Wonderlust will get you in trouble

Yesterday I had a quasi "epic" ride. That word gets overused a lot, particularly in the mountain bike community. Frankly, there needs to be some sort of pre-req for using the word EPIC, but in my case, it's at least partially justified. http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/vt/montpelier/976127112508692516
I started out the day wanting to get in a decently long mountain ride. Despite getting out on the trail last week for the first time (and it's only April 12!), we have had a couple days of showers, so I was not hopeful for getting a lot of time on single track. So it was off to the dirt roads. I managed to pull off a couple short ~20 minute sections of sniggle, but, for the most part it was dirt roads and Class 4. I have been scoping on our topo maps for years now a long logging road that is a continuation from Eagle Ledge Road in Worcester. It looks like a great place to ride/ski. Very remote, good terrain and lots of ponds. At some point, I am sure that it was a thoroughfare for sheep farmers from Wolcott to the big city, but now it's largely abandoned. I figured I would pull a loop in East Monty and Calais, do an out and back on Eagle Ledge and be home in 3+ hours. Turns out I have a problem with out and backs. I kept thinking "there has to be a way out to Route 12 here somewhere" or " I don't want to turn around now, I'd only have to go back through that 2 foot deep monster truck mud pit again and I'm sure it isn't this bad the whole way" and, lastly "It's probably shorter to keep going". None of these turned out to be remotely correct. When you go down a valley called "Eagle Ledge", there are going to be cliffs. As it happens, the "road" winds through the bottom of a valley with cliffs on both sides that run parallel to the road; there was no short cuts. The mud pits were both continuous, numerous, and in increasing size. For all those folks out there with big ass mud trucks, this is your wet dream - pun intended. And, no, it was definitely not shorter to keep going.
Long story short, 5.25 hours later I was pulling in to my driveway 44 miles. I haven't done that this year yet on a road bike. It was awesome, but definitely Type 2 fun. There were a lot of times that I was "Where the #$@! is that GD Road!".
A couple of take homes that made this only quasi epic:
1) I didn't get lost. I knew basically where I was, although I came out quite a ways further than I hoped.
2) I didn't get hurt.
3) I didn't break my bike in any way (knock, knock). It was definitely not liking the 100-foot long stretches of muddy water by the end, but it came away in one piece.
4) I didn't bonk. Probably the most miraculous achievement of the day. I used a Phil Beard Cocktail for my fuel bottle and one camelbak. I wish I had more water by the end, since the last hour was dry, but it wasn't too bad.
5) My wife is awesome. She didn't freak after showing up 2 hours late and made me a bunch of great recovery food.
6) I'd do it again in a heart beat.