Western Mass - Lenox
Enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, and hills of western mass. Lush green trees line the roads and cool streams wind around the valleys so that we cross them multiple times or follow them for long stretches of time. Though tempted to jump in to the crystal clear lakes and rivers we see, we have kept biking, making very good time between each of our stops.
We are beginning to get a feel for our pacing and techniques for riding (for example, not letting a bike attached to a trailer tip over or else the hitch will snap!) Mechanics have gone pretty smoothly except for starting out with a trailer tire with a slow leak (already patched once in Greenfield), some issues with Jane's derailer and brakes today, and retying the strings holding the bins on the trailer. Jane and Sam are at a local bikeshop run by a trustee of the United Methodist Church here getting some of these issues solved. We often switch the order we follow each other while biking, but Steph has proved to be an awesome sweep making sure we all make it up the hills together.
On Friday we rode on routes 116 and 112 from Deerfield to Cummington. Though we were detained a while due to trailer issues we finally left the gas station in Greenfield around 2:30 and arrived at our destination at around 6:30. The back door of the church was generously left open for the ease of our coming and going. We found an extensive note left by Reverend Liza Neal that detailed everything we needed to know and made our stay run smoothly. We had a yummy dinner while enjoying the sunset and having deep conversations. We even had a special ice cream treat for desert courtesy of Antoine!
Today, Saturday, we rode route 9 (west) to route 7 (south) passing through Pittsfield and finally arriving in Lenox. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality of Pastor Val Roberts-Toler and her family here at the United Methodist Church. We were happily munching on brownies just moments after walking through the door! And oh, what wonders a shower can do after a long hot, humid day of travel!
Tomorrow holds a shorter ride than our two previous ones, to Great Barrington where we will canvass and hold a symposium. Another update to come soon!
Stay Green!
"And oh, what wonders a shower can do after a long hot, humid day of travel!"
ReplyDeleteWhimps!! Here with the Cambridge team, we've biked 80 miles in two days and have bonded closely because of our stinkiness, still without a shower, and proud of it! In fact, I believe no one has even changed their clothes yet. :-)
I will be posting an entry on our crazy adventures soon.
-Keane