Day Trippin'

I realize I'd said I would head south on my Saturday day trip but after looking at the weather again on Friday afternoon and seeing that the wintry mix had moved further up (Maine), I figured this would be a good chance to head up to Vermont and check out some roads I've been meaning to check out, for ages.  Vermont isn't too far at all so I didn't see the need to head out in the darkness of Friday night and instead; waited until daybreak on Saturday morning.

Ahhh...looks like a balmy day for riding...

Let's get some miles on!!

I headed up 495 and picked up Rte 2 west.  When I got to the border of ? and ? (I forget the names of the towns), there's a bridge that I've passed over many times before and have always admired the light posts on either end.  I figured today would be a great day to stop and snap some pics;

There were a couple of plaques to take pics of, too.  First one was on the concrete base below the light post...

And the second one was on the bridge itself...

Can't walk out onto a bridge and not snap a pic of the amazing scenery below...

After continuing on for a while, I picked up 91 north and crossed over into Vermont, proper.  Taking the 2nd exit put me briefly onto Rte 9 at the same spot that we hit when cruising from Olean to Maine for Labor Day.  But I was going in the opposite direction, rather than heading towards Maine (unfortunately).

At any rate, about a half mile up from there, I turned on to a side road which was to bring me out to Rte 30.  However, just before I got to that intersection, I spotted an old dirt bridge on my left so of course I had to pull a U-turn and go back to check it out...

Wow - 1889!  That's pretty impressive. 

I took a bunch of pics, but you get the idea.  I think this one here is my favorite one from the day.

Too bad Matty wasn't with me, I imagine he would've loved this thing.  What he probably wouldn't have loved was the way the edges were pressing outward, at the tops of the walls.  I noticed it at first when I was standing on top of the bridge and looking over the side.  Once I was down inside of the tunnel, looking up at the ceiling revealed just how bad things are.  (This pic is looking directly up at the ceiling...whoa...that's one hell of a crack!)

Back out onto the road, I picked up Rte 30 north and saw some nice sights along the way.  Including a very long covered wooden bridge.  I could see that it was blocked off, but still had to pull in and see what the deal was with it.

Some history...

Ok, so I wonder why (specifically) this thing is closed off.  Hey now, look at the sag in that floor!  That's probably not very safe...

Holy crap - now that's what I call a fallen arch...

This is what it's supposed to look like...

Back to the road, and continued up 30 until I connected with Rte 100.  Ahhh "Scenic Byway"...I love these signs.

Cruising around some cool twisties, I was keeping a sidelong glance at the (almost dry) riverbed which was matching the road for twists and turns.  Just as I exited one of the corners, I spotted something out in the middle of the riverbed which warranted yet another U-turn.

After finding a spot to set the kickstand, I first felt an obligation to take a pic of the riverbed itself.

And then - hey look - it's a rock stack.  These things are pretty cool...

Ta da!  This is what I'd spotted from the road.  It was a very tall rock stack, sitting atop a huge boulder, out near the inner edge of the riverbed.

If you go back to the first picture of the riverbed and look at it again, you'll see the huge boulder with the stack on it.  It's located on the right side of the pic, roughly mid-way, top to bottom (of the pic).  It was tall enough to have caught my eye as I was rounding past it.

I placed my helmet next to it to give a rough idea of perspective.  This thing was pretty tall!

Back out to the roadways, I continued meandering down 100, around corners, up and down hills...and found I was soon riding in areas that had snow on the ground.  Granted; it's not much snow, but it's still snow!  And if you open up this pic and look at the background, that's a ski area (Mt Snow) and the wisps of white are their snow making equipment, working full blast.  Aaaarrrgghhh!!!  It's too early for this stuff!

Thankfully the road soon took me out of the snowy area and into...Hey...what was that I just saw flash by on the right?  Yep; another U-turn...look, it's Snoopy!  I found him!

(Which reminded me that I still need to see if I can find a place to mount my stuffed Snoopy on my new bike...)

Anyway, continuing on, I soon picked up Rte 9 and headed east, and before too long, I found myself atop a very familiar overlook...

Yup; Hogback Mountain.  Man it sure is different in the late Fall.  I went inside to see if I could get a Cherry Garcia ice cream.  It would have been great to send King a pic of me eating one of those, but no dice.  I guess there's not much market for ice cream when the temps are in the high 30's.

Here's a nice panoramic photo for you.  The view was very good and clear.  The skies were beautiful...not so much the dead brown landscape.  Bleah.  Winter is far too close...

And there you go.  There weren't any other pic-worthy items on the rest of the trip home.  The temps had peaked slightly during the mid-day, but were now dropping again and the chill was beginning to work its way into my bones so I hammered the throttle and shot for home.

I wound up with a hair under 350 miles for the day.  Not bad for a November day trip with chilly temps.

Where should I take the bike this coming weekend?

Ride Hard, Take Chances