Season 2 Episode 9 (9/17-9/18): Darn Those Hills! Coventry, RI to Mansfield Center, CT to Litchfield, CT

Season 2 Episode 9 (9/17-9/18): Darn Those Hills! Coventry, RI to Mansfield Center, CT to Litchfield, CT – 

(9/17) Coventry, RI to Mansfield Center, CT: 47 miles. 2,319’ climbing. 

Although we’ve been to Litchfield, CT before, we’d not heard of the “Litchfield Hills” (also known as the Northwest Highlands). But we won’t forget them now!  

The ECG runs from Hartford down to New Haven and along the coast to NYC- and for good flat reason. We chose a more challenging route with more elevation across CT to visit friends. 

Our taste of the challenges to come began with climbing from Rhode Island to Mansfield Center. The day started easy enough in RI with some time on the Washington Secondary Rail Trail. Soon it was clear we crossed the state line when we saw a big sign for “Connecticut Carries Guns And Ammo” just before the town of Sterling, CT. It struck me as odd as nearly every week we cycle into Greenwich, CT from the NY side and we’ve never seen anything like this. Clearly, we were not in Fairfield County.

After a snack break enjoying the beauty at Moosup Pond Beach, we soon faced a serious uphill challenge. As we inched up, I was 100% aware of and relying on inspiration from our friends Lenny & Ernie and a visualization technique I use frequently when climbing. I “place” people I know every 50 yards or so ahead of me. I literally pick a rock or tree or sign, and pretend that is somebody I know. For some odd reason, it always includes my former colleague Rich who in my imagination is leaning out, with his grin, spurring me on. And I kept at it cycling to the next cheerleader who I placed at the recycling bin, and so forth until I got to the peak. We passed a house that I saw had a nice swimming pool, and I craved jumping in to refresh from dripping sweat. 

The climbing begins!

Before climbing, I had some leg cramps. Afterwards, I felt my left knee twinging and I thought of taking an anti-inflammatory right then; and I very rarely do so. During all of last year’s cross country ride I used none. It got me thinking about age and my body parts. How many more years can I chase the fountain of youth and do this on my original parts (original plus four screws left over in my right ankle from a few leg repair surgeries, the last one 14 years ago). My peers are starting to, almost warranty-like, surgically replace original equipment with replacement parts. Is that my destiny? (This got me wondering about Father Time which made me wonder why do we say Father Time but Mother Nature? Just some of the random stuff I wonder about while riding and am alone with my thoughts.)

At the top of the hill, about a mile south of Pomfret, I peeled off my “arms” and “legs” (cycling arm and leg warmers) and jacket, and drank half a bottle of water. This is another challenge – dressing. There is a 20°-25° change from cool morning temps to peak afternoon heat; and climbing leaves you boiling while descending leaves you chilly. As well temps differ widely in the shade and sun. It’s a struggle to dress for the sweet spot, and layering or delayering is much more cumbersome and time consuming than on a hike. Plus Heather gets annoyed with me each time I stop to adjust clothing.   

A lesson I’ve learned is beware of any road with the word Hill in it. Especially Pleasant Hill is really unpleasant.

Our night in Midfield Center left Heather shaken up when she witnessed an altercation of sorts while I was chilling at the hotel. She returned frantic about seeing a man hanging on to a moving car through an open window, and then he got thrown and was all bloodied in the face. Seemed like no big deal to me.

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(9/18) Mansfield Center, CT to Litchfield, CT: 65 miles. 3,902’ climbing. 

I woke up and took that first anti-inflammatory. 

Leaving early this morning, for the first time ever I cleaned and lubed my own chain. That’s kind of ridiculous that I’ve not done it before given the amount of time we ride. I diagnosed my reluctance. I'm nervous to tackle something mechanically that I feel I won’t do 100% correctly. The ride was so much quieter and smoother than yesterday; I thought I did okay and recognized I achieved a growth experience. It was living the adage “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”. More interesting for the morning, I wondered to myself about in what other areas do I let perfect be the enemy of the good?

We were dressed for the cool morning, and were steamed by these gusts of warm air. It felt like a sauna door being opened and the heat released on us. 

All of a sudden, I heard Heather yelling “Oh my God”. We had turned right on 603N and were looking at a very long, intimidating hill. We both learned from yesterday’s monster hill, it’s better to de-layer jacket, arms and legs before the climb. I really don't remember a harder climb. My legs could not cycle in circles, meaning I could not spin with the upstroke and downstroke in fairly equal strength. Instead, each leg worked independently – left plod down and almost stop, right plod down and almost stop, and so forth.  This was also the first time on the trip that it felt like my lungs were working at maximum capacity.  Again I used visualization of various people that I know to cheerlead me up the climb, I made it to the top. When I turned back, I saw the 9% grade sign and Heather.

While my right knee was hurting, I thought that’s good it makes me forget my left knee. When my left knee hurts, I think good it makes me forget about my bottom. How I rationalize!

Heather attacking the climb by traversing up. 

The ECG and urban planners do a great job crossing through Hartford. We felt safe in bike lanes and on bike paths. We could not help but reflect on the contrast between the noise and urban feel of East Hartford to soon being in serene West Hartford and riding right through the pristine, college-like campus of the renowned Miss Porter’s School in Farmington. Talk about luck of what you are born into shaping your view and outcomes! I was thinking about this just as we began to ride on the Farmington Heritage Trail. By the most perfect coincidence we were joined by a rider Richard who we learned is addressing this very issue of access to education through the organization the Hartford Promise. We rode with him for a while and, as always, a new cycling friend helped propel us forward.  

After saying goodbye and a while on our own, the calm was pierced by two loud big barking dogs starting to run from the front steps of a home. It is fascinating how instant my reaction is - I hear dogs barking, and immediately the hair on my arms is standing up, my heart is racing and I feel a sense of terror. My first thought is I am getting too old for this sh-t but before I could even crank up into overdrive and try to outrun them, they stopped advancing and I gave thanks for the apparent invisible fence!

Although the total climb today of 3,902’ was within our training range, it was really much harder because it was not equally distributed. Most of it came in the last 15 miles. As we struggled with more climbing, the thing that kept us going was we were going to be staying at the beautiful and spacious country home of our friends Elyse & Peter. We finally arrived and although Peter could not come and Elyse could not spend the night with us, she catered to us preparing a delicious 3 course meal and making sure the kitchen was stocked for us including of course the local favorite, Arethusa Farm old-fashioned ice cream.

Local dairy favorite!

Relaxing by the pool and enjoying the quiet of their private grounds, it was the perfect recovery night from two hard days of climbing. Although our time with Elyse was very brief, her energy and enthusiasm lifted our spirits. 

Thanks Elyse & Peter (in absentia) for our spa-like evening!

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