Albany, New York to Brattleboro, Vermont

What an incredibly difficult day today was! This ride was listed as a 76 mile journey, although my bike computer and I put the mileage more at 79 miles. Regardless, this was one of the most physically demanding days of the trip. I don't know when I have sweated more on a ride.

We left our motel in Albany, New York, and found ourselves immediately in high volume urban traffic, that further aggravated by rather impressive and disorganized major road construction. New Yorkers who are en route to work are remarkably intolerant of cyclists. It was difficult and also a bit frightening. Regardless, we all made it intact.

At only 4 miles into the ride today we crossed the Hudson River! That was neat. The river at this location is quite wide. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but there was no safe place to do so. Anyway, it was impressive.

The further we got away from Albany, the less disturbing the traffic and road conditions became. That was merciful. At 31 miles into the ride, we made it into the state of Vermont! As always, state line crossings are a big deal for us.

Entering into Vermont, we found ourselves in the town of Bennington. That is a really neat place. It has the appearance of probably everyone's image of a typical Vermont small town. There is a central green town square. There is a huge church in the center of town, that almost resembling a gothic-style cathedral. There are multiple cemeteries also. If we had the time to look arround, I am certain that we would find graves dating in the late 1700s.

We left Bennington on Vermont route 9, and we stayed on that road pretty much to our final destination in Brattleboro. Right out of Bennington, route 9 took us on a brutal 7.1 mile climb. I was effectively at my physical limit on that climb, pretty much the whole time. I don't know when I have sweated more. It was a truly beautiful ride up into the mountains, but it surely was difficult! Many of the riders on this trip have heart rate monitors on at all times. Thank God I don't, as I really don't want to know what my heart rate was during that part of today's ride!

We went through Wilmington, and then we went over Hogback Mountain (another big climb), to finally end up now in Brattleboro.

The ride over Hogback Mountain was neat. It could almost resemble a northern Wisconsin forest road, although I believe we have more deciduous trees, and less conifers, here. The wildflowers at the roadside are neat. There were lots of Indian Paintbrushes, daisies, and wild violets.

I really am tired. I hope I have the energy for tomorrow's 91 miles and similarly impressive mountain road climbs.

We will see!

Regarding the four photos above, the bottom three really belong with yesterday's posting. Two are of the Mohawk river and its associated valley. The bottom photo is that of the "New Helmet Club". In that photo, from left to right, it is me, Craig, Roy, and Bill.