The next day, I got up around 6:15am and was ready to leave the campground at 7. I was a bit more optimistic about that day since I knew it was going to be all downhill (or at least flat) once I cross the Cardigan Mountain. I expected crossing this mountain to be difficult. What I didn't know was the mess I was putting myself into.
It all started easy - Halls Brook Rd from Rumney to North Groton is nicely paved and was actually fun to ride, despite the fact that it was all uphill at a steady 5-8% grade. After reaching North Groton my original plan was to take Edgar Albert Rd, which theoretically (on the map) should connect to Coolidge Rd on the other side of the mountain. But the entrance to Edgar Albert Rd was marked with a dead end sign. Knowing my luck from the day before, I decided it wasn't worth chancing it and I took the main North Groton Rd all the way down to Groton. This was actually fun! It's a 5km (3mi) mad downhill ride that will truly test your brakes.
My decision turned out to be a good one because it meant I had to pass by the Sculptured Rocks - a geological park I have never heard about before. It's a great place to visit. Fascinating how a running water can erode and shape rocks over thousands of years.
The next section of my route was meant to be difficult. It turned out to be a real hell. It all started with a warning just at the entrance to Orange Rd.
To be honest, I didn't even know there were roads categorized as Class 6 so I wasn't sure what to expect, except that it was likely going to be bad. And it was bad - like a very, very rough and rocky, ATV-only trail. I ended up pushing my bike up a lot. Trying to ride up the hill on such surface makes little sense. I would get more tired fighting my way uphill on a bike, than by simply walking.
Then about 2km (1.2mi) up the hill, it got worse. Much worse! There was no road anymore, only an extremely eroded snowmobile trail. I didn't think about taking any pictures of this section, simply trying to finally make it through, but if you can imagine what a snowmobile trail may look like in higher mountains, think of a narrow "road", resembling a small canyon made by running water from melting snow, with millions of boulders thrown all over the place. There was simply no way to ride a bike there - no matter uphill or downhill. I pushed the bike up, carried it wherever required, until after 5km (3mi) of walking I finally reached the summit.
An old stove? Not something you'd expect to find literally in the middle of nowhere in the forest.
I was exhausted. It was still relatively early in the morning, which meant the deep forest was humid. My cap and shirt were completely soaked from sweat. Then out in the open where the air felt a bit drier and I could catch some mild breeze, the sun was scorching my head immediately. The only solution was to keep going and get off this bloody mountain as soon as possible.
Of course, this meant I had to then ride downhill and I was afraid that if my road down looked exactly the same as the road up, I wouldn't be able to ride it at all and will need to now carry my bike for the next 3 miles. Fortunately, and to my pleasant surprise, the road from the summit to the town of Orange was very decent, not counting a few sections damaged by erosion. I made it back to Canaan in no time.
This all means that if you want to visit Cardigan Mountain State Forest, use New Colony Rd from the south and forget about Orange Rd in the north. While it's technically possible to cross the mountain that way (as I did), it's absolutely not worth it.
In Canaan I resupplied again, rested for a while and entered the easiest part of me entire route - the Northern Rail Trail, which stretches all the way from Lebanon to Boscawen (93km or 58mi). Of course, being a former railway, it's all flat. I could finally pick up some speed and keep going.
I have to admit, the trail is really nice. Its surface changes from black gravel to crushed stone to compacted dirt. It's a double track in some places to turn into a single track running through a narrow canyons carved in rocks in others.
I was moving fairly quickly and reached Danbury to stop at their country store for some lunch. One Reuben sandwich later I was back on the road. It started raining lightly but it didn't bother me at all. In fact, that meant the sun stayed behind the clouds and temperature dropped a bit.
After nearly 9hrs I finally reached my car in Boscawen and could pack things up and head back home.
I certainly learned some things on this trip. First, I need to plan my routes differently. Too often I end up in some weird places on snowmobile-only trails that are inaccessible to bicycles at all. Second, I really need to correct for the fact that in a hilly terrain 150km (93mi) in one day is just way too much (and that's what I ended up doing on the first day).
No comments:
Post a Comment