Lowell
8/31/24
This was supposed to be a fun short loop – six and a half miles and 700 feet of vertical. It became even shorter when we came to a bridge that was completely out, with no way across without getting our feet wet or falling to our deaths. We decided against it, and had to settle for an out and back.
We parked at the intersection of Mines Road and Hazen’s Notch road, where there was a wide pulloff. There was a ROAD CLOSED sign on Hazen’s Notch Road heading east.
We decided to ride down there and see if we could get through and do our loop. The bridge was out, and there was a steel beam laying across the river. We decided not to walk across the beam with our bikes on our backs.
So, we road back up Mines Road to Kempton Hill Road which drops down to Burgess Branch before connecting to Valley Road. We did a U turn and went back to the truck. Mines Road is paved with some traffic. Valley road is dirt, with less traffic. We are sorry we missed it. It would have been a good gravel ride on a bike.
We got a Lowell ride done, but it was less than the ideal loop we had hoped for. One of the only good things about this ride was that it was the only one we did that day where we didn’t get soaked in the rain.
Another good thing is that we got to see the Lowell ridge windmills. There are 21 windmills that line the ridge for about 4 miles. In an interesting agreement, Green Mountain Power pays the town over half a million dollars per year for the development, which the townsfolks have agreed goes to paying off all of their residential municipal taxes.
The bridge on Hazen’s Notch should be completed before the end of 2024.