Day 4 Fall Foliage trip 2017
Some people took the morning off to better explorer Shelburne Farms. They enjoyed a tour of the Farm Barn and got to see lots of animals and even hold them.
Today the early riders rode/sagged from Shelburne to Stowe. After a scrumptious breakfast at The Inn at Shelburne Farms, we toured the grounds for a bit – including the huge livestock barn that included the ability in the past to stable 80 teams of mules and other farm animals. The dock area had a 140 foot steam powered yacht. We also stopped at the visitor’s center which sold lots of the products produced on the farm – including cheese, honey, jam, and lots of other goodies.
After exiting the Farm we headed south for quite a ways. In places we had quite a headwind – but we persevered. Some of us sagged part of the way in the morning in order to get our total distance to just over 30 miles.
Some others rode the whole way and ended up doing over 50 miles. Eventually we turned East and then North and we had a tailwind finally. But then we climbed the Gap/Notch and when we were over the top had a nice downhill into Richmond where we had lunch at the Stone Corral Brewery. After lunch was another 14 mile stint along the Winooski River 2.8 miles of it unpaved and then into Waterbury which is home to the Green Mountain Coffee roasters. From there we shuttled to the Topnotch Resort and Spa where we will be based for the next 2 days. Topnotch is REALLY TOPNOTCH!
Some of us had planned ahead and had massages scheduled for when we arrived. Others scheduled for Thursday.
We were on our own for dinner and so all ate at the Roost restaurant at Topnotch. Afterwords we played table top shuffleboard in the bar area.
Some serious competition
Tomorrow we have the option of a 27 or 36 mile ride around the Stowe area. Some others are taking a day off and just enjoying the resort and the town nearby.
This picture is out of order but I want to include it for completeness.
And finally in the spirit of colorful trees – I copied this from a friend.
