The Crown Jewel of Addison County

I've discovered the crown jewel of my county. I keep going back to Weybridge,Vt and finding yet more wonderful spots.  Today we did a 20 mile loop - no repeating parts.  First we rode on the soon to be opened new bridge in Middlebury. It felt a little like we were doing something bad!  This bridge gives some new views of Middlebury and is quite nice.  Then we headed past Middlebury College, cutting my 10 mile loop I have done a few times in half.  

Always a pretty campus

Looking back down the campus

We eventually turned down  into Weybridge on the road I have ridden a lot lately. But when we got to the end of it instead of turning back to Middlebury we kept going.  We took a loop, unsure of which way to go. I had scoped it out by car on Monday (getting lost twice) and didn't think it mattered as we started out going down and came back up huge hills either way. So we went left. (We both thought after that we made the right decision.)

Left or  right?

I took this picture on the way back. It was still sunny when we headed out.  We rode along the most beautiful route imaginable.  The leaves in our town have taken quite a beating from the rain and the higher elevation but they were still plentiful here. We both exclaimed over the beauty several times.  One advantage of biking is you (at least I do) cover so many more miles that you can really take in some sights.  Plus you're (and again I mean me)  not so gosh darn tired!  I am so enjoying all this riding.  I think having the blog has heightened my appreciation for my state too!  

There's cows in the distance and........

..........they are running from me.

This farm and mountain were just beautiful

Otter Creek which is actually not attractive at all.....

....but it was today.

We continued on and briefly hit Route 17 before we turned and headed back on a nearby road.  One bonus of this route was how little traffic there was.  It was hilly which we both liked as it wasn't bad.  The sky kept changing.  We didn't have the sun for long before it became all clouded over only to look rather threatening as our ride continued.

I have only driven by this dam once or twice and it was fun to

see it on the bike. T had never seen it.

..From the other side of the bridge

The sky was rather scary looking.

I loved the reflection of the trees in the water.

The other side of the next bridge.

Now we started to head up hill but it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.  It was long but fairly gradual.  Once we got almost to Middlebury we took a dirt road and added a few miles to our ride.  More beautiful scenes.  It did start raining before we finished but we didn't get too wet.  We ended up riding slightly more than 20 miles -a  good distance.  We both agreed we would love to do this ride again.

A  cemetery in a lovely location

T having a snack before we finished our ride.