new brunswick and back

jenn, seneca and i headed to new brunswick to visit her family. 12hr drive through moose country w/a 10month-old strapped to a chair.

somehow, we made it fun. all hail the family car trip.

bronte's nose soon sniffed-out a new treat. hallucinogenic mushrooms, many, many of them. things got pretty freaky.

went looking for the mushrooms (for identification of course), none found. that dog's got jerry garcia's nose. couple days later she was diving for rocks again, albeit totally tripping-out. 4 days later it seemed she'd come-down. she's definitely a little different dog, stared into the light a bit too long i reckon.


back in waitsfield, ready to relax and get a quality ride in after our crazy trip and nominal hours in the saddle. andy agrees to make the 3+hr drive, leaving sunny skies and warm temps on the coast for cool rain in the north country. 5-6hr route planned, we tick-off Appalachian gap w/little difficulty, andy surging on his 3-speed, looking for the right tempo. when the legs feel good it sure is fun to kill it all day. had to skip a bunch of singletrack due to saturation, but our 4-gap route on a mix of dirt and pavement was feeling great. flew-down app gap and made our way through the lowlands to Lincoln Gap, the mtns hidden in quick misty cloud. rocking our bikes from side to side, digging, we crested lincoln and took some food, i warned andy about the decent, the frost heaves, the 180 degree turns at 20 percent. it's been raining all day. i lead. we start to let it fly, hitting 40 on the open sections, then slamming into the tight corners on the disc brakes, w/2 corners to go, i underestimate the curve, it turns back onto its tail, can't hold the line, wheels slide-out and down i go, hip skipping, bike brakes loose, millisecond decisions, try to get feet underneath, protect the skin, cleats touch rough asphalt as the bike skips again sending sparks flying from both, left hand reaches down to stay up while trying to protect a mostly healed broken index finger, hit the gravel, thank luck for a wide shoulder on the turn, land on hip again, grinding grit into the wound, come to a stop and am up immediately, super effin' pissed, don't feel anything but anger at myself, have to laugh it off. best damn ride of the yr and i'm down. foock.

after irrigating w/a water btl and rubbing at dirt w/andy's head gear it looks good to finish the ride - minus a good gash.


can we continue or does the gash need stitches within the magic 6hr window?


stitches is the vote, w/o a good heal, can forget about riding for a while. doc found a good sized rock before sewing it up, the culprit of the wound, never would have healed right with that in there. doc was a good man, put the stitches in so i could begin riding right away!


instead of killing' it on the gaps, andy hung w/seneca while i cleaned things out. good man. next time we'll keep the rubber side down.


this is andy's 3rd trip to hospital w/me - the last one was a year to the day of this accident. freaky. thanks for all the waiting andy. i owe ya' huge.