by Tim_Cary » Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:33 pm
Decent weather once again brought out 11 to the start, where the temperature was around 40°F. Apparently not yet having used up my route planning quota, I mapped out a route taking us east of the river for a change.
We headed over the bridge and pace-lined it on Bay Rd until turning off and eventually meeting the first major climb on Gulf Rd. With that out of the way, we enjoyed a nice descent back to Amherst Rd, where we faced the next major climb- North Valley and Buffam. Some of you may know it as one of the hill climbs we do during the season… long and hard.
After the descent to Leverett Rd, a few opted to return home via the s-curves, while the rest of us continued up to Shutesbury center, and then down to Lake Wyola. From Wyola, we climbed to Wendell center for a stop to re-fuel at the general store.
From Wendell, we began the incredibly fun and beautiful descent via Farley and Mormon Hollow, eventually landing in the center of Millers Falls.
Just outside of Millers Falls, I routed us through the village of Lake Pleasant and over the Bridge of Names- a place that most everyone had never heard of. The bridge is located at the edge of the lake (which now supplies water to the surrounding communities), and spans a small brook- hence connecting two parts of Lake Pleasant. The bridge has names of all the people who had helped build and maintain it.
From there, we headed back home via Swamp Rd (cutting out a large section of Rte 63), and then the Wednesday Night route (Meadow, Falls). We opted to take 47 back and it was quite a struggle with massive head and cross winds, but several folks took long, hard pulls to keep the pace.
The Amherst crew broke off at Rocky Hill, and the rest of us returned the standard North/West/Cemetery Rd. Back at the Academy I had 64 miles with around 4000′ of climbing.
