Day one through three

Good evening to all!

After 20 some odd hours of driving through construction zones, blast sites, and a lot of bad new york drivers, I made to to Marlboro. The drive was for the most uneventful and slow going, or at least slower than I had expected it to be. New York is a huge state, and I did not even make it all the way across. I am just glad to be done driving for now.

The first leg of the drive took me to Alum Creek State Park in Columbus, Ohio. A small lake/camping/rv park in the northern part of the city. A lot can be said for the park that is less than 20 minutes from the central part of the city. A nice lake makes up the majority of the attraction and landscape of the park; however, hidden along its shore line and backing up to the local golf course are some great mountain bike trails. Truly a loop that OMBA (say it out loud, you will smile) should be proud of.

At the trail head I met up with some locals that showed me the way around, and quickly at that. It was my first time riding wood bridges, which turned out to be a lot of fun. As you can tell from the post ride picture, they love the humidity just as much as Kansas City.

Day two was the big push to Vermont, with an early start the day was under way. The drive went smoothly, other than a bad cup of coffee for the first few hours. Around 5 p.m. I arrived in Marlboro, of course with Hal tending to the garden. A fairly mundane evening involving dinner, and some reading: What a life. Oh, and showing Hal some things on his new MacBook Pro, he was very excited.

Today was a little different. The morning began with fixing Hal's wireless, and a great breakfast. After changing cycling shoes to my old ones, and not my new, very expensive, and less than two month old s-works shoes, I was able to roll out the door on a road ride. The ride was amazing, I actually had to wear a jacket for a good hour before it was warm enough! Three & a half hours of riding and some 4,200 feet of climbing later, I was cooked to say the least. Shortly following getting cleaned up and lunch, Hal and I headed off to the Hogback Mountain.

Hal getting ready to cut some fallen trees.

There we Worked from the southern part of mountain to the north, docking protruding tree limbs and clearing fallen Firs. We continued the trail work by planning a switch back for the mountain bikers and alpine skiers, which will actually be a lot of fun once all is said and done. In addition we bush whacked our way to the connecting Tower Trail to see exactly how it would all come together.

This evening was spent at the New England House for dinner, and a walk around downtown Brattleboro. Ideas flowed about Sky View Outdoors and the future of young Americans, which brings me to my closing statement.

"Think locally, act locally" that is all it takes to be a thriving economy under one nation, just ask the other Ben, the Franklin one.

A few pictures from my ride today.