Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
St Johnsbury VT to Lancaster NH

June 8, 2005
Distance 29.7 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 1,950 feet

Today was harder than yesterday because I had very tired legs. My legs ached every time we went up a steep hill. In addition, the motel did not have a very good free breakfast so our energy level was not great. The day began when we left the motel and immediately began to ride up one of those steep hills. This one was not as bad as some of those we would encounter later in the day. At the top of the hill was the post office where we shipped to our son Bruce a package of stuff that we did not need. We think that we got 10 lbs of stuff off the bicycle. We then rode a couple of blocks and went to a museum that was started by the man who started Fairbanks Scales. This museum was filled with stuffed animals and birds. There were hundreds of birds in glass cases around the main room. In the basement was a very small display of early Fairbanks Scales.

We left the museum and went down the hill on the other side. There is no way to get from one side of the town to the other side of the town without going up and over this hill. We then started heading to Lancaster. Just before we got out of St Johnsbury, we stopped at a food plant where they take partially refined maple syrup and finish refining it or make it into maple candy or maple sugar. There was also a display that showed how the maple trees had been taped for the sap and how the sap had been converted to maple syrup over the years.

We continued on our way and for the next 20 miles it was mostly uphill with some short 8 percent grades from time to time. We continued on until we reached the town of Lunenburg, VT. As we went thru the town we came to a major down hill where we reached a speed of 38 miles per hour while the bicycle was coasting immediately followed by an uphill that was just as steep and just as long. We made it up most of the way but we walked the last 50 yards. The good news, at the top was a gas station/store that made sandwiches.

We all stopped and had a long rest and great food enjoyed looking at the park across the street in memory of the "rebellion" which the rest of us call the Civil War. We spent most of the rest of the time going down hill and in a short time we arrived at Lancaster, NH. Found a clean nice motel with laundry facilities we now all have clean clothes.