Hello from hilly Southbury CT

ferrellms

New Member
Hi, this is ferrellms from Southbury CT. Hilly? Yes! (But not mountainous.) The area is scarred by glaciers moving in a North-South direction, leaving 400-500 feet high ridges and very little flat stuff in between. The roads in the flat stuff are mostly highways without a lot of room on the side for bikes. The ridges are steep as well, with 9% or more grades not uncommon (there is a short stretch of 18% near my house). But, once you get to the top of one, there is usually a road running along the top of it that is little traveled, as all the towns are in the valleys. Many of these roads are packed dirt and gravel and some are pretty rough, loose and potholed. And some of these roads have some steep ascents and descents, as do some crumbled and ruined "paved" roads leading through the sticks down to the Housatonic. Finally, there are quite a few nature preserves with hiking trails.

So, a typical solo outing will have 30 miles altogether with almost 3000 feet of steep climbing and descending, 5 or 6 miles of dirt and gravel, a mile of trails, and only 10 miles or so of flat cruising on smooth roads.

My Turbo X Specialized manages all this (with my 65 yr old legs)!
 
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An unusually astute observation and description of one's local topography...

Are you a geoscientist, surveyor, or the like; or merely an avid bicyclist that wanted to know the lay of the land?
 
An unusually astute observation and description of one's local topography...

Are you a geoscientist, surveyor, or the like; or merely an avid bicyclist that wanted to know the lay of the land?
I have been riding in upstate NY and CT often enough to realize that North-South routes are much easier than East-West!

The elevation readouts from the Mission Control app look like perfect sawteeth between 150' and 550'.
 
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