It's Summer!

I likely completed my longest, in time, and shortest, in distance travelled, solstice outing, and that was satisfying. My one intention for these outings is to be outside for every moment of daylight, leaving my house in full dark and not returning until full dark returns. The mode of movement, or even movement itself, is not of arch concern, although I do like having a body in motion, so there, and here, I keep going.

On Friday, I left at 4AM, and in deference to my sensitivity to the risks of early road riding with cars, I rode just a couple hundred yards up my street to exit the public way into the neighbouring sportsman's club, which connected me to roads again in another town, later another hour, and in much more daylight. From there, a couple miles connected me to the end of a railtrail, for a truly serene start to me day. I do have a special love of rolling in the early hours, and I have missed it in satifying my new sense of safety.

I did have a couple goals in mind for the day. 1) Finish near the Edge Hill former golf course in Ashfield to help at my friend Amy's running race on Saturday, and 2) Don't ride too much to let my leg continue recovering. To help with the latter of these two, I'd packed Travels with Charley and mosquito repellent, while for the first, I brought my minimalist sleeping kit: a fleece sleeping bag liner, Tyvek ground cloth, and a mosquito head net, total weight two pounds, five ounces.

Beyond that, I had no particular plan, and enjoying the peace of the rail trail, I stuck to it instead of acting on my earlier consideration to head north sooner. As I've said, I'm too much of a fatalist to be a truly devout atheist, and for over six months, I've adopted the habit of Audrey Tautou's character in "A Very Long Engagement" who, when faced with an either/or decision, would play the game of chosing based on some random occurrence in her surroundings. So, I did briefly detour onto a favorite side trail because I did see at least one other trail user (just barely, in the distance) in the half mile before the turn off.

Back on the main trail, I rolled to Northampton, zig zagged to Smith College, then dropped down to the path along the Mill River for my first stop, a quick read, that quicker blog post, and saying good morning to various dogs, out for their morning strolls, who were intrigued by my bags with a couple days of food.  Mellow is good.

Back onto the roads, and out the other end of town, I was greeted by name by another biker, possibly my friend Matt on a twenty plus mile commute to Hampshire Bike Exchange, as he descended Mountain/Farms Road and I climbed toward Whately. Again, no particular plan, so over the hill, I ducked onto the dirt road by Northampton's water supply and figured I'd cut back to the Connecticut River Valley before continuing north.

Figuring is not, however, doing, and part way into the woods, I saw a tributary woods road heading north, and I was immediately curious if that was one end of a road off West Brook Rd that intrigued me for years, but my friend Pete, with his encyclopedic (atlasian?) knowledge of road had always said was a "no!"

I cheated, pulling out my phone to reference Open Street Maps, and it confirmed my guess, mostly, except for maybe a quater mile gap just before reaching West Brook. The thing with old roads, they weren't usually built with gaps, so I had confidence I could make the connection. Pete knows a lot of roads, but he doesn't know everything, right?

Pete wasn't entirely wrong either,

But I did find a side footpath,

And eventually West Brook Road!

Zigzag, zigzag, and I figured I'd wander down to the Deerfield River and try for bumping along railroad tracks (gravel!) from Stillwater Bridge upstream to the next bridge that I still think of as The Cosby House Bridge, but sometimes our surroundings have an even more direct influence on our plans, this time in the form of downed powerlines closing the road!

Thanks to the other biker who confirmed the road was truly blocked and police were turning people around, saving me the out and back.

Luckily, the the other option I'd considered was the dirt road on the left, which took me to the Mahican-Mohawk Trail, which presumably has Pete's endorsement, as he's the one who originally showed it to me. It likewise follows the Deerfield River upstream, but on the opposite side from the current rail line, and the tracks were removed ages ago, so it's much more fun than gravel.

Of course, with the rail traffic gone, so was maintenance of the bridge across the 100 foot deep ravine, and even before that, the bed was flooded deep enough to wet both my feet as I slowly pedaled the crossing. But that wasn't entirely a bad thing, more an excuse to stop atop the old abutment, hang my socks to dry, eat a snack, read some more Travels with Charley, enjoy a nap, read some more, and have one more snack! Did I mention my goal was to not overdo the riding?

Down into the ravine with my loaded bike was exciting, but within reach for me and my recovering left arm response, and yes, damn straight, that pun was intended. I made it down intact and in maybe only twice the time as Pete and I had years ago with lighter rides, and while the big span is gone, Great River Hydro was kind enough to bridge the Deerfield tributary with a more pedestrian option. If only I kept track and cared, I might now rave about the extra elevation gained.

Out the dirt road access, and back shortly to pavement, I then opted to stick to my theme of exploration, continuing to the dead end of Elmer Road to see if the powerlines Open Street Maps showed were a viable connection. Powerlines like straight lines, and often those involve going up really steep hills, so I broke up my time on the bike some more but pushing it up washed out gravel, eventually even rolling my pants up to the coolness of knickers. It would've been a great time for a swim, but alas, water tends not to pond at the top of hills.

After wading through a section of tall grass instead, I did make it through to the roads that would wind me quietly to Ashfield, although I was still quite a bit early for arriving and finding a place to sleep near Edge Hill, but again, Open Street Maps to the rescue by pointing me a hair east to trails up Flag Mountain. I'm newly pleased with the recovery of my leg, but I'm also respectful of not overdoing it, and mixing my activities, and not just with napping, seems to help, so a gentle hike and more exploration was perfect.

View from one side of Flag

View, 

if you squint, 

from the other side of Flag

And the best view from the climb up Flag!

Ample wild strawberries adorning the trail added 50% to a one hour walk, and a smile to my mouth, so after fishing my stashed bike out of a thicket, it was a reasonable time to amble over to Edge Hill, stopping to chat with running friend Liam as he put finishing touches on course markings, eat some more, of course, and find some a soft leaf bed for my night's rest. One handy thing about sleeping rough on the solstice, I could tuck into my rest without having to wait until full dark came well after 9PM. I was still ouside!