Ride 15: Moretown, Berlin & Northfield

Despite my predictions that ride number 14 may have been my last 251 ride of the season, I was quickly proven wrong. Brad had planned to do a birthday hike, but decided at the last minute to use his birthday-boy privilege to call an audible and switch it to a ride. The route he planned was actually pretty darn close to one I’d planned on doing for a 251 ride-except it was reversed. The changes were actually very sensible and I’m so glad we did his route. But more on that later. It was also kind of funny, because the route I’d planned was based on a ride Maddie and I did at the beginning of last year which was organized by the fine folks at Velo Vermont and called “The Spring Roll.” It was a great event with fun folks and the price was right: $1.75 (or $11.75 with a sandwich). So anyway, there was a crew of us ready to meet up at Red Hen Bakery when on Friday Governor Scott announced that all multi-household gatherings will be banned starting at 10 pm on Saturday. So this was now not only a celebration of Brad’s birthday, it became a final celebration of group rides for the season. So Saturday morning we all met and got ready knowing we wouldn’t see one another for a while. The crew was made of many regulars from these rides: Cameron, Tyler, Rafa, Dan and Brad. The day was chilly and was supposed to stay that way, so we bundled up and headed out.

We worked our way along the Winooski until we reached Jones Brook Road. We slowly climbed, hearing shots in the woods. It was the first day of rifle season: people were out and I was glad I packed an orange vest. The road soon turned to Class IV and I was determined to make it up clean (without putting a foot down). I’d been intimidated by this section on the Spring Roll ride, but with a new bike, new skills and a different riding direction, I was hoping to conquer it. I made it through the steepest pitch, cheered on my Brad and Dan, and I was almost to the top of the worst of it when I lost concentration and skidded out on some mud. Done in by mud. Ugh. Despite this, riding most of it clean felt great. And so did the ride down into West Berlin. No, not THAT West Berlin, the part of the town. The main portion of town is on the other side of the ridge, though there’s not really a village to speak of, though there is a mall and a hospital. We quickly learned that we weren’t the only ones headed that way on Crosstown Road: we had a lot of company climbing up that dirt road as people took the fastest route over towards Barre.

Making my way up the crux of the Class IV. (Photo: Brad)

After the climb up the ridge, we grouped up before another brief section of Class IV right near The Black Cemetery: the oldest cemetery in town. It was a fairly steep, grassy path that was covered in leaves. It was quite fun, though some of us took it faster than others, which led to Cameron taking a spill. Luckily it was a gentle landing and he was fine. We continued south on Brookfield Road and soon passed the entrance to the Irish Hill biking area and forest. There is an old road called Darling Road that runs through here that I’d planned on taking on my version of this route. But in talking to Brad and doing a little more research, I’m glad I didn’t. It’s technically classified as a “Legal Trail” which means the town keeps a right of way on it, but does not commit to maintaining it. So needless to say, it appears to only be passible by mountain bike. We pushed onward paralleling Berlin Pond only to be surprised by another section of Class IV. I hadn’t looked that closely at the map since the whole stretch of road is covered by Google Street View. But if you look at the actual pictures, it looks more like a hike than a drive. Props to whatever Google employee dragged the street view car through there. It was good riding though, easily enjoyed from either direction. We pushed out to Route 64, but instead of just going down the valley, we hopped on Loop Road. Here we passed both Green Mountain Girls Farm as well as a taxidermist who was already busy with trucks parked out front. At least one had deer legs sticking out of the bed: that’s quick work for a hunting season that was only a few hours old. We had a brief climb then a very fun and speedy decent down Bailey Road, all the way to Old Mill Hill. Here an old road had been abandoned and grown over. Parts had caved in, but it was certainly ridable. In fact much of it was still pavement with the center stripe even still visible! I’m not quite sure of the history behind the road, but my best guess is it was the main way up and out of the valley towards Williamstown until Route 64 was built.

Working around a cave-in on Old Mill Hill.

Down in the bottom of the valley, Northfield is spread into four main settlements: South Northfield, Northfield Center, Northfield (AKA “Factory Village”) and Northfield Falls. They each developed for their own reason and in their own time. According to the Northfield Historical Society:

First to have a distinct identity was South Village, which had numerous small businesses and manufacturing operations through the nineteenth century. Next was Center Village, where the first post office, town clerk’s office, and churches were established, and which for many years was the social and political center of town. After the Center came Factory Village (the present Village of Northfield) named for the woolen mill located there. Last to develop was Northfield Falls, and by the late 1820’s it, too, was a thriving community.
From: www.nhsvt.org/home/northfield-town-history

We began by hitting Northfield Center. This part of town is now dominated by Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the United States. The campus is completely closed as the student quarantine in preparation for leaving campus for the winter break. Even though we didn’t see people, we did hear some artillery fire, so clearly some training was happening. We next crossed into the main village. Here is where the main commercial hub of the town is. It’s got a lot of potential and kind of feels like it’s about to blow up. The presence of a very hip (and seriously awesome) combo coffee roaster/brewery certainly helped with that vibe. Rafa stopped in for a quick shot of espresso and we pushed on. We headed by Cabot Hosiery Mills, the makers of the Darn Tough socks: the socks with the lifetime guarantee! They’ve been in business since 1978 and are a real success story when it comes to manufacturing in Vermont. Annually they hold a HUGE sale starting the first weekend of hunting season (this weekend), but it had to be cancelled this year. Rumor has it that they started the sale for “hunting widows” who were alone with their husbands at deer camp. Whatever the origins, I was sad to be passing by knowing what a madhouse it would have been during a non-pandemic year. Pulled on by the thoughts of yummy food, I pedaled north towards the Falls General Store, which came highly recommended by Tyler. It didn’t disappoint and we all stocked up on drinks, baked goods and I even got a sandwich (normally I just snack). We sat outside trying not to get too cold. We rested a bit, but then needed to get the blood flowing, so headed on. Immediately, we passed over, not one, not two, but THREE covered bridges right in a row. Covered bridges are beloved in the town and they have a high concentration of them. Our route took us west and south, traversing along the side of the valley. So it meant some ups and downs, but plenty of good sights. We worked our way up more, looping north again to Bean Road, the end of which had gotten some much needed construction love since the last time I rode by.

All the blood has now rushed to our bellies.

The next to last section of Class IV road was a special one: The Devil’s Washbowl. The uniquely named road is fun to ride and even comes with its own local monster myth: The Pigman. While we didn’t see anything resembling a pigman, we did see a random flatscreen tv placed by the side of the road, but that was about it. After making it though without incident, we had one more climb up to Moretown Gap. It wasn’t a long push as we were already pretty far up the side of the valley. But it still felt good to make it to the top. We had Brad pose with the 35 mph sign on account of his 35th birthday, then all bombed down the steep, smooth dirt of Moretown Mountain Road. We took a sharp right onto Howes Road, and I’m so glad we did. The sun had just come out, and that that section of road has some of the best views in the state. I didn’t get any pictures because the riding was too great, so you’ll just have to head up there yourself. From there we took Farnham Road: a roller coaster of a dip that spits you down some loose, steep gravel to a brook then straight back up. From there we were truly done with climbs and sped down Moretown Common Road to Route 100B. At the very bottom of the decent, Tyler suddenly got a very flat tire. He was able to safely stop and he figured out that the sound he had heard way back on Devil’s Washbowl was a nail in his tire and it only just now went all the way through his tire and the rim tape. The tires had held until then which goes to show you how tough tubeless tires can be! Luckily a nice gentleman from a nearby house offered us his compressor, so Tyler threw a tube in and we were on our way. We pushed extra hard for the last mile to turn up our internal heaters and once we were back, I got the impression everyone didn’t want this last group ride to end, but we were all deeply chilled, so we headed home to defrost with a shower.