9/29/18 Deerfield, MA

Fall colors are just barely beginning to show, mostly the yellow maples and birches along with the occasional  precocious red maple tree.

With our van STILL in the shop, we're limited to rides we can begin from Leslie's mom's driveway. Fortunately, the rural back roads in western Massachusetts are gorgeous. Today's brief 14.81 mile ride featured a rigorous climb up a rugged dirt road, rewarded by a glorious long descent.

Using Google Maps sometimes yields some adventuresome results. On today's ride, we opted for a route that would be primarily counter-clockwise, thinking that avoiding left turns at busy intersections would be wise. Of course, Google Maps isn't necessarily clear about paved vs. unpaved roads. As we headed up Old Albany Rd. toward Greenfield, we rounded a corner to meet the end of pavement. We forged ahead, and the route became steeper, more rutted, and muddy. It eventually became so steep that the trikes lost traction and we had to dismount and push them up. The stunning wooded terrain took some of the sting out of the indignity of being unseated. VIDEO: Old Albany Road Climb - Deerfield, MA

We eventually crested the hill, and began a lovely extended downhill on excellent pavement with mostly gentle curves. VIDEO: S. Shelburne Rd. Descent

We stopped in at Clarkdale Farms Fruit Stand, well known in the area for its abundant and delicious fresh fruit crop including apples, peaches and pears. There we learned that Old Albany Road is a regular feature of the annual Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee.

9/27/18 Deerfield, MA

Today is yet another "van free" day, so we're starting our ride on Route 5 & 10 in Deerfield, MA.


Our route begins by taking us past historic tobacco barns and the modern crop of hosta plants bound for nursery. Next we cross over the Deerfield River and sail over the top of Interstate 91 free of interchange. After a bit more uphill work, we are at the junction of Route 116. We're following a printed route map we picked up a few days ago at Basically Bicycles, a recumbent shop in nearby Turners Falls, MA. While it's working well thus far, we pull off the road and consult Google Maps on our phones, just to be sure. Paula notices that if we turn right on Route 116, we'll be about 1/4 mile from Pekarski's Sausage, so we opt for a quick side trip.

As we roll into the parking lot, the air is richly thick with the aroma of smoking meat. Once inside we are greeted to a visual feast of smoked duck, chicken, pork chops, as well as ham, bacon, kielbasa, andouille, Italian sausage, bratwurst, fresh sauerkraut, pickles, pierogi, honey, and maple syrup. Since we're at the start of our ride, we know we must limit our purchase to non-perishable and non-breakable items, so we settle on a beautiful kielbasa. We're complimented on our bright orange matching bike kit by both shop staff and fellow patrons. 😃We pack our treasure into a pannier and head south on Route 116.

We're relieved that the route only has us on Route 116 for about a mile of downhill as it is very busy and extremely rutted. California is definitely not the only state with nasty road surfaces.

After an unpleasantly exciting, and blessedly brief, downhill run, we take a right and onto a lightly traveled rural road. VIDEO: S. Mill River Rd. It looks familiar, and we realize that it's the road where Warm Colors Apiary is located. Leslie's mom took us to an open house there shortly after we first arrived. In addition to fresh honey, The Artisan Beverage Cooperative was also offering samples of their wares. Their Ginger Libation was excellent as a refreshing stand-alone drink, and would likely be a delicious addition to a Moscow Mule.

Our loop continues south towards Sunderland and the vistas are spectacular through gently rolling hills and curves. The occasional maple tree is sporting red, but we're still waiting for the big wash of color to spread across the entire landscape. To our surprise, we notice an RV park along this route. We stop for a closer peek, and see that they are able to accommodate large rigs and have complete facilities including a pool. White Birch Campground

After a few more miles, we make a left at River Road, so named because it parallels the Connecticut River. There's a whole lot of water in this area! Our paper route map has ice cream icon showing, so we know that there's a stop in our future as Leslie is an ice cream hound, and besides we haven't had lunch. Ice cream is a lunch entree, right? The stop turns out to be Pasiecnik's Farm Stand, featuring both "creamees" (New England for soft serve ice cream) and hard serve flavors. They had a picnic area replete with umbrellas and comfy adirondack chairs, so we had a leisurely repast before continuing our ride.

MORE VIDEO

9/24/18 Canalside Rail Trail - Greenfield, MA to Turners Falls, MA

Today, we worked with Two Feathers RV Restorations & Design on a plan for the van's new plumbing and cabinetry. With the second incident of waste leakage on the existing Thetford Electra Magic toilet, along with the annoyance of having to carry a sewer hose and assorted accessories for dump stations in our very limited stowage space, we've opted to replace the toilet with a cassette toilet for ease of dumping and elimination of the need for sewer hose and hand carrying fresh water into the van to recharge the toilet.

With a limited amount of time, we opted to explore the relatively short Canalside Rail Trail that runs between Greenfield and Turners Falls. Since Turners Falls has one of the few recumbent shops in New England, Basically Bicycles, we thought that would be an added bonus.

To access the trail from Two Feathers location on Route 5 & 10, was a bit exciting as it's a very busy and narrow stretch of road. Fortunately, it was a very short distance to the turn off onto River Road. After that, we had just a bit of uphill work to reach the bridge crossing the Connecticut River to access the trail head. The trail itself was pure delight as it wound through forested area before reaching the canal and leading into downtown Turners Falls. With our day getting away from us, it was way past time for lunch. We cruised downtown Turners Falls and chose Riffs North both for its menu and its ability to seat us in sight of the trikes. We shared a perfect BLT with the all important "A" (avocado) along with an enormous order of garlic/parmesan/truffle fries. After a game of Qwirkle over lunch (Leslie won), we headed over to the bike shop, but alas they're closed on Monday. Another day's adventure...

We climbed on the bikes and headed back. There was a creeping chill in the air that we hadn't planned on, so with the short remaining distance we max'd out our power levels on the e-assist and had a screaming fast ride back to our starting point.

9/19/18 Nickerson State Park, MA to South Dennis, MA

Today's plan was to ride from Nickerson State Park south to the end of the Cape Cod Rail Trail in South Dennis. The weather is kind of "wetting", not quite raining but fairly consistent heavy mist. Since the weather was fairly warm and the trail appeared to have heavy tree cover, we decided to ride in spite of the weather.

We've also run into another issue... Since there are no electrical hookups at any campsites within Nickerson State Park, we couldn't recharge our bike batteries. In fact, it's become clear to us that we're going to have to address this as the van can barely support the electric refrigerator overnight, particularly with this inclement weather.

Leslie had enough battery life left, but Paula opted not to carry any batteries at all, and did today's ride unassisted. At least she never got cold!

If we visit the Cape again, we might look into staying at Atlantic Oaks RV Resort in Eastham, which has electrical hookups and, like Nickerson, has direct trail access. On the other hand, Nickerson is gorgeous and at this time of the year, completely empty during the week. It also has miles of paved trails completely within the park.

On this short leg of the trail there are no less than three bike shops. Of course we stopped in all three and got t-shirts from two of them, The Rail Trail Bike Shop in Brewster and Barb's Bike Shop in S. Dennis.

This section of the trail ends abruptly in S. Dennis with road blocks, and there is more paved trail beyond the blocks. Apparently, still under construction although a local cyclist just ignored the barriers and kept going. As visitors, we were not so emboldened.

There is also a trail rotary where the Cape Cod Rail Trail intersects with the Old Colony Rail Trail in Harwich. Old Colony goes east from Harwich to the town of Chatham.

9/17/18 Nickerson State Park, MA to Provincetown, MA

The Cape is every bit as scenic and quaint as we remember it and the rail trail allowed us to see it from a whole new perspective...

When we got to the northern end of the trail in Wellfleet, we asked a roadie who was stopped at the trailhead about more roads to explore. Of course, he immediately pointed us toward the coast and told us that Cahoon Hollow Beach and the Beachcomber Bar mustn't be missed and that only a little hill climbing was involved. He was right about the terrain, but the Beachcomber was already closed for the season.

When touring the Cape by car, once you're past Wellfleet it seems like Provincetown is right around the corner. So, we looked at Google Maps and discovered we were still 16 miles away, and we were already 18 miles into our ride. Leslie was undeterred by the prospect of a 70 mile day, and so off we went with our trusty Google Maps guiding the way. On the outbound leg our friendly "navigal" did a nice job of routing, keeping us off the main highway as much as possible.

Once into P-Town, we took advantage of Commercial Street's "bike friendly" two way traffic, although it turns out to be not so friendly in the spots where it's only really wide enough for a motor vehicle but is supporting pedestrians and two way bike traffic. It felt a bit like a game of chicken at times. Window-shopping and people watching were abundant.

We did run into a husband and wife pair on well-loved Tour Easy recumbents who were training for an Adventure Cycling Tour. She was keenly interested in learning more about our e-assist.

After coffee, Qwirkle and more conversation with folks about the trike and the Qwirkle game, we climbed on board and started back. This time, Google Maps routing wasn't as much to our liking, as it involved multiple left turns across busy Route 6. With a little work, we had her rerouting us. Unfortunately, we haven't yet found any indicators in Google Maps as to whether a road is paved or unpaved, and if unpaved, how passable. We had an interesting cross country ramble on a sandy, rutted one lane dirt road. With the e-assist max'd out, we were able to power through most of the bad spots but it sure burned through a lot of battery life.

Since we couldn't help thinking that we needed our batteries to last for 70 miles and knowing that that the last mile back to our campsite was pretty darned hilly, the amount of battery usage was a bit concerning. It was not however, as concerning as the plumber's truck that nearly collided head-on with Leslie around a blind corner. Fortunately, the driver was able/willing to stop his truck and wait for her to drag the trike off the side of the road so he could get by us.

Eventually, we worked our way back to pavement and roads we recognized including the lovely coastal stretch back into Wellfleet. After that, it's trail all the way back to Nickerson State Park. Paula started turning off her assist completely in the last few miles so that she could be sure of having some power left to get back up the steep hill to our campsite.

What an amazing day!

9/13/18 Burlington, VT - Brewery Tour

It appears that we can't get enough of the Island Line. Lake Champlain is so picturesque and the trail so available from our campground. Today we've decided to spin out onto the lake causeway one more time and then head south to visit breweries near the trail.

On the southern end of the Island Line, there is a Stonehenge replica created by a local Stonehenge expert, described as an exact scale model.

Triker among the stones...

And some boulders turned into art a bit further down...

Once we reach the southernmost reach of the Island Line today, it's on to the breweries... We selected three breweries based on trail proximity. However, travelers need to be flexible. We had planned to start at Magic Hat Brewing, the only one near the trail that ships beer to California. The last mile or so is down a busy highway that Google Maps shows as having a bike lane. Unfortunately, Google Maps isn't aware of road construction and so the busy highway was squeezed down to narrow lanes and no shoulder. 

We opted for plan B and head to the next brewery on our list, Switchback Brewing Company, where we eat our PB&J in their taproom along with a flight. Leslie gives a trike test ride to a husband and wife from upstate New York. The wife has balance issues as a result of her MS and was very excited about the trike as a way to stay active. 

Based on the map, Zero Gravity Brewing is also within striking distance of the Island Line. We find that it too is on a narrow busy street, so we opt for a run down the sidewalk on the other side of the street where we discover ANOTHER brewery, Queen City Brewing, so we pop in for a quick flight and a hot pretzel in their parking lot/beer garden.  

Since Zero Gravity Brewing is nearly directly across the street, we meander our way over there to enjoy ANOTHER flight of beer, along with some free popcorn and a couple of rounds of Qwirkle. This time Paula wins one and Leslie wins one.

Lucky for us, trikes do not require balance. We decide that we should move on before dark, and  climbed back into the saddle. We had intended to stop at Foam Brewers on our way back since they are smack dab on the trail. However, we were forced to admit that three flights should probably be our limit and we rode on past and back to North Beach Campground.

Burlington certainly loves its beer.

9/12/18 Burlington, VT

Today's forecast threatened rain, so we limited ourselves to a quick ride to the southern end of the Island Line. Even with the inclement weather, Lake Champlain is absolutely lovely.

We found this fanciful sculpture outside the Vermont Railway office building, site of Leslie's very first software engineering gig.

A trip to Burlington, VT would not be complete without a stop at Ben & Jerry's... even if they have been bought out by Unilever...

9/11/18 Island Line Rail Trail + UVM - Burlington, VT

Today was an "all you can eat" smorgasbord of delightful riding. We rolled out of our campground, North Beach City Park Campground, and right onto the Island Line Rail Trail. First bite, North Beach itself.

North Beach, Lake Champlain

A little further down the trail, this lovely trestle across the Winooski River where it meets the lake provided our next taste.

Somewhere along the trail, we encountered a local rider who was very interested in our trikes, and very knowledgeable about the local resources and trail history. He explained that Local Motion, a statewide bicycle advocacy group that's very active in Burlington, not only helped make the trail a reality but was also responsible for the ferry that services a 250' gap in the causeway across the lake to South Hero Island as well as making sure that recent storm damage to the causeway was repaired. The gap allows boats to navigate around the island without being blocked by the causeway. Unfortunately, our tasting was limited to the Burlington side of the causeway as the bike ferry only runs on weekends after Labor Day.

Causeway, Bicycle Ferry Landing and the Gap

After reaching the southernmost end of the trail, we went in search of our next tasting at Leslie's alma mater, UVM (University of Vermont), via the S. Burlington Rec Path. 

Paula's note: Why isn't it called UVT?  Turns out UVM is Latin for Universitas Viridis Montis, or University of the Green Mountains.

This was both a metaphorical and literal tasting as Leslie wanted to take a trip down memory lane at the UVM Dairy Bar, a student run ice cream production and sales business, located in the UVM student union. Besides, everyone knows that eating ice cream while on a bike ride is a requirement!

9/7/18 Easthampton, MA to Amherst, MA

9/4 - 9/6: Being a tourist with Mom

Thanks for taking us in, Mom!!

We arrived at Mom's home in Deerfield, Ma. during the Labor Day weekend. Mom has such an in-depth knowledge of, and love for, her local community that she immediately put on her tour guide/concierge hat and went to work. Franklin County is described as the most rural county in the state of Massachusetts. So, first on the agenda was a lovely lunch at Hope and Olive, a locavore destination in Greenfield. Next, was a shopping tour of the local farms and their produce including fresh picked corn, tomatoes, squash, white and yellow peaches. Such a tour would be incomplete without a stop at Clarkdale Farms -- a large local fruit farm in the area. We purchased apples, white peaches and yellow peaches, along with veggies. Of course Paula & I had to also purchase new t-shirts from them. They feature a checkerboard tablecloth pattern with an apple in front, regardless of color. This time Paula chose red, I chose a deeper burgundy red.

In 2014, Western Massachusetts and Franklin County were included in a petroleum pipeline proposal. As part of the proposal, Clarkdale Farms was to be closed by imminent domain. The local community quickly organized in opposition to protect Clarkdale and other farms and succeeded in killing the proposal. Clarkdale Farms is in its third generation of family ownership and is still going strong as are many other family farms in the area. If you concentrate on the second picture, and maybe blow it up, you can see the apple trees across the field.

With Mom expecting music friends from England in the next few days we had to create a lattice top peach pie, an apple pie, and an apple crisp to assure they would have plenty of desserts. Here's a look at the peach pie.

One of the places we toured with Mom was Kringle Candle in Bernardston, MA. It's an offshoot of Yankee Candle, thankfully not as large. We had a lovely lunch there as well at the Farm Table Restaurant.

Entrance to Kringle Candle.

9/1: Abbreviated Trip into Canada

And then there were the best laid plans. We crossed into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie with the intention of traveling across to Quebec. But the stars weren't aligned.

We got into the KOA at Sault St. Marie.  This is a delightful KOA. The owners appear to also be dog people. The campground included a DIY doggie grooming salon and an agility course.

It was yet another rainy day, so we opted to explore the area in the van. We started at a lovely farmer's market, and then on to the Canadian Bush Pilot Museum. At the market we purchased steaks for our grill and ground cherries. The cherries were small and had a leaf-like husk around the fruit that was the size of a cherry tomato. It tasted sweet and tart at the same time. It would have been delightful in a salad, but they didn't last that long. :-)

The Bush Pilot Museum had lots of planes on display, knowledgeable passionate docents, and plenty of interactive exhibits. They did a great job with two films showing a bush pilot's responsibilities, and how bush pilots have fought forest fires. Seeing how the planes would skim the lake surface to fill up with water to dump on the fires was breathtaking.

We finished our day at the OutSpoken Brewery. Nice brews, nice patio, and several Qwirkle games.

We broke camp the next day intending to continue our Canadian sojourn. Unfortunately, the van's toilet had other ideas and presented us with a leaking valve. Hoping to find the nearest RV service center to get it fixed, we reversed course and trekked back down Michigan's Upper Peninsula and across the Mackinaw Bridge once more. We stopped in at the nearest Camping World in Houghton Lake, Michigan. Of course, they smiled sweetly and offered a service appointment 3 weeks in the future. Argh!!!!

After scratching our heads, we decided that the next best option would be to head to Massachusetts where we could enjoy Leslie's mom's hospitality, the beautiful scenery and riding in western Mass,  while working out a solution to our plumbing issue.

The most direct route took us east across Michigan, but our day was getting long in the tooth so we opted for a stopover. With the ongoing oppressively hot and sticky weather, we treated ourselves to room at the Day's Inn in Imlay City, MI. Since we still had our lovely grass-fed steaks from the Sault Ste. Marie farmer's market, we went in search of a town park for a barbecue. At Lion's Park, we found shade, grills, and an entire park to ourselves. Afterwards, we explored a bit of the town. Unlike many of the rural towns we had been through across the midwest, Imlay City is thriving. It turns out that it's the headquarters for Vlasic Pickles, which no doubt provides good jobs and a solid economic base.

Next morning, we left before sunup in the hopes of making western Mass before nightfall. Of course even before sunrise temps were still in the mid 80's with heavy humidity. The most direct route east took us across the Canadian border at Sarnia, and through the Ontario communities of London, Hamilton, and St. Catharines reentering the US at Buffalo, NY.

Of course, Leslie was certain we could power on through to Deerfield in one day. I was a bit dubious and more than a little whiny, but also ready for a break from the weather and the road. New York state is definitely worthy of its Empire State nickname based on its sheer size relative to its diminutive New England neighbors. It's a very long way from Buffalo to Syracuse and on into western Mass.

8/30: Last day in Marquette

We started our day at Tourist Park, a campground owned and operated by the city of Marquette, conveniently located right on the trail network. Our first goal was to ride into town and through the town park. We passed the power plant and the large structure that allows ore train cars to dump their loads into ships. Definitely not what we would consider lovely scenery, but a suitably iconic structure for the IOHT, Iron Ore Heritage Trail.

The scenery improved immensely once we got into the park. Local cross country teams were warming up along the trails; it appeared that there would be a set of competitions as the day went on.

Then we dropped into the bike shop where Paula bought another sign -- the N+1 sign that she told you about in the last post. They also had other bicycle art that we liked...

Next up on the trail was a lighthouse that was built right into the watchman's home.

Then we picked up the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. I really liked their logo. We also recorded some of the historical plaques along the way.

The plaque about pelletizing iron ore was quite interesting. The process of turning ore into pea-sized pellets significantly extended the lifespan of iron ore mining in the region by making the mining of low grade ore profitable. Under one of the trestles along the trail, there was a shed cover to protect riders against pellets spilling from passing trains.  Underneath the trestle, the ground was covered in pellets, so we were able to get a good view of them. 

This was the Negaunee Public Schools Administration building. Paula decided she could have worked here. I reminded her she had already retired!

And here is the local mountain bike club's clubhouse. Pretty neat building. This area has an extensive network of mountain bike trails.

And wouldn't it be fun to renovate this amazing stone building (with an unlimited budget)?!?

And lastly two trail signs for mountain bikers: The Rusty Bike Trail and Sissy Pants Trail. With our trikes we decided to stick to the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. 54 miles today, almost all paved.

8/29 Marquette, Mi

Iron Ore Heritage Trail from Marquette, MI to Ispheming, MI

53 miles

Video highlights - can you find the deer?

Iron ore is a constant presence along the shores of Lake Superior. Marquette, home to Northern Michigan University, is no exception. The ore trains roll right out onto a specially constructed pier where the ore pellets can be dropped directly into the hold of the ore ships.

Ore Loading Pier adjacent to Presque Isle Park

We camped at the Marquette Tourist Park, a city-owned and operated campground and park on the Dead River. The town is very bike friendly and the trail network was accessible right from the park.

We visited Lakeshore Bike Shop and acquired the quintessential tin sign: Bikes = N + 1

The "Yoop" loves its Cornish pasties, a legacy of Cornish miners, so we had to try them out. The Lonely Planet recommended Jean Kay's Pasty shop, so we tried it out. We had a steak pasty and a vegetarian pasty with the housemade spicy ketchup sauce. Both were very tasty.

8/27 - 8/28 The U.P. -- Michigan's Upper Penninsula

This rainy morning we headed over the Mackinaw Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Turns out the "Uppers" (say Yooper) have a different outlook than the lower portion of Michigan and have tried to secede multiple times. (Sounds familiar to our northern and southern California friends and family.)

Since the weather was hot, steamy, and occasionally rainy, we decided to forego bicycle riding. Instead we hiked this relatively short path to see the waterfalls along the Tahquamenon River. We were amazed to find out they used this river to 'float' the cut timber down to sawmills in the southern part of the state.

We camped for two nights at Rivermouth Campground, which is a Michigan state park campground at the mouth of the Tahquamenon river. Delightful campsites at the river's edge with excellent facilities and hot showers.

The next day we went out to the Shipwreck Museum and Lighthouse at Whitefish Point just north of Paradise. Whitefish Point has claimed more ships than any other stretch of Lake Superior. In addition to the lake's notorious storms, the Point is a narrow and treacherous channel.

The ore carrier, Edmund Fitzgerald, at the time the largest ship plying the Great Lakes, went down in a fierce storm with all hands lost. Gordon Lightfoot memorialized it in his ballad, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Actual cause of the disaster remains a mystery to this day.

The lighthouse was originally a stone tower, but could not withstand the violent storms and winds of Lake Superior winter, so was replaced with this wrought iron version. The mechanism that kept the light revolving was similar to that of a grandfather clock and required winding every 2.5 hours. The lightkeeper's cottage was attached by a bridge to the lighthouse stairs so that the lightkeeper was spared some of winter's harshness as he rewound the light multiple times per night.

Paula's not a fan of heights, but can you see her up on the catwalk?

This cart was used to haul down the large timbers before they were dropped into the water for travel to the mills. The cart wheels were huge, and the logs were lashed to the structure, but the cart itself appeared very small.

Here's one of the natural sand dunes which was used to push the logs down to the water.

The forest service sign was attention getting though.

Beautiful coastline, but respect the weather.