Liz, Gina, and I did a 35 mile cycle yesterday through the hill towns. When I'm driving in the hill towns, I don't really think about why they have that name. But the ride yesterday drove it firmly into my mind. We headed on the back roads to Williamsburg and then took Ashfield Road into Ashfield center, went to Conway center, and took Conway road back to Mountain Street and North Farms Road to our house.
I know some sections of the route. We used to rollerblade the first 6 miles of Ashfield Road. Miles 5 and 6 are continuously up hill. We've never gone past there because after that there is a really, really steep section down to a set of waterfalls. You should know that if it's too steep for me to rollerblade down, it's seriously steep, because I love speed. In fact, going back down miles 5 and 6 are the fastest I've ever gone on blades. I've regularly gone 30+ mph on blades, and estimate that I must have hit somewhere between 35-40 miles per hour on that stretch. Usually I enjoy it, but one time, my wheels started shattering back and forth. I was going way too fast to try to brake, so I just tried to relax to wait it out until I hit the next uphill. I don't even want to contemplate how many bones I would have broken if I'd allen. That was the last time I bladed that section of road.
I was really surprised to discover that those 2 miles were simple compared to a number of the other hills we had to climb on this trip. By the time we hit Ashfield, we had only gone 15 miles, but it felt like we'd done 30. We found a great pizza place and stopped for lunch. By the time we'd eaten, I'd forgotten the pain of getting there, and for the first time in my life, could see the appeal of going on a day-long bike trip, stopping off at interesting places to eat along the way. We were somewhat tempted to take a dip in the local pond, but the combination of reports of extremely cold water and the idea of biking in wet shorts discouraged us.
Then came the fun. The 7 miles from Ashfield center to Conway center were all downhill, ranging from really steep to moderately steep, to a gentle downhill. Just what my tired legs needed. There were a few uphills between Conway and Florence, but it's mainly downhill.
Here are the elevations. Northampton has an elevation of 140 feet above sea level. From there, we climbed to Ashfield, elevation of 1,240 feet. And we didn't go straight uphill to get there either, so it wasn't just a matter of climbing 1,120 feet. Then we went downhill to Conway at 763 feet, and back to Northampton at 140. Of course I don't know where they take those elevations, but it does a hood job of representing the trip. And that's why they call them the hill towns.
I did something really stupid on the way to Ashfield. We biked by a field that had a couple of ancient, rusty plows in it--just the thing Liz loves for making sculptures. As we were starting by the next house, I saw some women outside and impulsively stopped to ask who owned the land with the plows. I hadn't thought about how close Liz and Gina were behind me, and Liz plowed into me and Gina plowed into Liz. I heard Liz yell and in my rear view mirror, saw Gina hit the pavement. Gina was ok (and remarkably calm, given that I just caused her to hit the ground. Gina's front wheel was out of true and the rear carrier thing on the back of Liz's trike was bent. Fortunately, all the bikes were rideable, and we went on our way.
Well, I'm in Bloomington, Illinois, and they just started loading my flight back home. Gina, by the way, was taking video on our ride, so I'll be able to download some of the footage.
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