grout pond campground, stratton vt, sunday 9/3/23, 20:42
we tried to get an early start today cuz we knew we had a bunch of climbing ahead of us. but because we didn’t get to bed until late last night we ended up sleeping in until 6:30 and didn’t get out until 8 or so.
our day started with a big climb and then some super fun descending, some gorgeous roads and scenery before we hit a lake at approx mile 25. we stopped for a while and ate some lunch, put our legs in the water and tried to rest a bit. we were both feeling pretty sore at this point and we got back on our bikes gingerly to continue on.
after the lake, the rest of todays ride i’ve actually done before but in the opposite direction, as part of the roundabout brattleboro overnight i did last year.
we rode down this really cool trail next to the river and i took a stop to filter some water in the most scenic place. as we continued on we saw more and more damage that had been done by the floods.
i sat in an adirondack chair and did not want to get up.
we made a stop and got some food to go that we’d eat at camp. and then we set off on the hardest part of the day, the 10ish mile climb up the IP road, which was mostly overgrown singletrack and was tough! though it was also beautiful, lots of flowers and lots of bugs and lots of dragonflies swooping around me to eat the swarming bugs. we made it to the top and got to camp. we set up our tent without a rain fly so we can look at the stars tonight, and they are delivering. a clear sky filled with stars since we are in the middle of nowhere in the forest.
