Jacob Usher
We woke up this morning to some good news. We hit our fundraising goal of $18,000 dollars! That is $1 for every mile that each of us will ride. Thank you so much to every person who has donated or supported us! I’m blown away by how much we’ve raised and it means a lot to Be Loud!.
We began our ride out of the Adirondacks with mostly rolling hills and occasionally a steep short climb. The skies were overcast with low thick clouds that hid the tops of the mountains. We passed small lakes, creeks, and bogs.
Our last few miles in the Adirondacks
We went over one short climb before reaching a surprisingly fun descent into Ticonderoga. We didn’t do anything pencil themed, but we did spot a McDonalds for a mid morning stop. As soon as I ordered, I heard other customers complaining about how their food took up to an hour to come out. It was too little too late and we were stuck there for the long haul. It only took about 30 minutes for our food.
We continued down towards lake Champlain and Vermont. We boarded a very libertarian ferry and went across. New York flew by! This is also where we leave the Adirondacks and enter the Appalachians.
Michael rides the ferry across Lake Champlain, from NY to VT
Vermont was instantly beautiful and put us all in a good mood. Farmland kept the views of distant green then blue mountains open. The heat, humidity, and headwind could not slow us down. We stopped at the Whiting General Store to fill up water and buy refreshing snacks. I think they had recently opened and were well stocked with snacks. We arrived in Brandon not long after to get lunch. Our next objective was Brandon Gap; a 2000 foot climb and our first pass in weeks. Some sections nearly hit 14% according to Strava.
Our first views of Vermont
We started our climb after lunch with ominous gray clouds overhead. At the beginning of the trip, Brian said ‘we will be immune to climbing and rain’ by the time we got here. I wouldn’t say we are immune to climbing, but I was definitely hoping it would rain. Alas the only thing dripping was sweat as we climbed Brandon Gap.
Watching the Tour de France has definitely affected us. We got to the steep part and Brian immediately pulled away from us. Michael broke away a couple minutes later leaving Friend and me. I waited a couple minutes before deciding this was a race. I started putting out more watts and got into the aero bars on a relatively flat section to catch Michael.
I caught up and the unspoken race was on. I went out a little too hard on what may be the steepest climb we have done. A couple times I was worried I would be so exhausted that I’d have to stop in an unsafe spot. Eventually we got to the top, barely keeping the pedals moving. Brian was waiting for us and Friend was not far behind. Brian said that may have been his hardest effort of the trip too.
Usher and Michael push to the top of Brandon Gap
The aftermath
We enjoyed the 4 mile descent from Brandon Gap very much. We took a turn into Rochester to visit a bike shop. We got our tires pumped up and I replaced my tube that has been slowly leaking the past 4 days. Friend and I have been running very under inflated tires recently. I guess we wanted to work harder.
I’ve felt like I’ve been working really hard the past couple days. I thought it was my tires and maybe the hills. The guy at the bike shop noticed my rear hub was really tight and the ball bearings had started to wear pretty bad. He got me fixed up for free which I’m really grateful for!
We met some people who were doing a ride on road bikes called ‘6 passes.’ They were on mile 130 and had more to go. I’m not sure how many, but they were fueling up with redbull at 6:30 pm. One pass was enough for us.
Michael’s Kona Sutra versus the road bikes of the 6-passers
I’ve started to notice the days getting shorter as we get later into the summer and farther East in the time zone. This meant we spent the rest of the evening in golden hour. Usually this means we are getting into town super late, but we are staying in a motel so it didn’t matter too much. We just enjoyed a beautiful evening ride through Vermont.
We overheard music on the road and briefly stopped at a small hippie music venue. We ate chicken pot pies and teriyaki bowls for dinner. We even managed to squeeze in two games of cornhole as the sun set. I am excited to sleep in a bed tonight!
End of the day in Pittsfield, VT