Bristol
At nine miles and 800 feet of elevation, this is a quick ride, but the views were pleasant in this lovely part of the state.
We arrived in Bristol in the middle of a Fall Harvest Festival, and the place was packed!! That is why we didn’t get any pictures of the downtown – it would have been pictures of cars and traffic conjestion. It looked like a super cute village, though – with a main street and an expansive town green.
We parked in the center of Bristol village and headed south on South Street. This ride immediately crosses the New Haven River, and South Street turns into Lower Notch, which hugs the river for the next half mile. You stay on Lower Notch Road for the next three miles – riding on a wide gravel road through forested, and sparsely residential, neighborhoods. When the trees open up, you see a high ridge, called Bristol Cliffs, on your left.
At mile 4, you turn left onto Notch Road and go down a rather steep hill for almost a mile. At the end of the road, you turn right and ride on VT 116, a paved and heavily used route, and bike for a little over a mile. Then you turn right again onto Carlstrom Road, which is a lovely gravel road through some beautiful farm country, with fields on your left and gravelly ridge on your right.
Carlstrom is a slow and steady climb for two miles, until it hits Lower Notch again and you go down a quick hill before climbing back up into the village again.
