Last Thursday, our crew headed up to the Northwest corner of Connecticut for a bike ride. We started out in Colebrook which is just over an hour from our home. The ringleaders of our group, Mark and Marilyn had completed the ride over the weekend and instantly knew we all would love it.
There was a brief shower on our way up and the car said it was 42 degrees outside by the time we got there. I definitely wasn’t prepared for cold – even though I was told it would be! That is typical me, I just can’t understand a temperature change until I’m in the middle of it totally unprepared. Thankfully, Marilyn lent me a pair of gloves with battery pack heaters, and some toe warmers. My husband lent me an extra buff he had in his bag. At least I was wearing long cycling tights so I pulled my wool socks over the ends of them, but really wished they were my fleece lined pair! Dressed and off we went!
The ride was a mix of country roads and packed dirt roads. I was happy to not be riding on dirt roads with ruts and rocks like our central Connecticut rides! There were a couple of intense hills that for the first time on this bike I kicked it into Turbo. If we didn’t have e-bikes, we’d be sitting home on the couch instead of riding.
We don’t stop very often. Always for lunch, meaning whatever we can fit in our small bike bags, and occasional water breaks.
This time we happened upon a small cemetery – the Munson Cemetery. I only took a picture of one nearby stone, but google led me to the Find a Grave website. The Judd and Munson families are interred there. The oldest grave is for Sarah Booth Munson and she appears to have ties to Hamden and New Haven. I’m not going down that rabbit hole though!
Our ride also took us through the Great Mountain Forest which is a 6,042 acre forest that within Norfolk and Falls Village. It has 13 miles of road to ride on. We went in one entrance and came out another. And we saw a porcupine! It looked so cute waddling away.
The last 2 miles felt like 10 miles and it felt like it was all uphill back to our cars. 28.9 miles (I need to start riding around the parking lot to get that whole mile!).
We definitely warmed up during the ride, and on the way home we celebrated ourselves with a cup of Dunkin’ pumpkin spiced coffee and an a glazed donut stick. I think we earned it!
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 