We’re lucky to have a lot of terrain so close to us…you might not think of the Southridge neighborhood in Williston as a “ton of terrain” if you ski there all the time…but many ski teams and clubs are forced to ski almost exclusively on bike paths or even smaller neighborhoods. Rollerski route options are probably the only true benefit of suburban sprawl if you’re an athlete, and we sure have it here.
We can do a long ski from Williston Central School all the way to the edge of Taft Corners, with a mix of hills and curves and generally safe, friendly drivers. Or, we can plan out hills to make an ideal loop for intervals or, in the case of the Masters, a great timetrial course. We’re just down the road from Burlington but we’ve got a whole network of “trails” to rollerski on.
So, we donned out hi-viz clothing and hit the roads for the first ski-specific intensity of the year on Thursday; a little L3 rollin’ in the neighborhood.
On Saturday, we gathered at Cochran’s for another adventure on trails that are really not that expansive when you’re comparing them to the Long Trail or peaks of the White Mountains…but still feel a world away all the same. These are the BEST trails around, and I’m happy to fight anyone who says otherwise! They have EVERYTHING…from flow to gnar, traverse-able terrain to grueling mountain climbs and white-knuckle descents.
Half of us were biking, and half of us were running. We used the Eastern Cup radios to communicate, set off from different start spots, converged atop the peak, and sent it down to the other side and Dugway road. There, some stashed water and food awaited us to make the journey back via the River Trail. Richmond is really becoming a small mountain biking hub, and plenty were out enjoying the area by the time we finished up.
There were crashes. There were wrong turns. There were moments of chaos as we fought to survive the insidious forests deep in the deadly jungle-land known as the Richmond Mountain Trails…
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