Pedaling from the pandemic

Just a little intro needed for this post. This essay was originally published in a collection published by my good friend Sara Tucker of Korongo Books. The collection was called "The Homebound Diaries/Homebound Still" I finished it in November 2020. We were a solid 6 months into the COVID pandemic and it seemed like new shoes were dropping every day. We had kind of gotten used to wearing masks and hunkering down at home, but it was all new territory, and honestly was pretty scary stuff. My bike offered me an escape to normalcy, and especially on the back roads that surround our little town in Vermont.  Looking back on it, I feel quite lucky to have had that. It kept me sane.  Here's what I had to say about it. 

I am what most people would refer to as an avid bicyclist.  It is my favorite activity.  Over the past thirty years or so, I have ridden tens of thousands of miles.  Forest trails, paved highways and my new favorite; unpaved back roads. As the days and weeks of the current pandemic grew to months, getting out on my bike became a taste of normal life in an otherwise crazy time. 

I discovered the joy of riding on the many miles of dirt roads surrounding Randolph village starting around five years ago. A local entrepreneur in outdoor recreation, Zac Freeman, started promoting this type of riding with a big fall event called the Braintree 5.  The name of the event reflects the route which has riders climb Braintree hill five different times. The first year that the event was held, I had no idea how challenging it would be, but set my sights on participating that October.  Prior to that year, I had pretty much split my bike riding between mountain biking on nearby trails and on traditional road riding on local and state highways. With the carrot of the Braintree 5 hanging out there, I started logging as many miles as I could on the dirt roads using my mountain bike, which is big and heavy.  I completed the event, which is a total of 35 miles with 5000 feet of elevation gain over the course of the ride.  It was a challenge, and the post-ride beer and food were welcome.

I had started to explore so-called “gravel grinder” bikes that summer, but we weren’t in a position to afford one, so it was mostly fantasizing about their sleek lines and light weight.  Gravel grinders look like a traditional road bike with the curving drop handlebars, but they have slightly wider tires, strong disc brakes and more forgiving gearing. Winter came and I let cross-country skiing take over my thoughts and energy.  But, as spring was approaching, the gravel grinder was back on my mind.  After a few visits to a bike shop in Northfield, I had test ridden a few bikes and had a particularly nice bike high on my wish list. An unexpected windfall sealed the deal.

I am lucky that I have been able to continue working full-time from home since the initial lockdown in March.  I’ve learned about the various pros and cons of this arrangement.  One of the cons is that you are in the same space all day every day.  The line between home life and work life has been erased.  That has made me value my bike rides even more than usual.  On the plus side, when the workday ends, there is no commute, so I have more time to get out and ride.

One of the benefits of the unpaved roads around Randolph is that you can piece together an infinite variety of routes, going as long or as short as you want. My son Jacob has been home with us since March, which was not his original plan.  He just graduated from college (virtually, on our couch) with a music performance degree playing jazz saxophone.  His plan had been to get a gig on a cruise ship, but the pandemic scuttled that.  Last fall he joined me for the Braintree 5, basically with almost no training.  We joke that it was “couch to Braintree 5”.  He completed the ride on a rented bike with a little bit of struggle, but he enjoyed it.

This year, with a fairly early spring that dried out the dirt roads in March, we got out on bikes earlier than normal. Jacob picked himself up a nice gravel bike at a new local bike shop. He really embraced getting out on his bike as much as possible.  He has explored many routes that I hadn’t and found some great riding to expand our network.

Among all the restrictive elements of dealing with the pandemic – not gathering with friends, wearing masks in public places, not going to the movies or other public events – going for a bike ride has been a taste of normal.  As I head out, I instantly feel the weight of the pandemic falling away.  The village streets quickly transition to an unpaved road with few cars and less noise.  Many of the roads follow along creeks that you can glimpse through the trees.  You hear the trickling of the water as it rolls over the rocks in the stream bottom. Because Randolph is in a valley, almost all the routes involve a fair amount of climbing.  I love being entirely under my own power as the miles roll away and I scale up to a ridge line.  After a short amount of level riding, I am then rewarded with an exhilarating downhill, sometimes for several miles.  It’s not unusual to hit 30 or even 40 miles per hour on the way down.

Bicycling became my salvation in 2020.  I put in my workday and then escape on my bike for an hour or more in the afternoons.  Sometimes I go by myself, enjoying the chance to be with my thoughts and to feel my body working and pay attention to that.  Other times, I go with friends and family, chatting about things and relishing some time together without our worries. My wife, Anne, bought a gravel grinder with my encouragement.  She and I rode a fair amount together, which was a real treat.  This summer was quite hot and many of our rides ended at the town recreation area, where the Third Branch of the White River flows by.  We would prop our bikes against a tree, strip down to bike shorts and go down the short trail to a convenient swimming hole.  The river water was always cool and refreshing, washing the dust and salty sweat off before the final easy half mile back to our house.  This was a rejuvenating routine.

Weekend rides were even more adventurous.  We developed one route that took us out to the Floating Bridge in Brookfield and then over to Silloway’s sugar house in Randolph Center.  The sugar house was an important stop because they started serving maple creemees this summer.  There is something really satisfying about a smooth, sweet treat after you have ridden twenty or more miles.  From Silloway’s, there was only one more short climb, then mostly downhill back home.

Because of the pandemic, there was no official Braintree 5 ride this fall.  However, five of us picked a pristine Saturday in October and rode the official route. It was an amazing day with surreal neon fall colors and postcard views of valleys and distant ridges.

Now, the cold weather has arrived along with some snow and shorter days.  So, the bikes are hung up in the garage until next spring.  I know I will enjoy my rides in the future but hopefully I will no longer be escaping the pandemic.