Just when you think you know all the hills in Rhode Island. I put together a nice new route today, heading out over Capron, Mountaindale, Pine Hill, before heading towards the Scituate Reservoir via Gleaner Chapel, another hill I discovered relatively recently. Feeling good today, I set personal records on a bunch of the hills, picking up a Strava KOM on Gleaner Chapel. (I missed the KOM on the hotly contested Capron by 1 second…) From Gleaner Chapel, I wound my way back via Peck Hill Road, which was new to me. Not the most scenic road, at least not by traditional standards. You do get many exciting views of the Johnston Landfill – the whole stretch seems somewhat post-apocalyptic.
From there, the last event of the day was Ipswitch St., an intriguingly steep little climb I discovered on Strava. I knew it was steep going in, but was still rather unprepared for what I found. Here is what I expected:
Which is to say a tough, but sustained 12% climb, with a steeper part in the middle. The climb starts on Monson St, which takes a tight left turn. You can tell that there’s a steep hill in front, but you can’t see Ipswitch until you make right turn and see a very steep, very narrow road in front of you. But “sustained” isn’t really the right word. The next section is comprised of two distinct sections of (probably) 20%. You think when you get to the top of that and the road swings to the left again, that you’re done, but instead it levels off briefly before kicking up to the 20s again. That last section really hurts. Needless to say, I’ll be headed back to try it again when it’s not the last hill of the day. Almost certainly one of the hardest in the state, in the same league as Jenckes and South Court. Probably slightly easier than Jenckes, slightly harder than South Court. Brentacol has now been updated with a more accurate (but still not quite representative of what it actually felt like):
looking at the map again, I see that there isn’t in fact a turn before the final kicker. I think the issue is that you can’t see any road above the middle steep part, so you assume it’s over, but once you crest that section you can see the rest of it – so I think that’s why I mistakenly remembered a turn.
hey – is Ipswitch your Strava segment?? I noticed the GPS data looks effed up on it – has a couple zig zags in it…I think people don’t get tracked if they don’t hit it just right- thats why we’re the only 3 people on the leader board. Maybe should be deleted and re-created? Just a thought – no biggie either way.
Hey, yeah, not mine. I think it may be Cory’s since I believe he was the only other person listed as having done it when I did it for the first time. I can make one off of my tracks and see if it works better. Another chance to think up a creative name, too!
I made a new one that starts at the bottom of Monson and ends at the bend at the very tippy top, a tad longer…If you make a better one I will delete mine though.