Out Doors
by Elizabeth Bassett

Pedal Power

Between raindrops, biking has saved my summer of 2008. While I don’t recommend riding in a downpour, drizzle on a hot and humid day can make an otherwise sticky ride comfortable. Lots of special events for bikers stretch through August and September. Some ideas for late summer pedaling:

August through Labor Day Weekend.
Last chance for a ferry ride across the Cut in the Colchester-South Hero Causeway, Labor Day weekend (including Monday) marks the end of the month-long 2008 season. Two boats provide ferry service for bikers from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekend days. A donation of $5 for round-trip passage helps to defray the costs of the three-minute journey. This short cruise opens miles of pedaling, much of it on little-traveled roads with vistas of lake, mountains (on both shores) orchards, farms and vineyards. Maple creemees are available and even a handful of castles-- all less than ten feet tall! Consult Local Motion’s website, localmotion.org, for an inventory of bike itineraries.
The ferry will operate in rain but not in severe weather or high-wind conditions. For ferry information, call 652-2453 or 316-6382.

September 10-14. Building on the success of its annual Memorial Day trip to Montreal, Local Motion is sponsoring a ride from St. Jean sur Richelieu to Quebec City, a fully supported five-day bike tour. The ride follows the Chemin du Roy bike route (lecheminduroy.com), departing Wednesday, September 10. A day’s will average 50-60 miles with the option of hotels or camping enroute. More information and registration at localmotion.org.
Saturday, September 13. Third Annual Kelly Brush Century Ride. Kelly Brush is one of our own, a graduate of Middlebury College who grew up in Charlotte and attended CCS. In 2006, after Kelly suffered a spinal cord injury during a ski race, friends and family established a foundation to support spinal cord injury research and to improve safety in ski racing. The foundation also makes grants to injured athletes allowing them, like Kelly, to remain active.
Last year 175 bikers raised $90,000. Among the grants:
• $40,000 to 40 ski clubs for ski-rac-
ing safety,
• scuba gear to a 21-year-old
California diver,
• hand-cycle to Cleary Buckley of
Burlington,
• donation to the U.S. Disabled Ski Team to develop a new Nordic sit-ski,
• donation to Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver for spinal cord
research.
Ride the entire route or gather a team of two to four members and divide the 100 miles through scenic Addison County. This year’s goal is $200,000. Get organized and bike with other supporters to raise money for the Kelly Brush Foundation. KellyBrushFoundation.org or 846-5298.

Sunday, September 21. The first “Le Tour de Farms” in Addison County. Meet in Shoreham Village at 10:30 a.m. for rides of 10, 25 or 30 miles. Pedal and sample apples, pesto, cheese, wine, cider, milk, bread and cookies enroute. Register at vtbikeped.org. Le Tour de Farms is sponsored by Vermont Bike and Pedestrian Coalition, Rural Vermont, and Addison County Localvores (ACoRN).

Some morning, pump the tires and hop the ferry to Essex, New York with or without your car.
Option 1- Park at the Charlotte ferry landing (hiding any valuables in the trunk or, better yet, leave them at home). On the New York shore, turn left and ride south on Lake Shore Road, past the beautiful homes lining the main street of Essex. The entire village, with its intact pre-Civil War houses, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At Whallons Bay Road turn right and climb toward the ridge. Be glad you are wearing a helmet as you pedal below a towering platform that is home to a family of feisty ospreys. Views from this ridge extend across apple orchards, pastures and croplands to many layers of the Adirondack Mountains, with Giant in the foreground. Whallons Bay Road ends at Route 22. Jog left across this busier road, following Walker Road as it rises and falls, swings to the left and eventually joins Route 10. A short stretch on Route 10 leads to Whadams, a tiny cluster of buildings that includes a fabulous bakery with organic coffee (iced latte was memorable), yummy sandwiches and delicious baked goods— scones, bread and cookies.
Enjoy lunch before retracing your route to the ferry. It’s almost all downhill from here. Round trip about 20 miles.
While I’ve never verified this fact, I understand that in New York if a school bus picks up one child on a road, it must be paved. So, while little-traveled roads in Vermont are nearly always dirt, in the Empire State they are usually smooth, blacktopped and often empty, making it a great place to bike.
Option 2. Drive to Wilmington at the base of Whiteface Mountain. Start (or finish, or both) your ride at Mel’s Diner with a late breakfast or lunch. Edsel models cling to the walls, and Elvis wiggles his hips as the clock keeps time. Order the homemade sweet potato fries, and you will be fueled for the route ahead (and thank me later).
A few hundred yards to the east on Route 86, look for Haselton Road, Route 12. This lovely road rolls up and down, but mostly down, along the West Branch of the AuSable River. Alder swamps alternate with forests of hemlock, spruce, and northern hardwoods. Winter wrens gurgle down the scale, and white-throated sparrows repeat their pitch-perfect song.
Turning right at Silver Lake Road, a short, raging downhill delivers bikers to AuSable Forks. Behind the supermarket on Main Street a waterfront park sits at the confluence of two branches of the AuSable with picnic tables and benches. Restored and refueled, continue south looking for Shelldrake Road on the left. This road climbs out of the valley, alternating with breaks to catch your breath. Take in the vista over Asgaard Farm on the right. Hayfields spread across the foreground with a backdrop of the High Peaks. The Hudson River School painter Rockwell Kent lived just outside AuSable, and his painting Mountain Road captures the Adirondacks from this site. The Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake counts Mountain Road among its permanent collection. Another Kent oil painting, Asgaard’s Meadows, confirms the importance of this property in the artist’s life. Rockwell Kent is buried on Asgaard Farm in view of his beloved Whiteface, “the noblest single mountain in New York State.”
Keep pedaling to Stickney Bridge Road where a left turn will take you along a ridge with panoramic views and beautiful farmland. An elk farm, signaled by unusually high fencing, is home to a herd of splendid bucks with as many as 18 points on their antlers. (I had a headache just watching them prance across the pastures.) A little farther along are Highland cattle with their curved horns and shaggy fur. Stickney Bridge Road dumps riders down the hill where the village of Jay is a short detour to the north. A restored covered bridge, dating from the mid nineteenth century, straddles the AuSable where pools alternate with cascades. On a hot July day with floodwaters raging through the main channel of the river, dozens of bathers splashed in the pools.
Return toward the south, taking Valley Road where more farms alternate with mountain vistas and forests. When Valley Road ends at Upper Jay Trumbulls Road, turn right for a screaming downhill. If you can stop, trees on the left hide the remnants of Fairyland, an amusement park destroyed by flooding in 1979.
From Upper Jay—yes, Upper Jay, south of both Jay and North Jay—it’s payback time. Climb steadily, but never steeply, up Springfield Road for a few miles until you are back at Mel’s Diner. Time for more sweet potato fries? Sandwiches and soup are darn good, too. All of this in about 25 miles.

Be safe. Wear a helmet. Have fun!