I scream, you scream...

One of the things I love most about Dartmouth is the great cycling that's available around here. After doing Bike and Build my freshman summer, I've been absolutely addicted to road biking, and New Hampshire and Vermont offer no shortage of great roads to bike on. So when Colleen, one of the admissions officers, asked me and Mats (another AO) if we wanted to bike up to Fairlee, VT after work yesterday to get some ice cream at a place called Utter Delight, of course I jumped at the offer. Plus, I'd just gotten my bike back from a three-week stay at the bike repair shop, so I was really itching to hit the pavement again.

We left Hanover at about 5:15 for the ~20 mile trek up to Fairlee. The ride up was incredibly beautiful. We took River Road, and with cornfields on our right, the Connecticut River to the left, and rolling hills ahead, we enjoyed some really great New Hampshire scenery. We even passed through a covered bridge!

In what seemed like no time at all, we crossed the river and arrived at Utter Delight. I think it took longer to decide what kind of ice cream I wanted than it took to eat it, but I finally decided on one scoop each of Moosetracks and Peaches and Cream in a cone. There's really nothing like ice cream after a bike ride on a warm (hot) summer afternoon. We hung out in the shade for a while before heading back to campus via Route 5, on the VT side of the Connecticut.

Biking with other people is a lot more fun than biking alone, and on the less-traveled roads of Northern New England, you can really have a pretty good conversation. I can't say I remember what we talked about, but it made the time go by really quickly, and we were back in Hanover before I knew it. Colleen thought it would be a great idea to jump into the river before heading back up the hill to campus, and after a moment's hesitation, Mats and I agreed. We walked down to the swimming dock and jumped into the just-warm-enough water and swam around for long enough to cool down. It was definitely the perfect way to cap off a great afternoon.

Mats and I made plans to do a century (a 100 mile ride) on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'm in bike-shape enough to pull it off, and after this week's prospective student fly-in program ends on Saturday, I might be too exhausted to do anything at all. But I think we'll go for it anyway and I'll just hope for the best!