Blog
Riding my bicycle across the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
Where’s Francis? Follow along daily on my map: https://share.garmin.com/FrancisDavis (ask me for password)
It’s remarkable the distance that one can propel themselves on a bicycle in a single day. The hardest part is simply not to stop pedaling. Every second off the bike is time wasted, compounding through the day. Pushing through the physical fatigue, I find moments when I can cruise quickly, muscles working in harmony. At other times, I am struggling to maintain 10MPH on a slight downhill, or heaving air climbing a steep mountain. Either way, I made it. Mark and I set off from our campsite in Ripton around 9AM, finishing the rest of the duck eggs for breakfast. Our decided coffee stop was in Middlebury, a college town. We had a bit of a long stop. I wrote the post for the day before, and everything took too long. We set off again. We’ve been using Google Maps for mileage calculations, as it typically roughly follows the Northern Tier Trail. Google Maps plays tricks on us. At the campground in Ripton, it said that Raquette Lake, our destination for 7/14 was 80 miles away. In Middlebury yesterday, it said that Raquette was 130 miles away. So we ended up doing 80 miles to what we originally thought would be a 40 mile day, finally ending in Woodcomb, NY where president Teddy Roosevelt was sworn in on his way back from hiking Mt. Marcy in the Adirondacks. After Middlebury, there were a few coffee / gas station stops, nothing profound. We had to take a ferry to cross into New York, that was fun. The tastycakes came out, the pedaling continued. I rolled into Woodcomb behind Mark around 8:30. Pushing myself over a hill, I saw an enthusiastic Mark saying the simple words “I found dinner”. I was overjoyed. Positioned next to Mark was a mobile food truck called “Dack Dogs”. We hoovered nachos, a cheese covered soft pretzel, and two meat sauce, barbecue and fired onion laden hotdogs. So satisfying. We rolled into the campground, full and satisfied. It was worth it. TM: 7:11, AVS: 11.2, DST: 81.27
1 Comment
7/15/2018 05:23:27 pm
France, I know you are your own man. I am proud of your adventurous spirit and biking accomplishments. As embarrassing as you may find it, I will mention, nevertheless, that my father, an orphan at ten, lived many adventures like yours, and would smile in approval of all you are doing. And, he didn't have the luxury of a food truck at the end of a long day. But, I especially want to mention, my mother would love you for crossing into NY via ferry. She detoured many vacations hundreds of miles to cross a body of water by ferry. Ask you mom about these grandparents.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
November 2020
|