July riding

[Crankin]

We got home around noon from our annual cycling trip to the Berkshires. Since our friends we do the trip with now live only an hour+ from Great Barrington, we met them for lunch on Thursday, then went to the inn, which is now under new (and much better) ownership. We quickly got our bike stuff on and went out for a 21 mile ride. It was about 1:30, 88 degrees and humid. Not my choice of riding environment, but it was beautiful. There was a shallow, but longish climb near the end; DH and I were both red faced when we got back. Friday we did our ride into the Tyringham Valley. We drive to a lake and start/finish there. We used to do this the opposite way, climbing a "wall" about 1/3 of the way there. The past 3-4 years, we've done this direction, where we get the climbing done in the first half, descend the wall, which is a bit hairy, and then mostly flat. Since a general store/café reopened last summer, near the descent, we detoured and found out they have a lovely deck to eat lunch on. From there, instead of descending the wall, we cut across the mountain on a road we climbed somewhere about 4 years ago. That time, when I saw the hill in front of me, I told my friend I was going to "f*n kill him." Doing this road the opposite way did start with some pretty tough climbing, especially after lunch, but, then the descent began. I noted the spot where I thought I would lose it when going the opposite way. This is a long, long climb or descent, maybe 3 miles. Got to the end (with a 12% little steep up at the end) and felt we had it made. We had to ride through downtown Stockbridge and on Rt 7, which has a wide shoulder, but is so busy/noisy and no shade. My GPS showed it was about 90 out. After that, we only had 6 miles left, so I dumped my plain water over my head and carried on. By doing the alternate road, we cut the ride down to 37.5 from 42 miles. Yesterday, we decided on a really lovely 28 mile loop that goes into Connecticut for a bit. Again, this is a loop we used to do the opposite way, but now we get the climbing done in the first half, followed by a steep downhill back into Ashley Falls, MA, then mostly flat. This ride is just gorgeous, fields of wildflowers, small villages, farms, hardly any traffic.
Later in the day, DH and I went out to lunch and did some shopping and I let myself get annoyed by the preponderance of people from NYC, CT, and NJ who vacation in the Berkshires. I wish more people from eastern MA would visit this part of the state... it's so beautiful and so much to do. We had 3 awesome dinners with our friends, spent time chatting by the pool and at breakfast, and last night we also met another couple they know who live in the Berkshires, who ride. Well, the guy rides and the woman is getting back into it. She was a bit dramatic, but they were nice. We are trying to plan a private tour with the company we used for our Spain/Portugal trips, to Porto, Portugal and this other couple might be interested.
Back to reality; gotta go to the grocery store. Our bigger vacations are over for the summer, but we will have a couple of long weekends perhaps.