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.