Vermont - Part 1

Ashley and I recently returned from a great trip to Vermont to visit our friends, Adam, Marcy, and their 2-year-old daughter, Sophia. Ashley has been officially nominated to create the blog post for the trip, with my responsibilities to fill in the mountain biking parts, which only Adam and I were involved with. I am leaving for Peru in a day and a half, so I'm submitting my contribution now to avoid undue delay.

Adam spent much of the week in preparation for teaching classes at Norwich University in the town of Northfield, Vermont. Classes started yesterday, so various administrative activities were 'necessary' over the course of the previous week. Anyway, most days when Adam finished with his obligations, we took off on mountain bike rides from his house (about a mile or less from the university). Rides included primitive loop rides on Payne Mountain and Winch Hill (essentially in Northfield) and a more developed ride just outside of Waterbury, Vermont (home to Ben and Jerry's).

By primitive, I mean that Adam is probably one of only a handful of people who knows how to complete said loops without getting lost. Often times, I found myself following Adam through grass fields with no apparent trail. Other times, we would stop and do trail maintenance. I'm sure that few other people ride these 'trails'. In all fairness, much of the uphill part of the rides were on more established 4-wheel drive doubletrack before heading cross-country down the hill.

I don't mean to imply anything negative by the term 'primitive'. I actually quite enjoyed these rides and was impressed by Adam's local knowledge and navigational skills. As the vast majority of the state would classify as primitive by my standards, the trails we rode near Northfield were quite fitting. We didn't manage any great action photos during these rides, but we did end up with some mediocre video footage that doesn't quite give proper justice to them.