by Jonathan O’Keeffe » Tue Aug 28, 2012 10:23 pm
Incredibly late ride report; sorry about that. Quick summary: Eight of us set out (Jonathan x 2, Kevin, Rich, Patrick S, Clayton, Tim C, and Ivan) on a great route that Jonathan B had set up for us. We passed through Easthampton, Southampton, and Westhampton, including a great climb up King’s Highway. Schedule constraints took their toll and we were left with a final four of Tim, Patrick, Kevin, and I pushing north into Chesterfield and Goshen, including an off-road trek to the fire tower at the DAR State Forest, where Kevin wiped out on the way down, earning his Jens Voight hardman credentials for the rest of the ride, with a bloody forearm and a jersey that looked like Dustin Pedroia’s.
The heart of this ride was in the Baptist Corner area of Ashfield and Conway. We normally descend here on Baptist Corner Road, but Jonathan planned the route to include a bunch of new roads that we haven’t previously traversed. This took us off the beaten path for about five miles, all paved, and all incredibly scenic. We came out on Shelburne Falls Road and turned for home, getting back into NoHo around 1:45PM with 62 miles @ 16.5 mph, 6,400′ of climbing.
