Today I wanted to do a mountain bike ride for my workout, so I grabbed my Trail Book of rides for NH, VT, and ME. I headed up to Claremont, to the Sugar River Trail, a.k.a. Rte 5 snowmobile trail, home of the Shugah Valley snowmobile club. The trail is super flat and fast for most of the time. However, if you're scared of beach sand you may want to avoid this trail. There are some spots where the sand is fairly deep. Fat tires are a must. If you have a single speed beach bike, perfect! The trail runs along the Sugar River, and is nearly all in the woods, with no houses! I came across a little camp which could be seen across the river. It might be the "Cathole Warmup hut", but I'm not sure. There are two huge, as in tall, covered bridges which had trains running through them at one time. The trail crosses the river many, times. There is one crossing, just as you enter Newport, where people swim. It looked perfect! I opted to stick my feet in further into my ride, after my "wipeout".
I brought my GPS along, just for kicks. I was holding on to it, and the handlebar with my left hand. The GPS started to slip from my hand, and the next thing I knew I was flat on the ground. Let me just say that railroad beds are as hard as pavement. I wasn't lucky enough to fall in deep sand. I was lucky enough not to break anything, on my bike or me. After pausing to assess the pain in my right hip, I got back up and peddled to a shady spot under a bridge. I decided I was at that moment, Rumplestiltskin, guarding my bridge. I took off the shoes and socks, and sat down with my feet in the warm, really warm, water. I tried to catch a Crayfish, but no luck. The river was low, as most seem to be this time of year. I saw a couple dead Crayfish, but live ones too. After I was sufficiently collected, I got back on the bike and finished the ride. According to my GPS, not quite 10 miles to Newport from Claremont. The ride back was decidely faster, averaging about 13 mph. but I wasn't trying to go fast. I made several stops to check things out; the bridges, rode through Newport, checked out a bunch of old cars dug up by road construction near the river.
