To Bike or Not to Bike

As I prepare for our next summer trip - this time to Maine - I am busy finding bike routes online. Last year, we vacationed in Norwich, Vermont… which is now at the top of the list for a second home. We found a charming, organic farm in East Thetford having its annual strawberry festival, and it soon became our favorite stopping place on our ride up and down the Connecticut River. 

When you find a ride you like, you have a tendency to claim it, and the places you stop, as your own. By the time we left Norwich, not only was Dan & Whit's ("If we don't have it, you don't need it") our personal general store, the farm by the bridge was ours too. The route we took was through the village of Norwich toward the river, turning left before Ledyard bridge and heading north on scenic Route 5. We hung a right onto Pavillion Road, and made a half way stop at the Cedar Circle Farm for a piece of fresh fruit. After refreshing and chatting it up with our farm friends, we head east over the Fairlee-Orford bridge and travel south through Lyme, along River Road on the New Hampshire side. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking until you hit the more populated town of Hanover by Dartmouth College. (I have to warn of a pretty steep hill that caused me to turn into a hotel parking lot about midway up and do a couple flat land loops before finishing the ascent.) We ride into town on Route 10 and it's a little ordinary for a bit until you arrive at the center of the campus, where students and visitors are a civilized juxtaposition to the past 25 miles of river views. A bit of relief is found exiting the campus on a downhill glide back toward Norwich. Riding on vacation is, for the most part, indescribable - it gives you an up close look at the destination in a way a car can never do. And somehow, it becomes personal.