vtxl ride end

Finished the ride! I'll fix the photos later

 riding back in the car with Jackie driving. Driving feels too fast to be right now, LOL

vtxl Day six last day

I survived my last wild camp out in the woods Period Unfortunately I ran out of daylight and had Rough Weird Non-Designated site Spot With barely enough room to pitch my tent Comma but it worked Period

By the way I know My phone is typing the words Instead of the punctuation I'll fix it later Period This morning It was mostly downhill Into the town of Sunderland But sadly the Corner Market Is out of business Period So I have to ride another hour You get my first warm food of the day Period I got in touch with Jackie She's going to pick me up In North Adams So that's all settled Hopefully around 130 For two o'clock this afternoon I'll meet up with Period She's bringing my Portable Sponge Shower system And a change of clothes Period I also told her to bring a trash bag To throw my gear in I kept the old bike rack that I can strap To the trunk of her car So we're going to use that instead of the truck The front driver side tire on the truck keeps deflating overnight and I don't want to risk You're having issues with it Not to mention it'll probably be easier for her to just drive her own car We don't really need the truck we're not camping she's just picking me up So I guess that's all for now I've got 40 miles left the bike 3 500 feet of elevation game which is nothing Because yesterday I did A little over 8 000 feet The most of the trip Period I've also been working on Some post about what worked well What I need to improve What gear worked well What I can leave at home Stuff I should replace that weighs less So I'll be working on that over the next few days After I get home and I'll be posting more pictures I was thinking I may even do a YouTube video On my bike setup I think most of the people I saw riding This root Went super ultra light And I couldn't find anything about Setups that carried more gear So I might make a video on that It's a tougher challenge to be honest with all the climbing Period But it does settle one thing in my mind I can do this I can bite cross-country no problem Period I'll have to start planning for next year

vtxl day 5 morning

I made it to the camp spot I wanted. I might technically be on somebody's land but I'll be gone before 7:00. If all goes well I'll make it to the Green Mountains today. And then I have an easy paddle the last day into North Adams. I haven't decided yet if I'm biking all the way back or having Jackie pick me up. We'll see how it goes. So far I'm surprised how good my body feels. No joints hurt in my butts doing really well. My muscles get tired but you would expect that pedaling 8 hours a day. The last two days I've biked from about 7:30 to 7:00 p.m. but I take food and water filter breaks.

 technically my Camp spot should be in the green Square to be on public land. Oops lol

VTXL DAY 3 Chelsea VT

Made it to Chelsea vt. Toughest day of climbing of the trip.7000ft. 50 miles. I'm still in town, but it's only a couple miles to get to where I camp tonight. So I'm posting now. No guarantee of cell coverage when I'm up in the hills

I'll probably just set up my tent . get out of the rain. And fall asleep. I'll try to blog tomorrow if I have time

VTXL Day three Riding

It's actually day four But my keyboard wasn't working due to the humidity I just got the idea though That I could use my open fit2 shokz ear bud which has A good microphone to dictate So let's give it a go I have a steep hill climb right now

I'll edit these when i get home

 Anywho yesterday I did over seven thousand feet of climbing It's Garment Edge computer Isn't recording the Ascent Because I lost the weather cover For it I bought a USB C charging port cap To keep water out of it and thought it would be fine But there's a tiny hole that The barometer uses So that's why it's not doing the dissect Oh well I'll fix it when I get home And buy a new weather cap I didn't realize how important it was Back Day three After leaving the hollow covered bridge I thought really hungry But The next door Wasn't at until the 120 mile Mark And I was at mile 87 So I had lots of Cliff bars Full wheat wraps with peanut butter and dates Wasabi almonds Protein powder And I was able to make it To the general store In West Tops Camera I'll fix the spelling on that later When I got to that General Store Nothing looks More beautiful to me So let me add a photo of the place so you can Find the humor in that 

 Inside they had warm pizza Hamburgers chicken fingers Anything hungry bike packer Would be dreaming of after such Along ride to get In the ride to get there was pretty rough It wasn't Class four road It was some Trail And I had to do a lot of Walking the bike yesterday Or what they call hika bike Take a bike Again sorry for misspellings and no punctuation I'll edit later Just getting my thoughts down Here's some photos of the rough Trail That I couldn't ride through and had to walk

 Chicken alfredo broccoli slice of pizza Which had to at least be Seven to 800 calories on its own Given how heavy it felt A cheeseburger A small bag of Ruffles Sour cream and onion The three to four serving kind An ice cream cookie Sandwich And a 20 ounce coke I was feeling much better after that In the town of top stand They have Hot spot Wi-Fi service So I was able to get online And I plotted a better route From The general store I was at To the next general store in Chelsea About 16 miles away There was one brief section I hadn't flattened right They wanted to take me over one of those rough Trails again So I said screw that Stayed on the back way Trail a little lower longer And then bang to write On Rand I'll have to look that up later And then that took me The five mile Downhill section into Chelsea which was awesome On that downhill section it started to pour rain And it's just a gravel dirt road So by the time In town From my knees to my shoes I was just caked and mud Thankfully I was wearing my shorts Instead of Long sung pants Sun pants So I bought a jug of water first thing In the store Went back outside filled my water bottles And then used the rag I have And it is wash off my legs Also when I got the gallon trick of water I put an order in for a small To the steak sandwich with everything So by the time I finished cleaning up my sandwich was ready And then I restocked Because as I said before when I got to the first general store I was all a lot of food I had eaten my last cliff bar about Five miles before getting to the store In five miles Could have been a long ways if it was all a pill But thankfully it was mostly downhill But back to Chelsea I devoured the cheesesteak Another Fanta soda Another Three serving bag the chips Stocked up on Cliff bars Brown cinnamon sugar Pop-Tarts Oh and I forgot At the previous General Store I bought a six pack Plane Donuts

After the Chelsea store Actually towards the end while I was there it started raining again Not bad But enough to make me put my rain jacket and pants on And I was off to find camp for the night It was around 6 30 when I left

I had one last Past mile With 550 feet Of elevation gain To get up to the back road Where I found A spot for my tent Period It was a little turn off For a former logging Area I set up camp Around 7 30 at night Got into the turn as quickly as possible because it was starting to rain again Set up everything inside out of the rain without getting everything wet And lead in bed From about Eight o'clock Until 11 When I finally fall asleep It's hard to fall asleep when Your muscles are all fired up What I realized helped Is I moved my quilt To only cover My butt And I left my legs Open to the cool evening air To cool down I could immediately feel myself starting to Relax more but it still took an hour after I figured that out But solid note for next time Per my watch I slept from about 10 To 5 30 Which isn't bad Only got in an hour of REM and deep sleep So I need to be careful not to make any dumb mistakes today

VTXL day 3 morning, covered bridge

i wrote a longer post last night, but need better cell for it to upload.   will do once I get to Topsham, or sooner.

Slept fine.   was in my tent around 7p.m. last night.  read for a bit, and then decided to try sleeping by 8p.m.  drifted off by 9 i think.

going to eat brekkie and get going asap this morning.   try to beat the rain coming mid afternoon. 

Later

Day 2 VTXL evening camp at Greenbanks Hollow Covered Bridge

Long day, just shy of 60 miles, 59.25 and 5,000ft.   my bike computer isn't loading today's ride to the app, but I'll sort it out at home, no biggee.  I know I did it, lol

Butt is good.   really good actually, touch wood.    I felt the back of my legs and inside thigh muscles tiring towards the last couple hours of my 8 hour ride today, which is a clear sign that the seat was too high and too far forward.   I'd made those adjustments a couple weeks ago.   It's good on flatter terrain but not for all the climbing i'm doing, so I just went back to what I had marked/painted on the seatpost and seat rails, and I felt my strength on the climbs return.     easier on my lower back too.   

It did take me almost 8 hours to ride the 60 miles today.   Some of the climbs were tough and muddy.   Hopefully, i hit my groove tomorrow, or I'll have to adjust the mileage plan.   Less distance, 55miles but more climbing tomorrow, 7,000ft.   Crazy!    it'll be the most of the ride if i can doit, but i need to keep an eye on weather.   Thunderstorms and rain are coming late afternoon possibly, it could cut into my riding time, so i need to make an early start and not leave anything that makes me waste time doubling back.   Thankfully the rain that's definitely coming will be overnight when i'm in the tent.

after the lock snafu, no other incidents the rest of the day.   Recharged food wise at a nice farm stand.   got an  ice cream cookie sandwich, rootbeer, and a dense heavy blondie with decadent chocolate, reese's cups, white chocolate and crushed graham crackers on top.  Hit the  spot.

Dinner at camp was just cheese and pepperoni, a peach from the farmstand, the rest of the blondie and some wasabi almonds.   Didn't have time to stop at the Red Barn brewery.   I needed the time at camp to wash clothes and setup camp.   

took way more photos today, here's a sampling.   I'll review more later and post more