22.2 Mile Ride on the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail
I had left my plans open a bit, to either do some hiking or some riding after the Savoy trail race... since it was a grey day, I decided riding was the better option, both because it's tough getting good pictures in the woods when it's cloudy and because I knew I'd have a tough time motivating myself to do much walking on a gloomy day after struggling through that bear of a course.
Of course, by the time I got to the Berkshire Mall trailhead for the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, it had started raining lightly... good thing my rain jacket was still in the car! Changed into my riding gear and headed on down the trail. Of course within a mile or so the rain quit and I ended up tying the jacket around my waist.
The first 4-5 miles runs through wetlands, some woods, and then along the shores of Berkshire Pond and the Cheshire Reservoir. I always enjoy looking out across the water, especially down towards Cheshire where you can see Greylock peeking over the tops of the nearby mountains. Today I spotted turtles and wood ducks in the wetlands near the mall, and mallards and cormorants out on the Cheshire Reservoir (as well as quite a few boaters and a couple of folks on jetskis.) When I paused at Farnhams Crossing to get some photos, I found that a small concert was going on - a folk group, I'd guess, who launched into their rendition of The Lakes of Ponchatrain... which of course got me thinking about Planxty (the first group I heard performing the song) and explains why my Planxty CDs are in the car again...
After crossing route 8 at the northern end of the reservoir, the trail runs through woods and wetlands and is scenic in an entirely different way. It also runs predominantly downhill, with the steepest grade being the last few miles into Adams... that makes for fun riding on the way out but tough work on the way back, especially after doing a tough 11 mile trail race in the morning. I was tempted to turn back before then, but reminded myself that in two weeks I've got a pretty tough duathlon coming up... in other words suck it up and get to work!
The water all along the way was the lowest I've ever seen it... barely anything going over the dam on the way into Adams. In town I decided to ride down the street a little ways to the statue of President William McKinley, which I've driven past many times on my way to Greylock. Apparently President McKinley laid the cornerstone of the Adams Free Library in 1897 and the statue of him was placed in the square in front of the library as a memorial after his assassination in 1901. Even more intriguing were the many banners around town showing a bear riding a bicycle... while I couldn't find anything official on-line, the accepted explanation seems to be that the banner represents both the Rail Trail (with its northern terminus in Adams) and a thriving local population of black bears.
From there it was time to, well, suck it up and ride back up the hill. My legs were definitely feeling it, and I was very pleased when the grade leveled off a bit (though, realistically, it's a gentle uphill most of the way back to the Lanesboro trailhead.) Stopped occasionally to snap a photo or two and at the route 8 crossing to inhale a Powerbar and put my rain jacket back on... this time I needed it all the way back. Nothing too heavy (like the downpour that soaked Ann and me last summer) but enough that it made taking pictures tricky. As much as I enjoyed being out on the trail, I was very happy to finally pull back into the parking lot... I have a suspicion I'll be feeling today in my legs for most of this week...
JMH
