caton place campground, cavendish vt, saturday 9/2/23, 21:40
we woke up chilly this morning and dragged our tired selves out of the tent to layer up and pack up. i caught our campground hosts just as they were leaving to ask if they had a bike pump i could use, since my slow leak was still leaking and we had a ways to go before the next town. to my surprise, they had a hand pump they offered to me to take with me! i am so grateful. we pumped up my tire and then hit the road, starting with a long climb and some rough washed out roads from the floods.
after a bunch more climbing and some gorgeous bucolic scenes, we descended into Woodstock, a cute town which was absolutely hoppin on this saturday morning. we went to a quieter cafe to get some breakfast and were unfortunately disappointed with a 30+ minute wait for our food, which was definitely not worth a 30 minute wait. but Joe’s chai was good! we then gingerly walked over to the bike shop. i got a spoke to check my sealant and sure enough i needed more. so i bought some sealant, filled my tire with 4 oz, and then used their floor pump wowee to fill it with air. i knew where the hole was, a significant gash on my sidewall. but the hole wasn’t fully sealing, just mostly sealing and then opening up again. i took one of my plugs, found exactly where the hole was with some water, and plugged it up. and after a dramatic gurgling, it seemed to close! i pumped it up again, but then it seemed to be bubbling up a bit again. i couldn’t decide what to do but eventually we decided to go for it and ride on..
as we discussed directions, the shop mechanic laura? encouraged us to take the long way, which winds along next to the river. joe found a rope swing and bravely sent it into the water!
we did lots more climbing, and then had a long fun descent to this roadside fried food joint where we got what we thought would be a normal amount of food, but ended up
being a lotttt more than we could handle.
and then we had the lovely 3 mile climb up to camp, with our milkshakes sloshing around in our bellies. the campground is weird vibes (and the priciest of any campsite ive ever booked!). i’m currently laying in our tent getting ready to sleep, and listening to a full rock band playing rock n roll covers just across at the campground canteen situation. they are loud. i should bring ear plugs on my next trip.
(accidentally deleted the first half of ride from royalton to woodstock, + 19 miles and 2000 feet of climbing)