Ride across Massachusetts

 Ride across Massachusetts

I had planned to race this weekend and had entered the "Last person standing" race months ago.  I knew at least a month ago that this was not going to happen with my injury, so I started planning something "fun" on the bike.  I came up with a plan to bike across Massachusetts and was able to convince long-time running buddy, Scott Spence, to join.  We have been running together since we were both high school seniors (he at Chelmsford and me at Billerica).

I plotted out a 65 mile ride that would connect a bunch of bike paths and get us from RI to NH.  I picked up Scott and we drove an hour south to Woonsocket RI.  After a few minor adjustments to our bikes and kit we got a picture as we rolled into MA (Blackstone) and onto the (rough upaved) Southern New England Trunk Trail.  About 5 miles later we emerged on the road in Bellingham and continued north.

At 12 miles we rolled into Milford and got on the nice Upper Charles River trail.  This featured a mix of paved and smooth packed dirt.  The day was turning out to be fantastic with temps in the 60s and a mix of clouds and sun.  We passed through Holliston and Sherborn and at 22 miles we were back on roads.

We passed through Framingham, as we kept checking off towns (and town lines).  We crossed route 9 and the Mass Pike, which really gave us an indication that we were making progress.  At 28 miles we hit the Sudbury Reservoir trail, for about 4 miles of kind of rough trail.  That is the problem with not previewing any of this, I only knew about each trail from what was online.  Actually I think this one was signed for "NO Bikes".  It was part of the Bay Circuit trail and I was pretty sure that you can bike most of that.

We only had a couple of miles on road before getting on the excellent Assabet River trail.  At 38 miles we exited the trail in Hudson, then worked our way west to cross over 495,  Then we got on some nice quiet (although a bit hilly) roads which got us into Harvard at about 48 miles.  We got to the final rail trail in Ayer at about 53 miles and turned onto the Nashua River Rail trail.  We had 12 miles to the NH border and although Scott said he was regretting not parking at the end of the trail (and saving having to ride to his house) he was still riding strong.  For the most part Scott can bury me on anything flat or downhill, I was doing well on any climb and as the day progressed I was feeling stronger and stronger.

We hit our first rain of the day as we rolled through Groton.  Both of us were glad that the rain was in our last hour of riding and NOT at the start of the ride.  It got sunny again as we hit the Pepperell and Dunstable and the state line (Nashua NH).

We were done with our crossing but had a few miles to go to get back to Scott's.  Scott had said it was "a few miles that we'll do as a warm-down".  It turned into 8 miles, which was not done at an easy clip.  It felt good getting back to Scott's as the sky opened up.  We would've gotten poured on again if we'd been a bit slower.  It was a great day, so much fun riding along and chatting.  We got to see some paths neither of us had ever ridden before and 5 hours of pleasant (well, mostly pleasant) riding.