Newbury, Ryegate, Topsham, Groton

8/6/23

18.96 miles 1,791 elevation 2 Hours

I call this ride wild dragons and rye – since during one part of the ride the side of the road was covered in wild snap dragons that had clearly escaped from someone’s garden years ago. There was also a strangely rye-looking grass on the roadsides, that considering we were in Ryegate, I assumed was rye.

This ride started out on Swamp Road in Newbury, not an easy place to find. We parked at a slight pullover on Swamp Road, near the intersection of Topsham Road. There are two intersections of Topsham Road and Swamp though, so I included a picture.

10/12/24 -Intersection of Swamp and Topsham Roads – *Photo Marcia Gauvin*

From there we headed northeast on Swamp Road, with four miles of gentle slope downward toward the village of South Ryegate.

10/12/24 -Swamp Road – *Photo Marcia Gauvin*

The very end of this road becomes paved as you head into South Ryegate Village. In South Ryegate, we passed through a small collection of houses, and a beautiful church, before turning left onto Route 302.

10/12/24 -End of Swamp Road into South Ryegate- *Photo Marcia Gauvin*

Very quickly you turn left onto Brown Drive, and after about 2 miles, Brown turns into the Cross VT Trail, a lovely rail trail through the woods and running along the Wells River.

View of Wells River from Brown Dr. – *photo Marcia Gauvin*

You ride on this rail trail for almost two miles, and at the end, you veer left onto Little Italy Rd. Little Italy ends at Powder Springs Road in Groton. Here is where we touched, briefly, a corner of Groton. We hope to return to Groton in another adventure!

Turning left onto Powder Springs Road, we started to climb – gradually and continually, for 3.7 miles with an elevation gain of 866 feet. It certainly warmed us up on this cool morning. While Powder Springs Road is paved, and doesn’t have much of a shoulder, we saw very little traffic.

Climbing Powder Springs Road – 10/12/24 – *photo Marcia Gauvin*

Top of Powder Spring Road – *photo Chris Leister*

At the top of Powder Springs, you then descend another 3 miles into the village of Topsham.

This village is cute, with a town office and a historic barn in the center of town.

Barn across from the Topsham town office – *photo Chris Leister*

From Topsham Village, we turned left onto Harts Road, riding up and through a series of twists and turns that eventually led us back to Topsham Road, which we easily road down to get back to our car.

Looking back at Topsham Village from Harts Road – *photo Chris Leister*

It was a pleasant and moderate ride through some beautiful VT countryside.