Chapter 6: Backcountry History

Day 3: Monday, June 26, 2017
44 miles
Rindge, NH to Brattleboro, VT

You can find all sorts of historical gems tucked away on the country roads of New England. As we bicycled through Francestown on Sunday I noticed a church with a building of old stables dating back, one assumes, to the horse and buggy days. When I mentioned it to John Whiting, he said, "Oh, our church has old stables, too." So I stopped and took this picture on our way out of Rindge.

To the left is the First Congregational Church of Rindge, but I was interested in the old stables straight ahead. The historical summary of the church makes only a brief mention of the stables when discussing the construction of the church in the 1760s: "Horse stables were built near the Meeting House and on the Common." 

While writing this up, I did a little online research and found out that the building with the stables in Francestown isn't a church, but the town hall, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. I found it on googlemaps and took a screen shot, so I could fool you into thinking I did take a picture after all.

The Francestown town hall - it sort of looks like a church, doesn't it? - was constructed in 1847 so perhaps the stables were built then as well.

After enjoying John and Lynne's delicious breakfast we headed directly west on Route 119, a rural two-lane highway. Except for a stretch of heavier traffic the last few miles into Brattleboro, the riding was terrific with long stretches of downhills and manageable uphills.

The Fitzwilliam Inn
Restaurant & Pub - Rooms Available

I took this picture because it is an example of the sort of picturesque inn we often stumbled upon in the small New England towns we rode through. And probably to remind myself to come back one day and stay. What do you think, Rob? We could come here after a day of hiking Mt. Monadnock and then do some bicycling the next day. Check it out. The prices look reasonable.

Not too many cars on this stretch of two-lane highway in southwestern New Hampshire. Yes, that's Rob coming up the hill...

And enjoying a beer on the rooftop of the Whetstone Station in Brattleboro. The bridge in the background goes over the Connecticut River, which forms the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. The picture below is the view of the river. Are those storm clouds moving in?

We camped that night at Fort Dummer State Park, an unremarkable campground just outside Brattleboro, situated next to the interstate with no swimming and only a couple of short hiking trails. But what was remarkable about it was how much trouble we had finding it. We saw not a single sign directing us there. We realized that our map was no help after heading down the road it should have been on, with no luck. Fortunately the woman working the customer service desk at the local grocery story gave us directions. We took a local street until coming to a "Dead End" sign. We stopped, wondering what to do, then saw someone working outside an apartment building. He assured us we should keep going and we'd come to the park, at the top of a significant climb. 

The climb was a killer. And we did it twice because we wanted to get our campsite set up before enjoying our beer in Brattleboro. At one point Rob got going so slowly that he came to a stop before he could unclip from his pedals and fell off his bike. I missed seeing it, but he told me. That would be the only time for this trip. Which is an improving trend. He fell 3 times on our Maine trip in 2015 (I fell twice) and two times last year. 

Even though it hides some of its parks, Vermont generally does a great job with them, offering hot showers and, for an extra $7, lean-tos. We asked the park ranger if rain was expected. It was. When I heard the rain during the night I thought about how glad I was that we paid the extra money and how fortunate we were that our bikes and tent all fit easily in the lean-to and would be dry in the morning. 

We rode 44 miles along Rte. 119 from Rindge to Brattleboro.

No wonder it felt like we had lots of downhill riding. We did. But I am surprised that the last hill to the state park doesn't look more significant.