dirt and working our way up and east. I knew that my buddy Mike had a yurt out here and I kind of planned the route thinking we’d go near it, but I couldn’t remember the road name it’s on or exactly where it is. However, soon enough we passed right by it! He and his family weren’t there but it was neat to see it in the summer, as I’d only ever been there in the deep winter. We continued to climb working our way to the one stretch of class 4 road I’d put on the route. It’s always a gamble putting some of these rough roads on a route, but the section between Clark Mountain Road and Poginy Hill Road was the perfect mix of cobbles, mud and semi-flatness. It didn’t push us crazy hard, but was a nice challenge. We were then treated by another downhill as we headed north towards Newport Center.

As we got further north, we began to have view up into Canada. These are the first border towns I’ve done on this project and it’s always fun when you can look into another country. There’s great riding up there in the Eastern Townships, but sadly that won’t be able to happen for a while. The views were nice for now though. This section included my two favorite roads of the ride: Niles Road (and later Bergeron Road, where the introductory picture was taken). From Niles Road you can see a couple of peaks that are just over the border (Mont Bear and Mont Hawk). They form a frame that Owl’s Head eventually filled as we moved west.

With the second big climb of the day looming we made a pit stop at the Jay Country store. We refilled water bottles, took a short break and prepared to climb. We both joked about using our mindfulness skills on the climb and just working on “noticing” things. But once we got into the climb, I really did need something to distract me. What it turned out being was the some of the music from Jurassic Park. It’s such solid John Williams fanfare-type stuff it really powered me on the up. Riding past Jay Peak was so great. Other than for my friends Chris and Christine’s wedding, I’ve barely been there in the summer. They now have a ton more stuff to do in the “off-season”, including a golf course and water park. On the final steep climb up to the top of the climb, I distracted myself with looking up into the glades and thinking about skiing deep deep powder. We finally made it to the top and were rewarded with a bombing run of a descent back to Jake and Carrie’s.

It was yet another glorious day for cycling. I very much appreciated the weather (and getting out early to avoid the worst of the humidity). Brad was excellent company as always, but MVP honors definitely go to Jake and Carrie for the use of their pond. It truly saved us at the end there.

The Details:

https://www.strava.com/activities/3708398995

https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz16el5z/ckc6jsy3y00013h69b15d88fu