It's not often you stub your toe while training. Of course, it's also not often that you are forced to detour from your planned route, pedal through a field, remove your shoes and socks, shoulder your bike, then take a lengthy stroll through a river, at which point you stub your toe. From there, you climb up out of the river bank, trudge through the woods, and thirty minutes later back onto the road.And why would you do such a thing? A bridge closure, of course.

I'm very intent on completing the six gaps, so not to be dissuaded by a mere bridge outage I proceeded to bushwhack, remove my shoes, ford a river, bushwhack some more, sneak through a backyard, and a half hour later I was back at it! And all said and done -- 7 hours, nearly 3800 meters of climbing over just 208km, a few nips of maple syrup as fuel, and one massive smile later -- the ride looks something like this. Which, coincidentally, resembles England. And why Vermont? Because I'm not racing the Tour right now. Because I needed a refresher. I needed to ease my mind, body, and soul. Because I needed to go back to where I found cycling. Why Vermont? Because I needed this...Stunning roads with sporadic farms Covered bridges General stores More general stores Corn on the cob sitting in wait Dirt roads And because farms, cows, hills, mountains, sky, barns, and green green grass. Ayup, that's why.