EBCC

Rescheduled for April, 7

One of the first signs of Spring for me is going to the sugar house for pancakes and fresh maple syrup. For some time now I've wanted to do a gravel ride that combines my love for syrup with the enjoyment of riding on our local dirt roads so I came up with this ride that will do the trick!

Last year's ride was plagued by poor weather and on the day that it did happen we encountered snow on some of the roads just to make things interesting! A good time was had by all and we plan to do it again this year, but with less hiking through snow!

The plan is to leave Berg Field (East Hartland) at 9am and ride to Maple Corner Farm where we will stop and have a pancake or any of their other delicious goodies. From there we will take a pretty direct route back to the starting point, all fueled up on maple-y goodness!

The route can be found here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19155756 Click Here

This route contains ~13.3 miles of dirt roads in five sections over the 28 miles total. Expect riding times to be between 2 and 2.5 hours as the pace should be "early season". This is a no-drop ride. (I figured I'd mention that even though the stopping for pancakes part might have made it obvious!)

Bikes with 32c or greater tires will be best suited for the terrain as some of the roads are fairly rough from the winter "maintenance". There is one long stretch of pavement, ~6 miles, that might make a MTB work harder, but I wouldn't be afraid to bring the big bike if that is all you have available. I've ridden this route with 30c slicks and on my full suspension MTB so it is totally passable with just about any equipment.

In the event of a rain/snow event the following day, Sunday the 25th is the rain date for the ride. Any cancellations will be posted here as far ahead of time as possible.

If you are planning to attend the ride please either let me know here or via email (snoskier16@gmail.com) so that I can let Maple Corner Farm about how many of us to expect.

Questions; you know what to do!

Definitely in for rain date for what that’s worth. What’s the advantage of doing South Lane into Granville versus Water Street? I’ve never tried the South Lane route.

Winter seems to want to stick around deep into March, just like last year, so if you are planning to join this ride be sure to check back here next week for any potential rescheduling.

Remember, if you are planning to ride PLEASE let me know so that I can communicate with Maple Corner Farm to help them prepare for our group. Thanks!

Johnathan, Count me in. This weather reminds me alot like last winter. A little snow did not stop us last year. Maple Corner typically serves the pancake breakfast until the day before Easter, so you may choose to postpone the ride for another week. Either way . ---Randy---

Ride Postponed Due to Forecast Weather

I'm not thrilled to have to do this, but with the forecast of more snow mid-week and still 6" on the ground I think it is in the ride's best interest to postpone to a later date. As Randy noted, Maple Corner Farm is open until April 15 so we'll (hopefully) have clear dirt roads by then to complete this ride successfully!

I'll update with the rescheduled date as soon as the melting starts to happen.

In.

I would like to join you guys on this ride this Saturday. Just have some time obligations later in the day. What time do you think we would be back at Berg field ?

We are close enough to ride day that the weather forecast might actually be close to accurate and what I’m seeing looks like good “scrambling” weather.

There is no snow on the roads now so whatever mix we get on Friday should either be melting quickly or it won’t accumulate much at all.

Hopefully some of you that have been checking in on this thread will join the ride as we will definitely have a good time!

I'm still in. What's better suited to the route and conditions: triple with ultra-low gearing and 650bx42 slicks OR tubeless 700x40ish Gravel King SKs with wide-range double? Basically, how steep and gritty is this going to be? Looking forward to learning the roads and meeting you guys.

I've ridden the route with 700x30, 700x42, 29x2.1, and most recently 650x47 so I'd say that just about anything can work for tire size. I'm liking wider tires recently and the 650b WTB Byways seem to be just about the perfect mix of traction and efficiency for our types of rides and are what I'll be rolling on tomorrow! We hit what I'd call the nastiest terrain (rocky, loose forest road) in the first 3 miles so once through that we are pretty much smooth sailing.

As for gearing, the climbs as a whole are fairly rolling so anything with some gears (read 30t+ cassette) that keep you at a comfortable cadence is fine. That being said, my new wheelset sports a 42t big cog (MTB 650b wheelset on a steel gravel bike) so I'm "spinning to win". The biggest climb is also "optional" and that is Hurricane Brook Rd. right at the end of the ride. We still have to climb the vertical, but the bail out option is to take Rt. 20 back into town where Hurricane Brook is a broken asphalt climb that is a fairly sustained pitch.

I planned the route to be a decent first gravel ride of the season so I've kept the mileage and sketchiness toned down. That also means that we miss out on some amazing roads that aren't too far away from this route, but are better suited for a bit later into the season. Bottom line is that no matter what bike you show up on you will have a good time and we'll all surely enjoy finally being out on the gravel once again! Looking forward to riding with everyone!