Northeast Kingdom, VT - Day 2

Yesterday we rode 54 miles around Lake Willoughby pictured above. The mountain on the left (western) side of the lake is Mount Hor (2648’) while the mountain on the right (eastern) side is Mount Pisgah (2751’).

Heading out in the morning, the temperature was in the low 50s, about 8 degrees warmer than on Tuesday, which was nice.

Early during our ride, we came across a road that had just been paved. The tarmac was still quite hot, so we were forced to walk our bikes on the side of the road for about a quarter mile.

Our first 10 miles were largely uphill. Part of the way up, we paused to shed layers. Here is a picture of Doug I took while we were stopped.

At the top of the climb, I took this panorama looking to the west.

The dirt roads we have been cycling on tend to skirt town centers. As we dropped onto a paved road running through the small town of Newark, we cycled past the Newark Street Union Meeting House. It was built in 1862, not for a single religion, but to be a shared church for three different religions in the area.

Like yesterday, the gravel roads were well maintained, generally through woods, and had virtually no traffic.

Since this is New England, we passed by many barns.

About 15 miles into our ride, we came to the southern tip of Lake Willoughby as shown in the first photo of this blog post. We then rode north along the eastern shore shown here. The wind was coming from the south, so we had a nice tailwind as we rode. Had we done this same ride on Tuesday, we would have been riding into a 30 mph headwind.

Here is the view from the northern tip of the lake looking back to the south.

And here is a panorama looking towards the east, again from the northern tip of Lake Willoughby. The landscapes, decorated in the fall colors, have simply been stunning.

To Ruth’s delight, we cycled by several “haunted houses” along our route.

At times, when the sun filtered through just a bit of the clouds, the soft light made the colors of the landscape absolutely pop with intensity and saturation.

Personally, I think yesterday’s miniature horse was a bit cuter than today’s pig, but this is the animal I have for today’s post.

Finally, near the end of today’s ride, we came to this covered bridge, another traditional highlight of cycling in the northeast.

I’ll be heading out shortly for today’s ride. I think we may get a bit of rain, but hopefully it will not be much.