September riding

[Crankin]

Did a 45.5 mile ride today; a ride we *thought* we had done before, but apparently, not! More about that, later. At least it was a ride that DH had adapted to start from our house, but I suspect, it was a ride we wanted to do and we wimped out later. Anyway, the original ride was 50 miles, but I am fine with doing just under that. We ate half a nut butter and jelly sandwich and headed west, through familiar streets in our old town, with the distinct sense that apple picking season has begun. Almost got taken out by a pick up backing out of his driveway, surounded by cars parked on a narrow country road, near a small organic farm having special activities today. From there, we headed up the opposite way we usually do, a good climb into the town of Bolton. We ended up on a main road, which is not a particularly bad road to ride on, but had to get over to make a left, where cars were backed up to go go the Nashoba Valley Winery/orchard. Geez, I have never seen the amount of cars I saw there, in the overflow parking, as we rode by. Both of these places were written up in an article on stuff to do this weekend and people from the city were out in droves. We quickly got onto some quieter roads, after this. Until we got to Rt 62 in the town I used to teach in. This is the same road my street is off of, but in Concord, it's a 2 lane road, with a speed limit of 30-35. Busy, but not crazy. We ended up having to cross this road in Hudson, at a crossing with no lights or stop signs, with people coming out of a newer shopping center with Lowe's and tons of other big box stores. It is also right near the exit/entrance ramp of I-495, which helped a bit, as there's a light there, a bit up from where had to cross. We got to the center of the road, and someone stopped, thankfully. The road we were on was really lovely as we continued on, farms, and homes, but it was clear people now use it as a short cut to that shopping center. We stopped by a horse farm and ate the second half of our sandwich. There some familiar street names of streets some of my former students lived on, but I really am not familiar with this part of the town. As we turned, we realized this was not the ride we thought it was... I saw parts of Hudson I didn't know existed, with some rolling hills, crappy roads, and lots of sparsely spaced industry, with a few houses. I surmised we were behind the Solomon Pond Mall, but I have to look on a map. Finally, we entered the town of Berlin, not the town of Clinton, which we thought we'd be in. We entered a round a bout and then we were turning onto Sawyer Hill Rd; a climb that was on the ride we thought we were doing, but not what was in front of us at that moment. The beginning of it was tough, about 8%, but it had flat sections, where you could rest. We finally got to what appeared to be the top, with huge homes and views to the west, where we could see Mt. Wachusett. Just gorgeous. Then we went down a steep descent, ending up at a main street, we had to zig zag across, to continue on Sawyer Hill. Passed another orchard, tons of cars, hayrides, etc., and city ladies dressed for a day out in the country in high heels! This is where we thought we'd end up at at a little store where we ate at last year, but no, we were not even in the right town. But, the road looked familiar, so we must have been on it on that ride, too. The next turn would bring us back to a road we passed when we had gone by the winery, earlier, so we knew we were getting back into familiar territory, when there was a road closed/detour sign. We decided to go ahead to see if we could circumvent it, as the alternatives were long and hard climbs, and it was getting suspiciously dark/cloudy, looking like rain. We went through one barrier, walked on a bit of dusty road/bridge over a stream, and then there was a netted barrier, where DH lifted the bikes over and we pushed it down to get over. And, there was a port-potty there, too! One more barrier, with cones, and we were out and our turn came up. It got very dark out, started sprinkling mildly, so we started deciding alternatives to the end. We decided to take the route up a lovely rural road that actually is the road my old school is on, past where we would be turning. It's very hilly. As we decided to keep going, down a very steep descent we had to make another choice. If we followed the route, we'd go up a very steep road with a crossing/stop on another main road, and then down a hill by a very large and popular orchard, where we knew it would be mobbed. We usually go by this area the opposite way. I was going to just do it, when I noticed I couldn't shift into my big ring... apparently the LBS did not charge my Di2 after they put it on my bike. So, the decision was made. I could stay in the small ring though, but DH nicely switched our batteries, as he doesn't mind riding in the small ring as much on flat roads. There were several bail out points, to make the ride shorter, but we took our longer option. We ate our snack and I got a second wind. We finished very speedily.
I am exhausted, but it was an interesting day. Now we have to figure out how to find the route we *thought* we were doing. My battery is all charged and should be good until the end of the year.