Eastern Bloc Cycling Club

Eric and I are planning an easy, (mostly) dirt ride on Sunday at 9:00am from Granville State Forest. Help Eric break in his new CX bike, and see if he can keep it on the road in his post-concussed state of delirium.

Route will be this, or maybe something shorter: Route

Starting point is a small dirt parking area on West Hartland Road in Granville State Forest. Go north on Milo Coe Road (off of Rt. 20 near the north end of the Barkhamsted Reservoir), cross into MA (road turns to dirt) and look for the parking area on the left, just past Halfway Brook. There is a trail head there, and the camp ground is across the road. If you see the Granville State Forest admin buildings on the left, you've gone too far. Around here

Dress warmly; temp will be around freezing at the start. Bring a camera and take a photo of Eric's new bike so that you can re-calibrate your Landi-clean meters.

I'm not the only one with a shiny new toy....My previous Cross bike is up for sale ( yes it is extremely clean) if anyone is interested.

There are a couple of sections of this route that are iffy due to road work done. They just resurfaced Rt 57 in Tolland...all the millings from the project were dumped on a couple of sections of dirt roads resulting in kind of coarse grained quicksand. Roads affected are Hartland Rd from intersection of Hunt Rd/Jeff Miller Rd for about 1/2 mile (from the intersection down the hill headed north). Also Schoolhouse Rd from 57 north to intersection of Clubhouse Rd...also fairly steep downhill. Millings were dumped in 6"deep layer and passed over with a roller, but even after a weeks traffic on them, both these stretches are sketchy in places on a cross bike. You hit a pocket of loose stuff and you're toast. If you want to reduce the odds of killing Eric once and for all, I would suggest that you start and stay on W Hartland Rd to 57 (a nice quick warm up for the legs), go left on 57 up to Tolland past School House Rd to Clubhouse Rd on the right. That curves around and dumps you out on Schoolhouse Rd right at the end of the crappy section. I doubt I will join you for the ride...my legs are toast after today's slog. But I may come to the start to view the new bike.

Lew

Brett , it may fit . Let me know it you want to check it out.

That looks good John...although I have not been on Belden Rd (or East Otis Rd from your original ride) for quite a while, so I don't know if they did any millings dumping on the hills on those roads, but at least you'd be coming uphill...not like you'd be flying downhill and find yourself in that unstable stuff all of a sudden.

I should be at the Cambridge Brew Pub in Granby for Sunday lunch...stop by and buy me a beer.