Saturday, July 11, 2009
I was pleasantly surprised when we reached the southern trailhead for the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail and not only wasn't it raining, but it didn't even look like rain was imminent. So we changed into riding clothes, unloaded the bikes, and headed off down the paved path. As I've found myself saying frequently during this rather damp summer - one plus to the less than ideal weather was the lack of crowds on the trail.
The first stretch runs through a series of wetlands and then wooded areas... not quite as scenic on a grey cloudy day but still pretty nice. After a couple of miles it reaches the shoreline of the Cheshire Reservoir, which includes some spectacular views of the mountains to the west across the water. As we rode further we could see the tip of Greylock peeking over the shoulders of a couple of closer peaks.
There's a spillway near the spot where the trail crosses Route 8, presumably to keep the reservoir from flooding. We stopped for a short break and spotted some ducklings with a dilemma - three of them were down on the lower level of the spillway, with mom and two others up at the top. While the height difference wasn't too great (maybe 6-8 inches or so) with water flowing over the edge it didn't seem likely they'd be able to get back up top. But mom didn't seem to concerned (actually, at that point neither did the three youngsters) so we decided to check on them when we came back through and keep riding.
We went another mile or so beyond the road crossing before Ann decided it was time to turn around, in part because there were some fairly dark clouds putting in an appearance over the mountains and the next section of trail is nothing spectacular, just a nice ride through more wetlands. So we headed back, stopping again at the spillway to watch the ducks. The trio seemed a lot more interested in getting back up top, but as they moved around it also seemed pretty unlikely they'd manage to do so, unless they worked themselves back to one spot where the water was blocked from flowing over the edge. I shot more than a few photos of them and even a short video clip before we decided they'd either figure it out or the entire clan would end up in the stream below the spillway.
The first drops of rain hit about three miles from the parking lot... nothing much, but enough to get me to stop and pull on my jacket. Good thing too because a little while later it started raining harder and harder, until we we road the last two miles in a pretty substantial and very chilly downpour. If nothing else it gave us incentive to move as quick as we could back to the car to dry off and change into clothes that weren't soaking wet...
JMH
