Ride 30: Tunbridge & Strafford

Ride number thirty was always going to be a little different. Instead of going out solo or with a small gaggle of friends, I asked my friends Tyler and Rachel Cohen to gather a group of close to 700 people, rent out a fairground, hire some awesome caterers, plan a killer route and pull it off without a hitch. And guess what: they did as I asked! I kid of course. This ride is called The Ranger. It was born about 7 years ago out of a community’s sudden realization of its fragility: a developer was beginning to buy up land and was planning to set off a 20,000 person, 5,000 acre bomb that would have completely changed the character of the area. The plan has since been scuttled, but the ethos of the ride was born: “Ride With Purpose”. Ever since then, the ride has raised over $30,000 for various local causes, not to mention bringing direct funds and awareness to the local towns through rider spending and visits. Needless to say it’s an awesome ride and last year, when Tyler and Rachel were given the opportunity to take on running it (along with their friends Jon and Pamela) they jumped at the chance. I’d never done the ride before and it was really only my second paid gravel event ever, so I was very excited. So excited in fact that Brad and I cooked up the plan to ride the 67 miles down there the day before! Oh and I bought a new bike which happened to arrive the day before that, so I could barely contain myself. 

I won’t cover the ride down extensively, but it was really great. We were planning to camp, meeting our buddies John and Chris down there. Plus Maddie was coming down to volunteer and do her own small ride, so she would be driving later in the day. We decided against hauling our stuff down, just for the sake of looking hardcore when we rolled in and enjoyed a beautiful, non-burdened ride. The new bike is an absolute dream. It’s so light, the shifting is snappy and while the geometry might take some getting used to, but overall it was perfect considering it just arrived the day before. We arrived at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds (Home of the annual World’s Fair) where we’d be based out of for the next 24 hours. Maddie arrived just after we did and we set up camp, jumped in the river and ate some dinner while meeting campsite neighbors. Chris and John arrived later (coming in clutch with a forgotten key) and we had a great night staying up chatting. The next morning we all began with a fantastic breakfast burrito thanks to Chris that included tater tots and we began prepping our bikes. Chris was actually going to ride my Salsa, since it would be much better than his Surly Cross-check, gearing and braking wise for the VERY climb-y course. It was so fun seeing more and more people arrive and we saw many friends from the riding scene who had made the trip down. We began cuing up on the oval track of the infield and soon enough we were off!

From the get-go, it was exciting being in such a large group of riders. There was a fair bit of diversity in terms of bikes and apparel too. There was everyone from folks rocking racey-looking kits and seemingly too skinny tires, to people with vintage 1x mountain bike conversions in sandals. There were even multiple masochists hauling children in seats or trailers! This made sense given that there was also an awesome range of offerings for the ride: a 2-5 mile kids ride, an 18-mile, no drop regular green course, our 42-mile blue course and a 62-mile black course with about 30% more climbing than the blue. The string of riders spread out as we rode through the fields south of the Fairgrounds. We passed through the Cilley Bridge as we crossed then followed the First Branch of the White River on Howe Lane. We traveled and safely across VT 110 thanks to the help of numerous volunteers. Crossing the river again via the Howe Covered Bridge, we were done with some of the only flats of the day and were set to begin our first climb. Unfortunately, right after the bridge, Chris had some shifting issues and needed to mend some chain suck. This has been known to happen on that Salsa, and I forgot to warn him. We eventually fixed it, and we back on the road towards the back of the pack. But seeing as how this was a ride, not a race, we were happy. Plus we’d already decided to meet Brad at the first aid station at mile ten, so we knew we’d all group up in a little. The climb was a steady one and I was happy for the shade covering much of it. We ended up passing a decent number of folks who had passed us during the repair. We soon came to the first of the “race within the ride” enduro segments. I knew I wouldn’t have much in the tank for the future ones, and it was downhill, so I pushed it a bit. I ended up coming roughly middle of the pack and funnily enough was exactly tied with Brad at 3:30, even though he was a few miles ahead of me. At the bottom of the descent, we turned at Winding Brook Farm, a stunning 270 acre operation pumping out a wide variety of products. Oh and you can stay there! Put that on the future trip idea list. We arrived at the aid station where we gobbled up some goodies including bananas and sugary waffles. We then grouped up as a sextet and continued on. We had a punchy climb on Ames Road, but the view at the top was worth it. The fact that there was a super fun farm road descent afterwards, made it all the sweeter.

We enjoyed a quick burst of flat pavement as we rolled into Strafford Village. Strafford (to me) most brings to mind the Organic Creamery based there which still uses glass bottles. We now mainly get milk via a neighbor who makes a weekly trip to fill up directly from the bulk tank. But I’ve always loved Strafford’s products (especially the eggnog!) and their beautiful cows. The whole area is gorgeous, including the twee village which isn’t exactly bustling, but is anchored by a gorgeous meeting house on one end and the Justin Morrill Homestead on the other. The dusty pepto bismol pink Greek Revival Homestead was built by Morrill in the mid-1800’s and primarily used as a summer home. Morrill is best known for his championing of the Land-Grant Acts which helped fund public colleges across the country. His traditionally rosy reputation has had new perspectives arise, given the realities of how the land that funded land-grant colleges came into federal possession. We didn’t really make a pitstop to take in the buildings of the Historic District, but it was fun zipping through. The climb up to our highest point began here and we began the slow slog up Kibbling Hill Road. I was happy for the extra few gears on the new bike and despite inhaling the clouds of pine pollen at the top through the deep breaths, it was great to reach the pinnacle. Of course the down was fun, but this being The Ranger, it was followed by a succession of ups and downs that resembled progressively larger and larger shark’s teeth on the elevation profile. There were a few Class 4 roads through here and it was one of my favorite zones of the day. That whole area is ripe for more exploration. We had a sluggish paved climb, which was much less fun than the dirt up and downs. But after we turned off of Strafford Road, we had a true, long glorious descent all the way back towards Route 110. It was mainly dirt and super fast. It ended when we crossed the Larkin covered bridge and even better there were volunteers blowing bubbles onto us and Maddie was there for a water top off and pep talk! We followed 110 back south towards North Tunbridge getting lovely views of the river and enjoying the relatively flatness.

I caught up with the rest of the group at the Tunbridge Volunteer Fire station. Monarch Hill loomed above and was our last truly long climb of the day. Thankfully, the second aid station had been placed about ⅔ of the way up as a carrot. The fairgrounds is just a mile down the paved road and if you’re struggling this is the place to bail. So having the promise of more good food and drinks up the hill was a smart move if you ask me. We all clicked into our easiest gear and began plodding up. Not everyone on the ride, mind you. This was another of the enduro sections and we had people who were clearly going for time (given their speed) and had also clearly done the 63-mile loop (given their muddy legs). We weren’t deterred by the speedsters and chugged along up to the aid station. They had more of the same as the first, but we took more time here. I drank at least two maple waters and ate some more waffles, bananas and basically any other calories I could get down. It was pretty sunny by this point and I’d managed my hydration and food well up to this point, but I wanted to be sure I could finish strong. The last 11 miles or so wouldn’t be a walk in the park. We also ended up seeing a guy named Merrick who lives near me who I’ve ridden with a few times. We did a Bootlegger Bikes shop ride together around this time last year that he did from home, doubling the length (almost 100 miles instead of 50). Oh and he did it on a single speed! He’s a beast, so of course he was doing the Black Course on that same single speed. We stuck with him for a bit, but he dropped us before long. We eventually worked our way down into the upper reaches of the next valley over on Kelsey Mountain Road. We came to the last enduro section which was on a super steep, technical, rocky Class 4 section. I didn’t ride it quickly, but I was able to clean the steep part, which was probably my biggest single accomplishment of the day. After that there were a few more fun downs and a couple of muddy bits, but the real highlight was the final downhill. It’s a full 2 miles long and was a blast. After that, we just returned to the fairground through the fields we’d taken that morning, and took one final lap of the oval across the finish line. Of course, my competitive juices got the best of me and I challenged John to a sprint finish which , thanks to the new bike, I edged him out on (sorry JC). We dropped our stuff at the campsite and collected some Topo Chicos delivered by our buddy Ben and hopped into the river. After a change of clothes, we swung by the silent auction to say hi to Maddie, and then tucked onto the best food ever thanks to the Brownsville Butcher. They’re the joint I tried to go to on Ride 17, but ended up “stomach-broken”. Better late than never. The day ended with Rachel, Tyler and the other organizers saying a few words of thanks and they got a hearty applause. It was richly deserved and we’ll certainly be back in 2023.

The Details:

https://www.strava.com/activities/7298720754

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