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Death March in Mad River Valley

abc

Banned
This past weekend I got invited to Mad River Glen and bike 2 of the "gap" in the region. ("gap" is what the locals call a mountain road that goes over the saddle of the ridge line of a mountain range) It sounded like a good idea a few weeks back, before I sprained my ankle, that is.

It sounded like a good idea because, in the east, there are not too many mountain ranges so big that roads can't go around them with a small detour. So, not many high mountain passes. Even fewer that are paved. These are the few that are paved, all in the Mad River Valley area.

And a group of ski/bike buddies decided to bike some of these passes since we can stay in the ski house at the foot of MRG. So I signed up.

Of course, I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago. So was off the bike for a week. That left little time to get in any additional ride before heading up. Moreover, I wasn't entirely sure my ankle was up for riding, never mind riding hard...

Thinking hard (and thinking fast), I decided to take the BIG cassette off my cross wheel and put it on the road wheel, and tried it out in a mid-week evening club ride, which has some short but semi-steep climbs. I was surprised I could ride just fine, though my legs felt rubbery due to the mandatory down time. So hoping I would get some of the strength back on the few days before the ride, I went ahead with the trip.

That's when I looked up the ride we were supposed to be doing: a pair of 1600' mountain passes in a 67 mile loop. Totally elevation is probably around 4000'. Though that's not really the issue. The real issue is one of the 'gap' has sustain 12-15% grade, with the summit section at around 18%!

The big pie plate cassette should help with the 18% grade part. That is, IF I arrive there in decent condition. But that coming at the end of a 60+ mi ride and after a sustain 12-15% climb for over 1000', it's a very BIG "IF"!

Feeling bit uneasy, I quiz everyone around but few knew the area, much less the 'gaps' themselves. See, easterners don't have mountain passes in our backyard and most don't purposely seek them out just for the heck of it. For the majority of riders, mountain passes are to be feared, and only attempted typically during a trip out west. But having ridden in California, I developed a taste for mountain passes. The scenery, the thrill, and yes, the pain(!) are all part and parcel of the package that makes mountain passes unique... and FUN!

Driving up to MRG, it dawned on me: we're staying part way up one of the passes we're riding, but the planned route calls for descending that first and climb the back side of it at the tail end of the 67 mi loop! Mmmm.... that sounds strange, I must say. So I asked, is there any reason why we can't just climb it first and do the loop in reverse? Anything bad (steep, traffic, whatever) in the opposite direction? No one could come up with an answer. It turned out, the leader heard about it and simply look that up from the map!

It turns out going on the reverse direction does make one of the 1600' climb into a 2200' one! But climbing half way up from our house also shortens the other 1700' climb into a 1000' one. So we gain some and lose some.

The next day dawn slightly hazy and warm, forecast was to be in the high 80's and humid. Not ideal but not quite in the "stupid to ride" range yet. Majority of the riders decided they wanted something easier. The leader, at this point, decided he too, wants to "lead" the more popular group, even though he didn't know the area himself anyway:rolleyes:. A couple of borderline riders dropped out on that note. That left me and another girl, who was WAY faster than myself. But she really wanted someone to ride with, even at different speed, rather than riding alone or join the 'sissy group'.

Since it was just the 2 of us, it's easy to decide we would climb first. It also helps since it would be cooler when we start out.

Well, when I said "climb first", it literally mean just that: CLIMB as soon as we put our shoes in the pedal! The first switch back was only about 100 yard away!!! Surprising what we consider "fun"!:cool: It was by no means easy but we crested in due course. My big pie plate cassette was most instrumental at my being able to get up there without too much cursing.

The view up top was fantastic. But we were too preoccupied to take pictures. Descend was a slow affair at first. The pavement was somewhat rough (lots of frost heave), but it improved further down and we were able to let go of our brake and had a blast! All memory of the painful lung busting climb was forgotten! :wink:

Since my buddy was a lot stronger than me, she did the pulling on the flat. That made for a fast progress towards the second pass. In fact, she's so much stronger I suggest if she want to go ahead at her own pace and double back the last couple mile. I've never seen a rider on a rocket engine, but it must not be any faster than how she disappeared down the road! :jealous:

30 miles into the ride, we were at the base of the second pass. Time to eat, drink and a short rest before tackling the 2200' climb.

Now the sun was high in the sky and temperature was climbing through the roof. We were hoping it'd be cooler up high. But we weren't that lucky. Partway up the climb, I felt I was overheating. I scanned the last cluster of houses, hoping to find someone at home so I could douse myself with a hose or something. No luck in that department either. I continued on... till I came to a long stretch of climb with no shade! I felt like my skin was about to break open as my blood boil over!!! A little pull-out area has some shades...and I stopped. I guess my bike had a mind of its own and I just followed. :redface:

10 minutes later, I was feeling better about my body temperature. But getting going after stopping is always very hard. I'd prefer not stop if I had ANY chance of continuing on. Except I thought I was about to keel over from heat exhaustion so I had to stop to cool off. So the last part of the climb was quite a struggle, even though I could see the road wasn't all that steep after all.

My friend had gotten worried about me being MIA for so long she asked one of the hiker (summit is a big trail head of the Long Trail) to drive down to find me. They found me rounding the last switchback approaching the summit... The hikers told us their thermometer shows the temperature in the shade was exactly 90 degrees!

So we were home free, right? Not exactly. There are still 30 miles to cover and another small "bump" of ONLY 500' to get over. But in all seriousness, it was nothing but a speed bump. Besides, we have a 8 mile descend to enjoy first! :D

So we were about 10 miles from home, flying down Rt 100. Then my friend call out a left turn... According to the cue sheet, we were supposed to go by the Sugarbush access road on our way home. I knew immediately, because I've skied there, we were in for the climb of our life! It just went straight up!!! No switch back, no nothing, just straight up! I zigzag to made the first pitch. But when I saw the second pitch, longer and steeper, without shade, I knew I'll be done by it.

MRG base is 7~800' above Rt 100, which we would have to make to get home. The Sugarbush access road, steep as it is, only got us up about 200' at most. And it took all I had. Had we gone straight on Rt 100, we would have climbed Rt 17 gradually. Not exactly cake walk but they switch backs when it's steep.

Of course by then I also remembered our "leader" had never ridden the route. He only put them together by looking at a map! Not sure what kind of horror he had accidentally pull off the map, I suggested we turn around and go the way I knew. At that point, my friend told me her bike hadn't been shifting well and had gotten worse throughout the day. She also pointed out I look so red I could probably light it up if she put a paper near it! Hmm, no wonder I felt like my veins were about to explode! Or perhaps it also has to do with my boiling anger about our absentee leader's choice of roads?! :mad2:

So that decided it. Phone out of the pocket and we got a ride home...

(the leader apologize profusely about the putting together a route without riding it, or even driving it, first)

We'll probably do it again next year. Hopefully the temperature would be a little lower and we might try some other of the "Gaps".
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
abc, I know the area, and that is one tough ride. Major kudos to you for doing it at all.
 

Downunder Diva

Angel Diva
ABC what a great ride and terrific account of your day. I felt like I was there your depiction was so vivid. Good for you for doing such an arduous ride in the heat considering your ankle...:clap: :clap: (I admit here that I do not like riding in the heat)
 

abc

Banned
ABC what a great ride and terrific account of your day. I felt like I was there your depiction was so vivid.
When climbing at 3 mph for an hour, that's a lot of time for a a lot of vivid (or I should say crazy) thoughts springing to the (over-heated) mind! Probably borderline hallucination!!!

So I had rather rich material to draw from for the trip report. :wink:
 

snowski/swimmouse

Angel Diva
Just now seeing this! I'm impressed, too. It sounds like an exciting venture, though way over my mousehead. Though I'm a low-key rider, I understand you fuming at the planner who didn't check it out!
 

abc

Banned
Well, that was really more of a training ride for the real thing: D2R2 (Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee), which was this past Saturday.

In the mean time, I managed to re-injured my ankle on the cabostone walking path between the parking lot and my office! :( Though the previous experience of riding hard 10 days past the initial sprain led me to believe I could ride fine 10 day following the re-injury... And I did. (well, except on one rocky sketchy descend, that is)

It rained the night before so I decided to wait for a later start and did a shorter loop than the official distance. End up with about 55 miles and about 5000' of climbing, 40 of those miles were on dirt roads. (and some of those "dirt road" were basically singletrack fit for full suspension mtn bike!).

The weather was the biggest difference. Unlike the 90 degree the day of "Mad River Death March", last Saturday was in the 70's with low himidity. So the 55 mile of slow grind was perfectly enjoyable (ok, in a twisted humor kind of way, given the insane elevation changes). And the rain the night before actually helped traction on those otherwise normally steep & loose climbs. All in all, a nice day. In fact, I had enough energy left over I did another 25 mile loop on Sunday!
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
abc, I just read this, and I'm impressed. I think bicycle climbs are harder in the East than in the West. I've done a lot of mountain passes in CO, and I still think some of the climbs here are more of a challenge because they are so steep. The one you describe at MRG sounds like a bear! I can completely understand your anger at the trip leader...who puts together a ride for a group without riding it or driving it first?
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
abc, I just read this, and I'm impressed. I think bicycle climbs are harder in the East than in the West. I've done a lot of mountain passes in CO, and I still think some of the climbs here are more of a challenge because they are so steep. The one you describe at MRG sounds like a bear! I can completely understand your anger at the trip leader...who puts together a ride for a group without riding it or driving it first?
 

abc

Banned
abc, I just read this, and I'm impressed. I think bicycle climbs are harder in the East than in the West. I've done a lot of mountain passes in CO, and I still think some of the climbs here are more of a challenge because they are so steep.
Most people I talk to also feel the same. The steepness often makes the climb feel a lot harder than the simple elevation gain would indicate.

The great equalizer to super-steep east coast grade is extra low gear! It's extremely helpful in making it possible to spin even at steeper climbs, alleviate the leg killing pain from grinding up those super-steep climbs.

The one you describe at MRG sounds like a bear! I can completely understand your anger at the trip leader...who puts together a ride for a group without riding it or driving it first?
Riding it first is ideal. Though it's not always necessary. Driving it at least, would help a lot by injecting some reality. In this day and age of internet maps, the least he could have done is take a look at the elevation profile before commited it to a cue sheet! Sadly, he was too lazy to drive it, he was also too lazy to check the elevation gain and grade of those roads!

For the past several weekends, I've been scouting rides for my club. Some of the roads I've driven, but others I never been to. What really saved me was checking the grade of the climb on the online map. That saved me from one big booboo of trying to climb something that's 11%! (then went on at 9-10% for nearly a mile!) Had I not checked that and brought the group up that road, my clubmates would probably yank me off the bike and throw me into the ravine!!! :-(

(might be going up there again this coming weekend if weather cooperates)
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
abc, I haven't been on long rides with big climbs in several years. I am getting my road bike tuned up to start riding after I get clearance from my doctor post-hysterectomy. You are inspiring me, because I always loved the challenge of the climbs!
 

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