Slept OK in big park & ride lot. Chilly in AM. Quick Bfast & on to Birch Mtn TH to meet up w/ Mickey from Rose City Cycles for ride.

Another beautiful day.  Hard frost. Met up with riders on time. Cold at first. Not as rocky or technical as Grayville and was an easy ride: no sprints. The others walked almost all the climbs making for a slower ride.

Check out Case Mtn slick rock: It gets slick with moisture be it rain or humidity:

Headed West hoping for a ride in NW Conn before Mass. Learned that place to ride is Nepaug which is in N Central part of state back east of where I stopped.

I stopped at a Tennis club and asked if I could buy a shower. Attendant @ desk made phone call to his boss and I scored a free hot shower.

Drove to Torrington, CN looking for a laundromat & internet access. Clean clothes, a place to crash beside a bank right off main drag, & still working on putting together the IMBA ride in Mass. Joined NEMBA and posted a question regarding the ride.

Slept in Rose City Cycle parking lot. Bit of traffic noise. Chilly inside van, hard to poke out of coves. But once out it wasn’t that bad. Its just leaving the comfort for the unknown.

Drove back to grocey store parking lot for breakfast. Bought & read local newspaper. 1 entire section of maybe 14 pages of foreclosure notices.

Back to bike shop for another trail briefing. Visited a while.

Drove to TH after correcting a written instruction of mine. Beautiful day: Blue sky, some bare trees with others still holding their leaves, temp almost too chilly for bare arms.

Trees have mostly shed their leaves covering the forest floor but letting all light in. Route finding is challenging, Maybe like following old ski tracks. Lowered saddle vastly increase technical riding handling. Pushing my balance limits a bit further. One skill is to approach a feature with the correct momentum and knowing what the speed is for each. Trails snaked around in broadleaf forest. Impressed by the miles of stone fences from old farms. Small enclosures, but perhaps miles of them, on their piece of land. Most existing older properties kept their former stone fences.

Got a pinch flat on rear tire. Such a beautiful day I decided to take the time to patch it. Used EDGE to figure my way out.

Discovered a dressed out deer laying on its back. Looked like it had been tied into a tree and had fallen. Didn’t touch anything. Turned to get on bike & looked up about 40′ away and about 25′ off the ground was a bowhunter. I inquired about deer and he had just shot it and gutted it. Bow hunters are safer than rifle.

Back @ TH 2 men were hanging out, 1 older, disclosed his age of 86 and he had a few gears not meshing. The other was mid 40s, reps for a window mfg company down near Muskingum. We discussed US situation. I have met Mostly liberal people who believe that Obama is answer and where we have been is way wrong. I don’t seek these people it is my lifestyle, place of visit and the like. I would guess that if I were say golfing at private clubs I would receive a different spin. But then that is not my life style.

Drove N towards Manchester. Beautiful country side. NE roads wander around like the horse pathes they once were. The scenery is just so beautiful. Maybe it is enhanced by old farms, stone fences, winding twisting slow roads. Just beautiful time of year.

Parked outside John Harvard brew pub at shopping mall outside Manchester, going to watch TB Red Socks game. Maybe dirtbag camp in a big parking lot. Lots of people and it seems that they all want to be first. Too dense population density.

Software way stable tonight.

No shower today and will be sitting at a bar watching the game.

Tomorrow is Case Mtn with Rose City group ride then further to NW corner of state and into NW Mass.

Knee hurts but is bearable when I don’t race.

Off to game.

Heavy truck traffic on rt 165 woke me early.

This software /  hardware is really unstable. Loosing much of what I type.

Shorter story: Went searching for a trail map in Wyoming village & Forest headquarters.

Drove to TH just down road from where I crashed. Beautiful day: Deep blue skies & fall reds. Arcadia is just off the ocean by maybe 25 miles. Elevation is 200′.

Just before leaving a car pulls in and a guy rider, Frank, exits. He knew these trails from 14 years ago and just started mtn biking, currently a roadie. I joined with him.

Trails here have way more sand. This area was glaciated and the sand is from the crushed rock. Can’t believe the miles of stone fences in the woods. The fences were left from all the abandoned farms. Now regrowth is what remains of the fields. Small areas fenced and big rocks. Lots of work was expended to clear land for tilling.

Wandered around on the trails.

RI requires everyone in the woods from 3rd Sat of Oct to some time in spring to wear at least 200 sq” of orange. I learned that people not complying are ticketed and, if on bikes, they have been confiscated . Tomorrow starts the orange and hunting. OK to have left after 1 ride. Arcadia is big and worthy of several days of riding.

Short drive into Connecticut. Still looking for a shower and after 2 days of riding it is well needed. Drove into small town. Canvased the local True Value Hardware for knowledge. The woman said the only 1 she knew of was Strawberry resort. I called them and asked if I could buy a shower. The woman said just come on up and take one. Too good to be true? Asked how much, she said free. OK enjoyed a free shower on the up and up. Big resort for camping.

She gave me directions to Rose City Cycles near Norwich, CN. Drove there and asked for ride info. Learned that there are good rides w/in 1 hour of town. Received info on 2 and invite for Sunday ride on 1 of them. Even allowed me to crash in their parking lot.

Going to ride here Sat & Sun and then work thru state up to Northern Western Mass for IMBA epic at Savoy, then work my way around NYC to Philly.

Frank is a young buck and took off sprinting several times. I quickened my pace in sort of an attempt to keep up. Bad for knee. Still liking the lowered seat.