Ludlow
This ride marks our completing all 252 towns and cities in Vermont, and Ludlow turned out to be a great location for our finishing ride. Though short, this route has a fair amount of hills and descents to keep it interesting and challenging.
Ludlow is famous for its proximity to Okemo Mountain, and for several local recreational lakes. For this final ride we were joined by Ken Picard of Seven Days Newspaper. Seven Days is an Alternative Newspaper covering local news and culture in Vermont, and they took an interest in our project.
To start the ride, we drove out of the village and up into the hills, where some really good gravel roads are located. This route is about 77% gravel, with some paved sections. We found a great place to park at the intersection of Commonwealth, Bixby, Barker and N. Hill Cross Roads.
To start this ride, we headed down Barker Road, a wide gravel road. At the far end of Barker, we found a farm that has been converted into a different kind of agriculture – harvesting sunlight. In the acres and acres of fields, there are a thousand and thousands of solar panels. Run by Coolidge Solar, with a generating capacity of 20 megawatts of power, annually. link
We also saw dozens of bee hives, and there are likely other agricultural activities we didn’t see on this farm.
At the end of Barker, we turned right on Quent Phelan Road. Just beyond that intersection, we found a large utility power-switching yard, likely large enough to serve the whole town of Ludlow and beyond.
We glided down Quent Phelan Road, which was paved, to turn left onto Twenty Mile Stream Road, also paved. There was very little traffic on this ride, so we were able to ride side by side and chat.
From there, it is just a short ride back to gravel on Chapman Road. Chapman Road climbs for the next three miles – sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently, gaining over 500 feet in elevation with a max of 12% grade. There are great views to the right, and some interesting yard ornaments along the way.
On Chapman Hill, there is also a house with a well preserved rail car set up as an additonal room. We met the owner, who said that they are fixing it up to use it for guest quarters.
This is where we got derailed by the unique rail car. Marcia was so interested that she accidentally rode into Chris’ derailer, and jammed his chain. After some bike maintenance, involving all three of us, we eventually got back on the road.
Chapman Road turns left onto Kingdom Road, a paved and somewhat harrowing mile-long descent. Kingdom Road is in a gulch with steep sides, very little shoulder and many twisty turns. Be careful!
Along the way we saw a very old cemetery, dating from the 1800’s, called the Plymouth Kingdom Cemetery which, according to the sign, was the “burial spot of pioneer settlers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War.”
From Kingdom Road, you turn a quick left onto Buswell Road, and back onto gravel for the rest of the ride. Along the way there are good views of fields, forests and hills.
Buswell climbs 400 feet before gently sloping back to the split between N. Hill and
Nelson Roads. You turn right on North Hill, which is all downhill back to the start.
Afterward, we celebrated our final ride with lunch at a Taco joint in Ludlow, which had funky decor, great food, and outdoor seating on this lovely September day!
