Kingdom Trails and Pine Hill Park

DateJune 30 - July 6, 2012
HostsLarry and Brenda Isherwood, Joe Scheneck and Dawn Casey
WhereEast Burke and Rutland, VT (sic!)
Who (else) Tom Fritz & Beryl Brodsky, Cam & Karen Witt, Jeff Winick & Wendy Samuelson. Non-DOGS Attendees: Joe & Kathy Marino (MA), Guy Tremblay & Celeste Villate (Canada), Rene Marios (Canada).

We had a total of 15 riders: 6 tandem teams, one couple on singles and one single bike rider who actually owns a mountain tandem, but he & his wife Melanie had brought single bikes because they have a baby and split off riding & watching the baby. We unfortunately did not get to ride with Melanie, but hope to in the future. We "accidentally" met Rene on his single bike and Guy & Celeste on their mountain tandem on the first day of riding back at the parking lot, so they rode with us the next day or two before they each departed for home in Canada! Another funny thing is that neither one of these Canadian couples knew each other. Some teams stayed & rode all 7 days, others stayed for part of the event and rode most or all days they were there.


Saturday

We rode 12 miles on the Kingdom Trails and, upon our return to the parking lot, noticed a couple & their wedding party "staging" a breakdown of their classic car for the photographer. Well, Cam & Karen cleverly helped them out by telling them they should "make their getaway" on a tandem... and so they did by posing upon the bike (yes, the bride in her full-length gown also) for what is sure to be a memorable photo for them. We then enjoyed a dinner at Pub Outback in town and then over to the local ice cream store for dessert before heading back to camp, or, for two couples, their hotel or B&B rooms.


Sunday

We rode 16 miles on the trails and today we enjoyed a mid-day mid-ride lunch at the Market Cafe in the woods and then Cam took his much needed 5 minute cat-nap while others talked & some worked on tweaking Guy's tandem. Apparently it was working well enough for Guy & Celeste to ride atop the log run by the cafe before we all headed back out into the woods to enjoy nature & the trails. There were some antics at the overlook. Don't worry, Cam is just fine... as was Tom too! Jeff & Wendy rode Kitchell (like a downhill bobsled run) for the first time & Wendy just about jumped off her seat with enjoyment at the bottom! Dinner was out again, this time at Goodfella's near camp.


Monday

We rode 16 more miles today.... I know, if it were road riding that's not much... but in the woods it's PLENTY! :-) We had another beautiful view of the river from above and at another location a wonderful miles-long view of the mountain range at the arbor on the hill where the bikes must have been tired because they were all lying down on the grass. We also passed a gnome home in a tree in the woods. Back at camp we had a Hobo dinner cooked on the fire.


Tuesday

We rode 12 miles in the afternoon after the damp weather cleared. In the AM some visited Cabot cheese and others the Dog Chapel... a must see for pet owners! There were two crazy captains that just felt the need to teach or be taught a lesson, so Cam captained Tom in the morning while the trails were still wet! Dinner was back at camp where we hosted a dinner of spaghetti & home meat sauce by Dawn for all to enjoy. I very much enjoyed & appreciated all the birthday sentiments and celebration that was had! Thanks!


Wednesday

We rode 8 miles today. We were at the local bike shop before the ride and I watched a Marzocchi Representative walk past our bike & state, "That's the baddest fork I've ever seen on a tandem". We have a Marzocchi 66 SL fork on our tandem & I told him my husband really liked it too! So the boys came out of the bike shop and enjoyed visiting with the Marzocchi guy before we headed out on the trails. Tonight we had our only real rain, quite a storm after a simple 4th of July hot dogs & baked beans dinner, but it did let up enough for the guys to enjoy quite a log on the fire!


Thursday

Today we packed up camp & drove a little more than 2 hours south in VT to ride at Pine Hill Park, very near our DOGS friends, Jim & Kelley. We rode 5 miles at the park in the afternoon. These trails are wonderfully constructed and are very sustainable trails, but are very tight & twisty & this keeps the speed down a bit. Dinner was out at a local restaurant. Our campground was at a quaint older quiet campground... that was until we arrived. :-), but really we did get quiet at quiet hour! We need our sleep too to be able to ride the next day!


Friday

We rode 9 miles and managed to find & ride most all of the park's fancy bridges... suspension, arch, banked etc. In the evening we all enjoyed a delicious & gracious dinner at Jim & Kelley's along with drinks & dessert! THANKS GUYS! We still managed to get in one late, last campfire before turning in to bed to wake & head home on Saturday.


Thanks to all that came to the event, camped, stayed at hotels & B&B's, rode the trails and enjoyed our camp with us! Without you it's not an EVENT!

Please enjoy the 400+ pictures on the Picasa Link below.

Happy Trails!

Larry, Brenda, Joe & Dawn

Dirty DOGS June 30 - July 6, 2012 Kingdom Trails & Pine Hill Park, VT EVENT


DOGS Home Page

Generated automagically on Sat Jul 28 10:34:48 2012 from 120630.pho dated Sat Jul 28 10:34:27 2012 by /home/dmk/bin/pho.pl, $Id: pho.pl,v 1.5 2008/11/15 21:11:45 dmk Exp $.
Copyright © 2012, Brenda Isherwood (text, photos); Karen Witt, Joe Scheneck, Beryl Brodsky (photos)