Biddies Gone Biking: Farm to Fork Fondo

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.