Ride Reports and News

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday November 6 at 6:00PM Eastern, with two laps on the Flatland Loop course in Yumezi. This is a mostly-flat course with a long gentle climb each lap. The two laps will total about 16 miles. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/aUdYdjRsSHdQcjJSQ09TVmFrNVFJbEltVm1uUEV6WFkzck5uVk1jcHJOaz0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

We had five riders for tonight's NCC Team Time Trial -- Melissa, Carson, Shawn, Bill and I tackled the Watopia's Waistband route, a flat 16-mile loop around the outer perimeter of Watopia.

Bill had some technological challenges at the start -- he got on our team Discord chat, but his mic didn't work, so he could hear us but we couldn't hear him. We managed to work through that though, and our pulls went smoothly in the early going despite the communications challenges. The tech gremlins struck again though about six miles in, when Bill's power suddenly went to zero. Not sure whether this was a network outage or a trainer issue (since we couldn't hear him), but we decided to forge ahead without him.

With five starters, the fourth person over the line is the time that counts, so once we lost Bill, we couldn't spare anyone else. Melissa started to creep into the red zone about two-thirds of the way through, so she sat in the rest of the way while Carson, Shawn and I traded pulls. Everyone put in big efforts on their final pulls, and Melissa managed to hang on, and we finished together with a time of 40:25. Results are still trickling in from the west coast as I write this, but currently we are placed 68th of 180 in our category, which I think is pretty respectable given that we did most of the race with only four riders.

We'll be racing again next Thursday night, I'll post the sign-up link once it becomes available during the day on Friday.

This time of year I get burnt out doing the same(ish) routes to the hill towns or up and down the river valley.  As I did last year about this time, I posted a meetup in Belchertown to ride around the Quabbin.  This would be my 14th traverse of the Quabbin.

I also thought it is cool to traverse reservoirs back to back weekends!

Seven riders (including me) met at Stop and Shop around 10 AM. In my opinion it was "cool" but not "cold". (50F) Other riders may beg to differ.  A summer bib, summer jersey, full leg and arm warmers, plus a vest nailed it for me all day.  I was comfortable at all times.

There is not much avoiding climbing or traffic on this route. Once we got out to Rte 202, I may have set a brisk pace to warm up! We had a pair of three of very strong riders in the group (OK, they deserve recognition)- Frank, Madeline, and Brent-- whom quickly surged ahead.

We regrouped at the Salem Store for some hydration and a quick break.

After a bit more busy traffic on Rte 202, the turn onto Rte 122 was welcome.  It was a bit quieter, but does have more climbing. I had to take a moment to reel in the strong riders so we could continue as a group.

The turn to Rte 32A has some pretty views going down for a while, but climbing into Hardwick lives up to the town's name.

We stopped at Mimi's at the town common for another refreshment.

Greenwich Rd is mostly a pleasure. Curvy descents with a view and little traffic.  Mostly, as there was a PITA climb in there too, reminding us we are not done.

The "home stretch" in Ware, on Rte 9 reminded me that this ride is hard.  The climb up out of Ware is always a kick.

We turned into Quabbin park, but took a detour over the  Goodnough Dike, thanks to Michael B's suggestion. I had never been over this. It is a nice quiet loop that adds only 1.5 miles and 142' of climbing. I really enjoyed the views here and it will be added to my future Quabbbin routes!

Group photo at Goodnough Dike, PC: Michael Bello

Beautiful perspective, PC: Michael Bello

Our detour put us back out to the "main" road, leading to the "roundabout" and then the punishing climb to the tower.  The views were epic, as usual!

We made our way back to Belchertown via the Windsor Dam (pretty cool to ride over both dams/dikes that hold back the Quabbin, in one ride??).

Our strong riders took the brunt (thanks!) of the head winds that decided to pick up, on Rte 9 back to Stop and Shop.

I had 64.34 miles, 4980' climbing , 15.8 MPH average, and 4:04 moving time when we entered the parking lot just shy of 3 PM.  Great ride, great crew.  Everyone worked hard on this ride but a shout-out to Brent for his first traverse of the Quabbin, and to Michael B, this being his second traverse of the Quabbin in a matter of three weeks.

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are trying a new format, and participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL. Once your account is set up, there will be a sign-up link posted each week, which you will click in order to register for that week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://ishttps://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Y3JKL2FWSGtmZmJTb0lOYzdtaHN0aXZoZVczSTJZU1lDbEFsc3ZkMFBrdz0=.gd/nccdiscord).

This week's race will be on Thursday October 30 at 6:10PM Eastern, on the Watopia's Waistband course in Watopia. This is a mostly-flat 17-mile course around the outer rim of Watopia. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Y3JKL2FWSGtmZmJTb0lOYzdtaHN0aXZoZVczSTJZU1lDbEFsc3ZkMFBrdz0=)

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight was our first NCC entry in the WTRL Thursday night Team Time Trial racing series. This is one of the biggest, oldest racing events on Zwift, and it was great to finally get an NCC team into the mix.

I was joined by Carson, Michael, Shawn, and Lauren, racing on the "Greater London 8" route in London, which features a flat loop through Knightsbridge followed by the big climb up Box Hill and a fast descent to the finish. Our team got organized quickly at the start into a nice tight line formation, behind big initial pulls by Carson and Shawn.

Everyone did their share of work at the front of the group as we rolled through the initial flat section. Once we got to the Box Hill climb, Lauren fell back (perhaps feeling the effects of the 50-mile gravel ride with 6,000' of climbing that she did earlier in the day). With five riders on the team, the team time is taken as the fourth rider to cross the line, so Michael was in the hot seat for the climb once Lauren dropped back. He put in a huge effort, getting to the top in a little under nine minutes, with Carson, Shawn, and me trying to sit in front of him and give him a bit of draft.

Once we got over the top, Carson and Shawn took over to lead us down the hill, and we powered through to finish in just under 40 minutes, with the four of us finishing within one second of one another. It was hard work and a satisfying effort, with all members of the team contributing to the result.

Results are still rolling in from some of the last few west coast time slots, but as of this writing we are sitting in 68th place out of 185 teams in our division, which I think is pretty respectable for our first effort in this competition (especially since most of the fast teams are rolling with the maximum complement of eight riders).

We will be running this event on Thursday nights through the winter season. Signups open each Friday for the following week's event; we will post an event on the NCC calendar each week with the registration link to sign up. Teams are a minimum of three and a maximum of eight riders; if we get enough participants we will split up into multiple teams.

The near perfect fall weather conditions continue for our Saturdays.   I hadn’t ridden south of the Northampton area in a while, and I know there are beautiful routes just over the state line, south of Granville, MA. One of my favorites is a loop around the Barkhamsted Reservoir.  I decided to post a ride start from Westfield to make it more reasonable for time and climbing instead of starting from Northampton.

I modified the route late on Friday based on Tim P’s knowledge of some roads I have never been to down there. This modified route would take us through the little center of Riverton, CT and keep us off main roads for quite some time, and offer up a rather challenging climb.

I had four other riders meet me at the start (Madeline, Conan, Brent and Eric C.) under mostly clear skies and about 50 degrees F. I was pleased to have this many riders, as this weekend was pretty busy in the valley with homecoming/family weekends and, many of the usual NCC riders were racing TreeHouse CX.

I led the group out of downtown to Granville Rd. This was the first major climb of the day. I have ridden this many times. It climbs up past the Springfield water supply facilities.

The group was quite stronger than I, and so I dropped for the first time of the day, although somehow I earned Strava medals. There was a “top” just over the town line and they waited for me. I was able to hang on for the next segment, taking us by the Granville Resevior and eventually to the center of Granville, MA.

From the center, to keep us off the main roads, there is a beautiful side road- Water St- which I have ridden several times. But, wait for it….

This confirms my rides always have some sort of a bridge out theme!

(Unfortunately this website no longer has all the previous ride reports over the last 14 years I wrote, so I can't link you to "bridge out rides".)

Anyway, luckily, it was not any huge pit or tracks we had to navigate. It was an easy over some blocks. Honestly, this time I was like “WTF”? In any case, the benefit of a bridge closed is zero traffic and perhaps an even more enjoyable landscape.

Eventually, we arrived in East Hartland, CT, which I call the “five corners”, as well as the beginning of the reservoir loop.

We began the fast descent into Barkhamsted on the very busy Rte 79- probably my least favorite part of the ride. So much traffic buzzing past. But the reward was the beautiful Saville Dam, which had plenty of tourists, and one that offered to take our group photo (finally not a Tim selfie!).

From here on was new territory (mostly) for me until the end of the loop back in East Hartland. Usually I ride up Beach Rock Rd just after the dam and pop out on to Rte 181. Instead, we continued on up northwest a bit and hung a right on East River Road. This road parallels the Farmington River on the west side, and Peoples State Forrest on the east side. This was my favorite section of the route. The road had little traffic, was quiet and I felt like I was on a secluded access road.

Eric provided me with the details of what to expect in Riverton, (and how to not miss the left turn off E. River Rd), which was very helpful. We arrived in the tiny center of Riverton for refreshments and a break. The place was hoppin’.

The resting was needed. From looking at the map, I was dreading the next section- the Hogback Rd climb. This looked to be the steepest (but not longest) climb of the day. Strava has the segment as a cat 3 climb, 550 feet over 1.5 miles, averaging 6.7% grade, with a maximum grade of 15%. Not surprisingly, I dropped and enjoyed the scenery.  Halfway up this climb there are gates and a beautiful view of the West Branch Reservoir at the Goodwin Dam.

At the top of Hogback, there was a bit of confusion, as my Garmin said go right, but others had left. This was an important decision because left was a steep descent that I would not feel like climbing back up! Left was “right” and down we went, but not for long- there was a sharp climb lingering behind a corner that none of us were ready for. Never a dull moment.

The Old Forge Rd and West St trend upward, but do roll a bit, so not horrible at all. I don’t think we had a single car pass.

West St dropped us back down to Rte 20. Eric mentioned he had never ridden this cut-through, so thanks to another Tim, we all discovered something new. The view here to the east is Barkhamsted watershed. At this point on Rte 20, I was back in familiar territory, with West Hartland center to the right.

Rte 20 rolls up and down as it heads north toward the Tunxis State Forest. On one of the short kickers I couldn’t hang on to the group, so I dropped and never saw much of them again until we returned back to the Hartland five corners. This was just fine with me. The scenery is better taken in at a slower pace.

The west side of the Barkhamsted features a long, screaming, curving descent, but as with this whole ride, I was trying to pay attention to the scenery. Off to the east, the reservoir is viewable as you lean into the curves.

What goes down, must also come up? Of course- as the northern most tip of the reservoir is reached, it is about a three mile unrelenting climb back up to the Hartland five corners. I scored my worst Strava time on this one, although, consider that many of the other times on this segment were in a race. It was nice to relax.

Our final feature of the day was a really fast, scenic and fun descent down Mountain Rd. What I love about this is about 3/4 the way down, looking to the left (north) is a huge clearing with all the fall colors, seeing for miles over conservation lands and then the buildings of Granby, CT in the distance.

The way home was straight north on Loomis St, crossing into Massachusetts in Southwick. My legs seemed to wake up at this point so not only did I keep up with the fast paced group, I even was on the front a bit pushing it, resulting in some Strava PR’s! Loomis Rd dumped us back near the start on Granville Rd. It now was just a short ride back through town to get to the start location. Conan and Eric hit the gas on the final stretch, so I chased. Turns out Conan had an average of 17.0 MPH for the ride and did not want that to drop. Well, pokey me had 16.0 MPH, and same situation, so that worked out well- and I even got 0.1 MPH above!

A great group of riders on a great day. Many thanks to the riders that come out to join me on these rides.

These rides that take us out to places we rarely see are always my favorite and most memorable. There is so much to see on the bike, for me it is about the experience and not a race. As Madeline described it “I love grinding up the hills”. I tend to agree with the addition of, the more you grind, the more you see and enjoy.

I ended around 2:30 PM with 57.49 miles, 4913′ elevation at 16.1 Mph average.

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are trying a new format, and participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights at 7PM Eastern, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL. Once your account is set up, there will be a sign-up link posted each week, which you will click in order to register for that week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

Our first week's race will be on Thursday October 23 at 7PM Eastern, on the Greater London 8 course in London. This is a challenging 15-mile course, featuring a downtown loop, a climb up Box Hill, a descent, and a finish back on the flat roads downtown. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Yk1lckh1Z2RZSFpkRWROdVZqSEZaeWNtVFkxTElCWVF6UmJWR012dE50ST0=)

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

(As told by Joe Lellman via e-mail)

We had five congenial, committed, consummate cyclists for today's SMR.  I apologize for the lateness of my organizing of this event, and I'm sorry that Jaime, Frank, and Madeline (finally spelled it correctly!) weren't able to participate, for various reasons.  We met at Pulaski Park at 10, and found Mayor Sciarra and a group of volunteers there, picking up trash.  We had Tim Pitkin, Brent A., Shawn L., Wendy K., and me.  We rolled out from the Park at 10:08, and headed through town to pick up the rail trail and cross over the river.  We picked up Bay Rd and took it to Hulst Rd.  Ultimately, we made the biggest climb of the day on Gulf Rd.  Very scenic, with minimal traffic.  Then, down to Rte 202, where we headed north and paused at the Pelham overlook (see enclosed photo).  Traffic on 202 wasn't great with fast moving cars and a lot of drivers who hadn't gotten the memo about the Vulnerable Road Users Law.  From there, we continued north and turned left on Prescott Rd, which was the second hill of the day.  Gradients up to 12.5%, and quite a bit of 9 and 10 %.  Then, down to Lake Wyola and down North Leverett Rd to Cave Hill Rd, which was our third hill.  The pace was pretty steady throughout and the group worked well together.  We made a quick pit stop at Cushman Market, then came home on Pine St, Knightly, and Rte 47.  It was a really solid ride, and everyone seemed to like the route.  I had 56.5 miles and just shy of 3,000 feet of elevation, and a little less than 3 and a half hours, from my home in Florence.  

I really wanted to ride up to Greylock this Saturday. It has been sort of a tradition each fall to enjoy(?) an epic ride to, up and back down the highest elevation in Massachusetts. I had been “promoting” it for weeks and had many riders “very interested”. Well, when it came down to this past week trying to get some commitments, there were just not enough. Normally I just plan and post rides, and enjoy it no mater the number of riders that show up. But, with an epic route like Greylock- you really do need more than just two riders.

On Friday I decided to trash my route idea and attempt to rally riders into a very scenic, half the climbing and mileage, route up to Vermont. That worked.

I kept it a remote start from Shelburne Falls but moved up the start time to 9 AM since, well, it is warmer then, and we were not riding 100 miles.

On my way up to Shelburne Falls, I got a call from Madeline. Her car was dead. I was in the perfect place on I-91 to detour over to Hatfield center to pick her and her bike up. I am so glad this worked out so easily- I know that if I was not able to make it to a ride it sure would turn into a sad Saturday for me!

We arrived in Shelburne Falls a tad bit late, needing warm warmers for a little but for would turn to be clear skies and up to 80’s(F). It turns out that we were not the latest to arrive. When we got to McCusker’s, Wendy and Elissa were there….and Wendy had thought she was late! I had been expecting two others so we waited a bit, and at about 9:15 Frank drove up, he had missed the turn. So we waited for him, and it was well after 9:30 before we rolled out. Luckily, nobody had time constraints. A great group of five.

I made a decision to change the route slightly based on the bad *** riders that showed up. From our adventures riding this route counter-clockwise in July, I knew that there was a bridge replacement in Charlemont. My original route had us avoiding that by going 12 miles on Rte 2 to our turn up Zoar. I decided that I did not want to have all that traffic on Rte 2, and to have us hike around the bridge instead. Of course, it added the “Buckland Bumps” into the mix, which certainly woke up our climbing legs right away.

This was a good choice. Much quieter. We crossed Rte 2, bringing us to Zoar, and the start of the long climb into Rowe. This segment is nothing to sneeze at. It is a 7.44 mile, 1461′ gain to the Vermont border.There is not a lot to say here… it is quiet, beautiful (runs by Pelham Brook)- just amazing.

From there it was a slog up to the State Line- but certainly not hard on the eyes. I don’t think I had a single car pass me. The views to the east, west, and even north were incredible. The state line did not have a marker, except for perhaps a granite stone. I only knew we were in Vermont because my bike computer said so. This is my kind of riding.

It was not all down hill from the state line. There were some awesome descents, but some work do to on climbs. Again, the scenery did not hurt! The route purposely took us by Sadawaga Lake. But, Wendy, Frank & Madeline did not make the turn (ahem- two of the three had the route in their bike computers..). Well, Elissa and I enjoyed the lake view and huffed it up Town Hill Rd to the”top”… the rest of the crew eventually did pop out at the same place, via Poverty Row. At the top we took the usual group photo.

We enjoyed the fast (and again, beautiful) descent to VT 100 and the Jacksonville Country Store. 

The County Store was way less stocked up than in July. Very little to choose from- but the baked goods were popular and sandwiches to order. We filled our bottles and bellies- by this time is was HOT. Like July all over again.

Downhill all the way home now? Um no- not on my rides. It was a very enjoyable pedal for a bit over a mile on a seemingly downward Rte 112. But wait- a ride I design is not done without some final pain. We turned up Rte 8A. Did I say UP? Yeah. At this point we were discussing that the mileage is low for a Saturday ride and that some don’t understand the effort in all the climbs. So– more miles or more elevation? What is your preference?

And then all that was left is the fast and fun descent down 8A to Adamsville Rd. I knew I had not done this in a long time, if at all. Turns out I did ride down this way back in 2013 on a much longer ride. Today, Frank was on the front a lot, and despite the head wind, he kept us moving and I really enjoyed sailing down this stretch of road. There was one small gravel section where the road was under construction, I was a bit concerned how fast Frank flew over it with his dry-rotted (!) front tire… but all was well.

Wendy turned off for home at Rte 112, and the remaining four of us pedaled back into Shelburne Falls. But that was not enough miles or climbing for me.

I proposed a loop up to Conway center to grab a metric century for the day. Frank and Elissa had enough of my crazy ideas, but Madeline was in, and so we headed up to Conway. Although I was feeling good- I did say ‘up’… that was fine. But, a section of the road was all gravel heading into the center of Conway. Amazingly in this section of horrible tar smell and gravel, we passed at least four other cyclists. One, with a flat. I almost called and audible and turned around… I really did not want a flat tire at this stage. I guess the amazingly part here is we did not get a flat. As we approached the center, there was a “detour”, which turned out to be an antique car show….it was pretty cool. We looped back to endure the hill again, and the awful road. The reward was a mostly “down” back to Shelburne Falls.

I ended the day with 65.8 miles and 4974′ of elevation.  Great group, fun riding and best of the season scenery.

Over the many years I have been leading NCC Saturday rides, a trip to Peru, MA has been sort of a tradition. I first led the NCC up to Peru ten years ago, and maybe even before that. There are many ways to get there and I have ridden many different routes to the center of Peru. This year, my fitness is pretty low, (aka, I am lazy/busy with other things) but I decided to lead the ride anyway, as several members asked if I’d be doing the Peru loop.

The weather has continued to be good to us- a beautiful Saturday morning in the upper 50’s (F), that was humid and warmed up to near 80 at the end with humidity like it is August. I admit that I did have my arm warmers on during my ride to Northampton.

Four other riders met me at the start- Madeline, Mike Y, Tim P, and Christian. A bit less than I had expected considering all the interest I had previous weeks. But this time of year is so busy filled with fall events, and that cyclo-cross thing!

My route choice this time was fairly simple, but hard to avoid those “numbered roads”. Previous trips to Peru have included dirt sections and some beautiful side roads.

Out of downtown Northampton it was all Rte 66— up, up, up more. We all stayed together for a little while, but as the grade increased, we spaced out, and regrouped at Outlook Farm. From there, there is a bit of a descent, but, not a lot of relief- up and up and up. We regrouped again at Allen Coit Rd- which is “the top”. From here, we enjoyed a fun and curvy descent down to Rte 112 in Huntington, where Christian left us to head back to Northampton. Now were four.

In Huntington, we stopped at the local variety store to top off liquids since the next opportunity would be well over two hours away.

And, just like that, it was time to climb the Skyline Trail. It starts off very hard. And really does not have any easy parts. I am not able to find any official history on how it got the name, but it is certainly an appropriate name because on both sides of the road in many places, you can see, well, the skyline!

The Skyline Trail has many Strava Segments. This one is mostly the whole thing, up to where we turn off for Peru (skipping Hinsdale). That is 15.31 miles, 2191 feet of ascent over an hour or so! My excuse for worst personal time is that the group stopped a couple of times to wait up (and thanks for that you strong riders!) for me. Usually we are all together or just regroup at the turn to Peru.

Our turn off of the Skyline Trail onto South St looped us around Peru State Forrest and up a final, very punishing climb into the center of Peru. Fun fact that I always mention: Peru is the highest incorporated town center in all of Massachusetts. From Wikipedia: Peru has the highest mean altitude in Massachusetts and, along with neighboring Windsor, is one of only two municipalities in the state with a mean elevation above 2,000 feet.

As aways, we took the obligatory Peru group photo.

To think is is all down hill from Peru to Northampton is silly. At least it feels good for a while. Heading east on Rte 143 was beautiful. Nice, smooth, fast.  Until it wasn’t. I was a bad ride leader and did not check for construction.

Apparently, Rte 143 is undergoing a $16M improvement project- widening the road and improving drainage from the Peru line to Cold St in Worthington. The dirt section was wet and took out more watts from me than I expected. But, it could have been worse.

We stopped at the Four Corners Grocery in Worthington to top off bottles. And from there it was a lovely, fast descent east to West Chesterfield, where the fun abruptly ended, having to climb the wall after crossing the Westfield River. It was sunny and hot, and not too pleasant.

The rest of the crew waited patiently at the center of Chesterfield for me. Then we were off to our final climb of the day – up East St. Just before this starts to descend into Westhampton, we regrouped one last time, we said our goodbyes, as we all were going to scatter different routes at the bottom.

When I got home I had chalked up 75 miles and nearly 6000′ over five hours of moving time. Another awesome trip to Peru in the books.

A ride to Greylock is still on my mind for next weekend, starting in Shelburne Falls. However, I have not had too many solid “takers” on it. If you are more than a 50% please do comment below, or contact me directly so I get an idea of how many might come along to suffer.