August 31st rides

[Fredwina]

I rode out to fontana before going to church. But My a/c went out overnight(it's fixed now, and this caused my sinuses to act up)

[makbike]

A nice short and relaxing recovery ride today. I wanted to work some of the soreness/stiffness out of my legs after yesterday's tough century. It as a nice ride all 14 miles of it.

[redrhodie]

I had a nice 25 mile ride. Funny thing was having to stop to let a flock of turkeys cross the road. Boy, they sure take their time!

[sundial]

Lol!

[spindizzy]

Recovery ride for me today as well. short , sweet and totally lovely. Flat farmland. Warm south wind. 25k.

[mudmucker]

I did a solo 46 miles through the Quabbin reservoir area to the Farmer's Market in Hardwick, MA. It was a gorgeous ride.

I've been wanting to bike to a Farmer's Market for some time now. Except there are none too near me held on the weekend, and I wanted to get my red steel bike overhauled so I could put the panniers on it instead of using the carbon fiber bike. So, the steel bike has been done. I actually wanted to go to the Barre Farmer's Market on Saturday but too much Friday night libation prevented me from doing that. That would be a 36-mile roundtrip. I found that the town of Hardwick had a Market on Sunday's until 2pm. Perfect. This would be a 46-mile roundtrip. I behaved myself Saturday night and off I went in the morning. I basically took routes 32 and 32A which primarily took me through Petersham to get me to Hardwick.

Now, there really isn't a reason to go to Hardwick actually. Well I can think of 2 reasons; the Farmer's Market, and the Hardwick Vineyard and Winery. Hardwick is in the middle of nowhere, like usual where I am, in the center of the state in the vicinity of the "Quabbin wilderness". Oh, and I usually visit the winery once or twice a year for tastings and to purchase some of their very good fruit wines. Right in my back yard.

I recommend biking the Quabbin area to anyone who visits MA and who likes to bike. There is a lot of terrain to be had, for those that like that kind of thing. There are many long sustained climbs. I don't have a computer with this bike but bikely.com calcs out approximately 4000 ft of climbing (actually 3976) in the 46 miles that I rode, for however accurate USGS might be.

So it was one gosh darn beautiful New England day and here are some pictures. I'll post a few, then link to the rest.

Approaching Petersham. White steeples of course.


Quiet Quabbin road on the way to the Hardwick Farmer's Market. Most of the route was in deep shade. Route 32 and in particular, 32A road surface was in superb excellent condition. Not a hairline crack could be seen. The best I've ridden on in a while.



Hardwick Center



Destination reached. The Farmer's Market on the common. The bike was already about 28 lbs with rack, panniers, lunch, jacket, etc. My carbon fiber bike is 19 lbs. I probably only put in about 15 lbs of produce. I might not make a habit of doing 46 miles for, chuckle, lettuce. My garden does well and I got other things I don't grow, as well as some grass fed pork.



Glimpse of the Quabbin. There are much better lookout views and potential views of the eagles on the other side, off of 202.



This has got to be the longest woodpile I've ever seen. It's about 300 to 500 feet.



The one and only, Petersham Curling Club



Link to rest of the ride and more photos http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...ost=good-times