Great Pumpkin 2019

 It was time again for the Great Pumpkin Ride put on by the Fauquier Trails Coalition. I love this ride because of the time of year (just in case you were starting to think it was already too cold), the food (pie, soup, and other pumpkin-based delights), and the festive atmosphere (costumes, which I love to look at but hate to wear). 

The plan was for me to leave at 9 and laurie to leave at 9:30 so we could meet up on the trail (I was riding a little further). We drove separately and saw each other for two minutes at the start before I had to take off.  

I think we need new clothes. We're always wearing the same thing!

The first rest-stop on this ride has no food, which is funny because the food is one of the best things about this ride!

Just a church and a water spigot. And some porta-potties. I remember the first year I was so put out, but I'm used to it now.

There was a beautiful, subtle sky. At one point, the road turned to the left with this golden horizon behind it and a burnt looking field and the riders were passing in front of it with all their colored shirts. I tried to take a picture from my bike but I couldn't because...I had a band-aid on my thumb! Who knew a band-aid could cause such trouble. I couldn't text because my phone didn't recognize I was touching the phone. Then I couldn't take pictures. Ugh!

This is the church with all the pumpkins and mums out front. I have pictures from two years ago so didn't bother taking more--with the thumb and all.

But I did take a picture of my food (embarrassing). The first two years I ate blueberry scones here, then thought: why blueberries? It's October! So this year: orange scone, two pumpkin muffins, and a banana. Yum.

This is the ride where I saw my first spectacular purple house. See past pumpkin ride here. So today, I stopped for this cute house. Nowhere near the commitment to purple, but cute just the same. The other house, it turned out, was just around the corner.

Laurie and I planned to meet where the 68- and the 53-mile rides meet back up after the 68 takes a jaunt to add miles. Laurie made a wrong turn on her ride which ended up serving us. She arrived about 5 minutes after me at the meeting place. 

Here she comes!

Everything was golden, but the sky was gray, so it doesn't really translate to the pictures.

Laurie's friend John was out riding as well. They're in clarinet quartet together. He was riding the 53, so we saw him on and off as we kept to the 68-mile trail, which deviated in places.

This is the best rest stop--at Mt. Horeb church. Pumpkin soup made by the Mennonites. It was excellent. Had to be full of cream. Also, pumpkin pie, pumpkin seed garp, pumpkin bars. And other usual things like pb&J and bananas. I had some of everything. Rt. 11 chips too. Last year we got whoopie pies too. Gotta admit I missed them this time!

The next rest stop was at Old Bust Head Brewery.  They have to make this worth it because you have to work to get to this place. Laurie and I were both feeling our legs, and it's a lot of up and down.

But then we got there and ate a quesadilla, black beans, pumpkin bread pudding, and a mini beer. Yum!

This guy rode with Charlie Brown and Snoopy
hitching a ride, looking for the Great Pumpkin no doubt!

We also met some nice folks who do the ride every year who told us they do the Bon Ton Roulet in the Finger Lakes every year.  I've looked at this ride before, but it seemed most do 80 miles per day for seven days. That seems like a lot. But these folks told me lots of folks do the 40-55 mile version, or switch back and forth. That sounds more doable. I'll have to try that once I get started on my states for the second round!

Laurie and John eating their pumpkin sweets

Something about that snack (was it the beer?) gave me a burst of energy. After riding a few miles out from this stop, I got frustrated with the group I was in. They kept breaking my momentum on the hills. I knew they were stronger riders, but it turns out they were less consistent, or less skilled? I don't know. They would pass me on the flats but bog down on the ups and downs. I passed them on an uphill and ended up never looking back. I sprinted in to the finish only dropping from 15.3 to 15.2 mph (the end is all up). I felt great!

The beginning and end of this ride happens on a bike trail - for about a mile. On the way out, it feels like the ride hasn't started yet. It's crowded and there's no room to pass. But on the way home, everyone is spread out and there's often no one. And it feels like you're back even though you're not, because it's so flat!

And that's it. Pathetic pictures this year but great ride. I was supposed to go to Bust Head with Laurie and meet Deidre and Christian, but Laurie had to head home because she unexpectedly had tickets to THE WORLD SERIES with Chris (fun!). I finished so long after Deidre and Christian they were ready to go home by the time I was heading there. It was kind of sad - I was looking forward to that beer. Instead, I ended my night exhausted on the couch with chips and salsa and a Bass Ale.

Distance: 68 miles
Speed: 15.2 mph

Farm to Fork Fondo - Berkshires, MA

Lisa, Deb, and I started out Friday morning at 9am for a weekend adventure in MA. Forgot to take a picture until we hit our first rest stop in MD or PA (?).

We were not in a rush, so when we got hungry, we stopped at the Executive Diner in Hawthorne, NY. I had my heart set on the PB&J and boiled egg that I'd packed, but Deb had the spanokopita (which looked amazing and homemade), and Lisa had the...ugh, I can't remember! But she said it was good. We were tempted by the bakery so Deb bought eclairs and conolis for later that night.

We arrived at the house at the same time as Katie, Deidre, and Christian, and after much ado, finally found the right door to enter through (yeah, it was right there in the directions the whole time).

Homey and well equipped kitchen

My bedroom

We sat outside on Friday night and ate too much cheese and drank wine. Happy to relax after a long day on the road.

A cheese-level view of happy hour

The living room

The down-stuffed Cabriole (ironically fancy for the Shaker style)

My favorite room in the house

The Shaker style and culture turned out to be very important to this area where we stayed. We didn't know, was it a religion? A culture? A furniture style? A little research revealed it began with a woman named Jane Wardley who sought a simpler life after losing four children during infancy or toddlerhood. She advocated celibacy--and no wonder after losing four kids.

We were curious: how did Jane's desires translate to furniture? We decided ultimately that the clean lines of Shaker furniture evolved to satisfy the desire for simplicity of these people.

Deb, Lisa, and Katie on the front porch

On Saturday, we all headed to the Mount Greylock State Reservation to hike to the summit.  I had originally wanted to ride the 10-mile ascent to the summit, but there were no takers, and the Farm to Fork Fondo was so close by, and the hiking looked beautiful too, so we came up with an equally fun plan--hike to the top!

Katie and I had too much fun with the interactive diorama of the area. You could push a button to light up the various trails.

Deb and Katie inspect the Appalachian Trail which is lit up in white.

The view from the visitor center was beautiful - before we ever started hiking.

We hiked the Hopper Trail to the summit. It took a little sleuthing down a gravel fire road to find the trail head, but we persevered.

Pic by Christian

There were lots of signs, but we were never clear where we were going.

Both of the below pics by Christian or Lisa or Katie. Aaah! We all shared and now I'm not sure who took what out of the pics that aren't mine.

 

Thanks Christian for the pic!

Fall was just beginning. Since we'd driven so far north, my allergies acted up. My sinuses were shocked to find themselves suddenly immersed in fall. I had a terrible headache, but Lisa gave me Allegra, which helped a lot.

This bit of rock reminded me of a photo I took of a slab of reddish shale in Arizona.

We could tell how dry the summer must have been by the planks intended to usher us through the mud. But there was no mud.

We eventually hooked up with the Appalachian Trail. It was really fun just to be on it for a little ways.

I did not take this cool pic. Love the AT logo.

A hiker shelter we found along the way perched on the edge of a small pond. Pristine.

View from the glassless window inside.

  

There was a ton of graffiti, obviously, but none more memorable than this fantasy of pepperoni pizza, written, no doubt, by a hungry hiker.

Just before the summit (I think), we came across this quote from Henry David Thoreau engraved on a rock. Lisa snapped a pic.

It were as well to be educated in the shadow of a mountain
as in more classic shade.
Some will remember no doubt,
 not only that they went to college,
but that they went to the mountain.

The summit of Mt. Greylock was surprisingly commercial. Anywhere you put a parking lot, things lose their luster, I suppose.

The summit of Mt. Greylock

Just down from the summit there was an "emergency shelter" for skiers. This looked super duper cozy. A roof, a platform above the cold ground, and a fire for every body. What more can you ask for?

Then came the work of finding Robinson's Point. I had the idea I wanted to eat our lunch away from the crowds at the summit, but it required we press on with rumbling stomachs and an uncertain direction. We followed the AT down from the summit.

Eventually, we found the turn to Robinson's Point then began a rather treacherous decent to the overlook--all the while knowing we had to hike back up while also hoping to preserve our legs for the ride the next day.

The view looking north from Robinson's Point

We ate PB&Js made with the ingredients we bought at the Mennonite(?) store the night before. There were chocolate chip cookies too!

The return trip from the point to the AT was remarkably short. Going up is easier, and things go faster when they are familiar. Two points proven in earnest this day.

Below, we navigate a boggy section of trail.

Lisa surrounded by fall foliage & a blue
trail marker to match her shirt!

Lisa's cool pic, I believe. Great color!

White-barked birch trees were scattered among the trees in the woods, some stood along the trail with their papery outsides peeling off. It made me think of a Robert Frost poem I love, appropriately called Birches.

We took the Overlook Trail back to the Hopper Trail because it (understandably) had an overlook. We arrived to find two smart young men enjoying the view. They shamed us with their knowledge of the area.

Clearly a very dry summer.
Nothing in the waterfall.

Stretching it out after a six mile hike

  

After a day in the woods, we relaxed with a pint at the M&M Tap and Tavern in New Lebanon, NY. At the end of the night, Lisa and Katie persuaded the waitress to give us fire wood from the brick-oven kitchen for $5. (We wanted to build a fire in our fire pit.)

Later that night, Christian, Lisa, Deb, Katie, and I sat by the fire and listened to the owls. Yes, Deidre went to bed at 8:30!--and slept through the night till morning!

The next morning, we were ready to go for the Farm to Fork Fondo!

Rest stop #1: spanokopita! If there was a limit to one, we ignored it.

This was some kind of little alter at the rest stop under an apple tree.

On our way out, Katie talked to a few women farmers who grew herbs for tea. We had some tea made from golden rod. Then they explained how they were trying to bring back endangered local plants. They gave us "seed bombs" to distribute in the countryside. They were golf-ball-sized balls of mud containing seeds of endangered plants. We took them and threw them into the fields during our ride.

Holding up our seed bombs!

Tiny house in the premises

Departing from the first rest stop

A typically big New England Cemetery full of headstones.

Not a great pic - but the purple house of the trip, with a sign saying "Love" over the door.

Rest stop #2 featured ice cream. I would normally NEVER eat ice cream on a bike ride, except when it's offered for free by a local creamery! (and ok yes, when I have to pay for it too - the proof).

Dutch-influenced house next to the 2nd rest stop. 

After the 2nd rest stop (at about mile 36?), the hills got a little more serious.

Lisa coming up that big hill on the chart!

And after all that climbing was our most exhilarating descent ever. I hit 42.4 mph! (yes, the .4 matters in this case because just one more tenth of a mph and I would have gotten to round up!). This tops our 40 mph descent in Colorado, although that one lasted longer--and in all that open space, felt slower. Read about it here.

At rest stop #3, we ate donuts. Yup.

Red barns everywhere.

Rest stop #4 was up a gravel hill. Quite an effort to get there, during which Lisa lost her chain and almost went over onto the rocks. That would NOT have been a fun end to the ride. It proved worth it to climb the hill for the potato tarts, maple syrup, and HORSES!

Lisa got a lesson in buggy racing.

I made a friend.

Just before we left, a little black pony got tangled up in his enclosure and dragged a bit of fencing down on top of himself. It was quite traumatic, but he was rescued in the end, poor thing.

Somehow I don't have a single picture of the finish where we all met up for a (long awaited) beer. Deidre, Christian, and Katie left soon after we ate to shower and hit the road for home. Lisa, Deb, and I stopped by a kitschy liquor store for a bottle of wine and got a recommendation to eat at the Backwater Grill on Queechey Road. It was a blast into the 70s! Also, very local. I think the winter folks were enjoying having their bar back after all the summer folks along the little lake (pond?) had gone home. Then here came these unexpected female tourists. We definitely got some looks when we entered. It felt like The Ozarks in there!

Blue Cat Lodge from the TV show

Lisa and Deb in front of the Backwater Grill

 There were tons of old books on the wall and a view of the dock out the window. These pics are during the light of day - it was a bit darker in there when we visited.

The view out the window.

Then it was time to go. Great weekend! And state 13 colored in on the map!

Hike: 6 miles

Bike distance: 48 miles

Speed: 12.4 mph