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Sugar House Scramble - Gravel Ride - Saturday 3/18
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!
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/19422532 Click Here
This route contains ~13.5 miles of dirt roads in five sections over the 27.9 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 19th 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!
Good route, but the unanswered question is whether or not the pancakes will be sufficiently digested before the Hurricane Brook climb.
I plan to be there to test your "no drop" promise.
Epic Route -ride.... Did not want to post I 'd be a maybe show today but with the wintry weather coming I thought Id Show & give it a go anyway. Surprisingly no one else showed up. So I Did it, Alone. Wind tough at times, but in the woods not as in the open.
Only one section did I have to hike up because lack of traction on the road leaving East Hartland. Lots of little wobbles & bobbles. Nothing serious. 33cm tires were happy, although I was being cautious with the 2'' of snow on the ground with some ice seen and some hidden. Nice selection of roads & Terran. For the entire ride only 8 cars and 1 truck passed.
I thought the half way point at Maple corner would make a great warm up stop. And yes it did. Highly recommend doing this ride. Stop & enjoy real blueberry pancakes the size of your plate, real maple syrup,and to warm up hot cider. For cyclist this is a very comfortable stop, casual and friendly. There are tables for well over 50 people. When I was there at least 30 people were there, kinda like the local hang out. They will be serving pancakes on weekends thru April 15, so only a month left.
Thanks Snoskier for posting this ride. Looking forward to adventuring more on these types of roads in this area of mass. ----Randy---
Randy! Awesome that you went out today and braved the wind and cold! A giant tree fell last night on the paved part of Pell Rd so it is good to hear that hat it was passable!
The "official" Sugarhouse Scramble is next week so if the weather is kind to us you can come out and do the same ride again with us!
Well, after the piles of snow that we got yesterday I have to think that we won't be riding this weekend! Looking a little further down the forecast doesn't look any more promising for melting either.
I'm going to propose that the ride be rescheduled to Saturday, April 1 at the same time and place. Maybe by then the snow will have melted and we'll have plenty of muddy roads to ride on!