It felt like September today, and I started from home in a wind breaker but I won’t complain anymore, after the July we have had with so much rain. Very happy to be out on a beautiful day. We had seven riders take on a less climbing route this week- changing things up to bring us south of the state border.
We headed out of town up Rte 66 and over Park Hill into Easthampton- everyone seemed to have plenty of energy with a brisk pace right away. After rolling through a bit of Southampton, we rode on the beautiful Pocassic Rd in Westfield with views of farms before we landed in downtown Westfield.
Exiting Westfield. we had the highlight of the day- the biggest climb up Granville Rd, which took us past the Springfield Water wells and then the Granville Reservoir. This climb is quiet and starts hard, but then rolls before you get to Rte 57. Folks climbed the first part at their own pace, but we stayed together the last half.
We had a nice stop at the Granville Country store for refreshments.
From here, it was a relaxing and fun descent down Rte 57 into Southwick, where we crossed into Connecticut with the Congamond lakes (which the state line bisects). Not too many on the water today- maybe too cold? Beautiful though.
The return north is through Suffield, CT- also offering plenty of open farmland on both sides. Here we met some headwind…..thankfully Jonathan stuck on the front for a long time, helping us out to keep a good pace. Back over the Massachusetts line into Southwick again, then Westfield and my least favorite part- all the traffic. I also saved one last climb up PaperMill Rd for everyone 🙂
Once out of all that we headed back to Northampton via County Rd/Line St/Part St into Easthampton up to Rte 10 into town, which was a slight adjustment to my planned route (it was simpler), and also shaved off a few miles and climbing.
I passed by Pulaski Park at about 1:05 PM, with 64.7 miles, 3100′ and 18 MPH average.
