Chapter 4: Massachusetts Recap

Sunday, June 9 - Friday, June 14, 2019
If Massachusetts wasn't all that much fun, it's probably not Massachusetts' fault. When we chose our route for the beginning of the trip our goal was to get to Albany as directly as possible with a minimum of climbing. We weren't looking for tourist attractions.

Two years ago when we were aiming for the northwest corner of Massachusetts to visit the Clarke Institute and Mass MOCA, we planned to ride west from Brattleboro to Bennington, a distance of about 46 miles, in one day. It was the fourth day of our ride, we were feeling strong, and, having driven it before, we knew it would be a beautiful ride. But the 17 mile climb out of Brattleboro, coupled with relentless traffic and minimal shoulders, ate us up. So this trip, we skipped Vermont, thinking that the climbing in Massachusetts would be a bit kinder.

We still had mountains to get over. We had a climbing day (day 4) from Townsend to Athol, then had a two-day break as we approached the Pioneer Valley and rode south into Northampton. Then two more days of climbing to get to Albany. Still, we kept telling ourselves it was better than Vermont. 

We passed through a lot of towns that have a name on the map but when you arrive you find only a church and a town hall, maybe a general store. The towns that host a park with benches and a gazebo, or a cafe that calls to you to come inside for a cup of tea and a pastry, seemed to be elsewhere, not on our route. The countryside was engulfed by trees; we passed numerous creeks and wetlands.

We spent two nights in campgrounds, one night at a Red Roof hotel, and two nights with Warm Showers hosts who fed and sheltered us.

Anne and Tom live at the top of a hill in Athol on land that abuts a state forest. They have an extensive vegetable garden and live in an old farm house that has been lovingly cared for, with the original wood floors. I loved how neat and uncluttered their house is; I immediately felt at home. 

Like many Warm Showers hosts Anne and Tom don't bicycle tour themselves. They started hosting when their daughter and son-in-law spent 22 months cycling from Alaska to the tip of South America. You can read about that journey here: 

https://pedalingperspectives.wordpress.com

We enjoyed much interesting conversation over a dinner of a coos-coos salad with feta cheese and peppermint and a black bean salad with tomatoes, rice, and olives, accompanied by beer. Anne is a retired librarian and Tom a retired sixth grade teacher. Now they work part-time for the Harvard research forest nearby. They are both concerned about preserving the forests in their town and are fighting companies that want to cut down large tracts of forest to put in solar farms. I hadn't thought about environmentalists being at odds with solar power before. But if you think about it, with global warming, we shouldn't be cutting down any trees, which take carbon dioxide out of the air and replace it with oxygen.

I have been pondering this while pedaling, thinking about folks I know who are proud to be carbon neutral, running their homes with solar panels on their roofs, and creating enough energy to power their electric cars. And they should be proud. But I expect that even these folks use electricity they don't produce themselves when they go out to eat, fly somewhere, drive beyond their local range. The answer is still to cut down on our overall energy use. 

We chose not to linger in Massachusetts, as we wanted to get to places we haven't been before. However, we did take one detour to Northampton, a vibrant small city in the Pioneer Valley, home to Smith College, the small private women's college that our daughter attended. We have many good memories of our visits there and hadn't returned since Kylee's graduation in 2014. We looked forward to the opportunity to rekindle some happy memories.

So our sixth day of riding, June 12, we took an easy day, riding just 15 miles south from Deerfield, along mostly flat, quiet country roads. Along the way we stopped to pick a couple quarts of strawberries. We also jumped onto the bike path that runs from Amherst to Northampton on an old railroad bed.

Based on presidential election data, Massachusetts gets the award for being the most liberal state in the nation. Northampton can certainly claim to be one of the most liberal cities in this most liberal state, with its rainbow colored crosswalks and its first-in-the-state recreational marijuana dispensary. It also hosts a wide variety of restaurants from classic yuppy cafes to diverse ethnic choices. 

We had a delicious lunch at a Moroccan restaurant where we shared an angel hair pasta dish and an eggplant moussaka wrap for $17. But the best thing about Northampton is the chocolate whipped cream that you can have on your ice cream sundae at Herrell's. Even though I was full from lunch, I knew I could make room for a hot fudge sundae; I had to have that chocolate whipped cream. I got the kiddie size, and it was delicious. Rob is not the chocolate junkie that I am, but he'll never pass up ice cream. He settled for a strawberry kiddie cone.

After stuffing ourselves with lunch and ice cream, we took a walk to Smith College and meandered through campus. This is the river that runs through it. If you are ever there, make sure to stop in at the art museum and check out the downstairs bathrooms which they have made into a work of art. Sorry I didn't think to take a picture.

Our stay in Northampton was topped off by an enjoyable evening with Warm Showers hosts Adam and Priscilla, who cooked us three pizzas in their wood pellet-fired pizza ovens in their backyard. Once the oven was hot enough, the pizzas took less than a minute to cook. Priscilla sliced asparagus paper thin to put on one of them, which I never would have thought to do. It was delicious. All of them were. As we were getting ready for dessert, Adam said, "Look, we're all being polite New Englanders. No one wants to take the last piece." Someone had to do it so I volunteered.

Staying with Warm Showers people gives us a snapshot into so much diversity in home and garden decor. Adam and Priscilla had a number of raised beds in their backyard with numerous old wooden ladders standing up in them. It made a lovely picture. We sat until after dark in that backyard listening to their stories, particularly Adam's adventures living and working both in San Francisco and in the Northampton area where he currently works as a library director. In San Francisco he worked as a bike mechanic and he graciously took the time to check the adjustment of Rob's front derailleur. Rob hasn't had any problems with it since.

It turns out that Adam was part of the early incarnations of Burning Man and had some stories to tell about that as well. We've never been and it is not on our list of things to do, but I'm always interested in the stories.

Again, Adam and Priscilla enjoy hosting and have only been Warm Showers guests once. Priscilla told me that, while they've bicycled the length of the Connecticut River from its border with Canada, their preferred annual vacation is to spend a week or two on an island in Maine, 23 miles from the mainland. It's hard to fit in the time to do everything you love.

After leaving Northampton, we passed through many nothing towns, both in the rain and after the rain stopped in the early afternoon. We climbed a lot of hills, but also got to fly down those hills. That's the fun part. Before reaching Pittsfield, we passed through Dalton, which looked like a fun town to explore, but by then we needed to get to our campground. 

We stayed at the Bonnie Brae Campground in Pittsfield, a small family-run place in the heart of the Berkshires. As the owner was showing us to our campsite I asked him what brought people in. He said they get a lot of people who come for the Tanglewood concerts. They are also close to the Clarke Art Institute and the Mass MOCA. We're going to keep it in mind for a summer visit in a few years.

We left Massachusetts on Friday, June 14, our eighth day. I can't give an accurate mileage for our time in Massachusetts since those six days included bits of New Hampshire the first day and New York the last, so it is something less than 200 miles.

We were eager to get to Albany and start tackling new territory.

Day 3,  Sunday, 6/9/19: 31 miles to Pearl Hill State Park, MA

We passed through a lot of nothing towns but the riding was fine. We rode through Nashua along a street lined with auto mechanic shops and peppered with potholes. Then we had lunch and ice cream at Charlotte's Cozy Kitchen in Pepperell, MA.

Day 4, Monday, 6/10/19: 37 miles (our longest so far!) to Athol, MA

Warm Showers hosts Ann and Tom

Lots of hills to climb. Apparently they can't be avoided heading west anywhere in New England. We had a long hill to climb to get to our Warm Showers hosts Ann and Tom but it was definitely worth it for the healthy and delicious dinner and wonderful conversation we enjoyed that evening.

 

Day 5: Tuesday, 6/11/19  37 miles to Deerfield, MA

Red Roof Inn

The riding on Route 2 was pretty treacherous, then Route 63 was good and 47 was terrific. See my post (chapter 2) for more details about this day.

 

Day 6: Wednesday, 6/12/19 15 miles to Northampton, MA

Warm Showers hosts Adam and Priscilla

Day 7: Thursday, 6/13/19  43 miles to Pittsfield, MA

Bonnie Brae Campground

The day it rained. See chapter 3. 

Day 8: Friday, 6/14/19  43 miles to Albany, NY

Warm Showers hosts Mark and Maggie

Heavy traffic on the highway to Albany past shuttered and burned out businesses, and more than a few hills to climb. When we arrived in Albany we were treated to a wonderful dinner, comfortable bed, and a chance to do laundry, thanks to our Warm Shower hosts, Mark and Maggie.

Chapter 3: When It Rains - Part 1

What do we do when it rains? We are often asked that question. And the answer is, usually, "We ride," and "We get wet." Our gortex jackets have never been very good at keeping us dry.

If you have been reading this blog faithfully, then this post will be a review. If not, if you are interested in learning more about why you should ride in the rain, then I will refer you to our 2017 tour through New England and Quebec, when it rained most days. It was a fabulous trip.

This year, in an effort to save ounces whenever we could and, most importantly, to keep dry, I researched rain gear. Actually, I relied in large part on our daughter's research. She completed a through hike of the Pacific Crest Trail last year and requested some expensive rain gear for Christmas. (She didn't get it.)

Kylee's choice was a jacket and pants from Montbell, a Japanese company. I did my own research, looking at rain gear specialized for bicycling as well as hiking gear. The Montbell rain jacket and pants were indeed expensive. In the end, their light weight won out. For both of us the cost came to close to $700. Yikes! That turned out to be our biggest gear expense.

After six days of beautiful, sunny weather, it finally looked like we would have a chance to try out our new rain gear.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

It didn't start raining right away. But you can't argue with a forecast of 100% chance of rain and 3/4 to 1 inch of wet. We aimed for an early start, but we're still not too successful at that, so we only got going after eight o'clock. Just as we got on our bikes I felt a few drops. Fortunately it stayed that way as we rode the bike path out of Northampton, over lots of frost heaves, but still a pleasant enough ride, through a green tunnel, no traffic to contend with. Then after about six miles the bike path ended on Route 9 in Haydenville and the rain began to get serious. We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to use the restroom, cover our panniers and put on our new expensive rain jackets.

The long climb started several miles later outside Williamsburg, a slow steady climb. I clicked into my granniest gear, then backed off one click, then another, then back to granny, slow and steady, just like the rain. I noticed the water beading up on the sleeves of my jacket, a good sign.

Then, as I approached the top of the climb, the rain took a turn for the worse. I could feel water dripping down the back of my neck. I only had the rain jacket on, no sweater or rain pants and I was getting cold. But the water was still beading up on my new jacket, so I was hopeful that it was doing its job.

There are a lot of towns between Northampton and Pittsfield. I can count ten on the map, three written in bold letters. But after Williamsburg there was nothing. We only knew we were in a town because there was maybe a sign that welcomed us, or a church, or a town hall, but sometimes we'd never see anything remotely resembling a town.

When the rain started coming down hard we were passing through Goshen which, in spite of having its name written in bold on the state highway map, only had a church, town hall, general store, and a farm stand, which was closed. No place that would serve as a place to dry off and wait for the rain to stop. We stopped to turn on our front and rear flashing lights.

We kept going and I thought, "This isn't fun anymore," even as we enjoyed a long stretch of downhill. Then, at the top of another hill, Rob caught up to me and said, "Let's find a place to get out of the rain."

I pictured us standing under some trees or a bridge, cold and wet, waiting for the rain to stop and said, "No," and started pedaling.

Then, around the next bend, I saw a small blue building that looked like it could be a house but it had a parking lot and signs in front of it. But we'd been passing  a lot of shuttered and abandoned businesses so I wasn't hopeful. As I was riding past I saw signs right next to the highway. "Breakfast," said one. "Lunch," the next. And "Dinner Thurs. - Sun.", the last. Thinking that meant the restaurant was only open Thursday through Sunday I did a quick calculation in my head. "It's Thursday!" And I pulled into the parking lot. It looked dark inside, but in the window I saw "OPEN" lit up.

Inside, this little restaurant was as basic a small-town restaurant as you would expect. Metal chairs covered in plastic, formica tables. It was our port in the storm. For the locals who trickled in it was a regular stop in their weekly routines. The waitress, a young woman, knew many of them. "You didn't come in for your pie last week," she said to one older couple who came in for lunch. She told them about her little girl learning to walk and banging her nose of the coffee table.

As soon as we arrived I asked for a cup of hot tea. Rob, too.

When I took off my rain jacket, I was indeed dry underneath. Thank you, Kylee, for your research. This is going to work. My shorts were wet because I hadn't had the sense to put on my rain pants. I knew we'd be hanging out for a while so I changed into dry tights and socks, put on a sweater, neck buff, and hat. It took me a while to warm up.

Then I ordered the bacon cheeseburger special with lettuce and tomato, medium rare. Rob had a tuna melt. We asked for a large order of sweet potato fries to share. When our food arrived, I bit into my cheeseburger and the juice dripped out onto a puddle on my plate, the burger cooked to medium rareness perfection. The sweet potatoes were hot, salty, and crisp.

I kept looking outside at a big puddle in the parking lot, gauging the amount of rain coming down, hoping that if it didn't stop then at least it would let up. It wasn't so busy that anyone minded us camping out there until the rain let up. But they didn't have wifi.

Finally, after drinking a second cup of tea, discussing with Rob whether or not we should share a piece of homemade peach pie with ice cream and deciding against it, and paying the bill, I looked outside again. The water in my puddle looked quiet.

"I think the rain has stopped."