NCC Thursday Hilltown Gravel series: #3

Despite a remote start at Stillwater in Deerfield, we still had 11 riders for this episode. Our start was a little delayed as we were waiting to hear if a rider would make it. So we departed at 5:45 with David, Meg, Brent, John, Joe, Gus, Chris, Rob, Jacob and Kate. WIthin a mile we were riding up Hawkes, it starts as a beatifully paved road but slowly turns into gravel with ruts, and you have to find your way for a good line. Where last week there was a tree blocking the road, this week it had been cleared and we had free passage. At some point I went back to check on Jakob and Kate. They took it a little easier and continued by themselves.

When I caught back up to the group we finished the last sections of Hawkes and continued on to Taylor road. When we passed the pond we were greeted by a big blue heron, flying up from the edge of the road; a mighty sight. We then worked our way into Greenfiled by descending South Shelburne Falls rd, which had some potholes and a cool 180 degree switchback near the end of the descent.

We had do some manoeuvering to get across route 2a and find our way to Greenfield Community College. Once we passed the college we quickly find out our way to Old Greenfield rd, which is in a bad state, few sections are just one lane as it was washed out.  Folks had fun climbing up, there was even a town sprint (well David was sprinting, impressive he had some energy left after the effort up). We regrouped a few times before we descended, and via Zerah and Lucy Fiske worked our way back to South Shelburne road that took as to Old Albany rd. Just after Fiske, John turned right for an alternative road home. On Old Albany Joe suddenly upped the pace, to “build up some distance”, until we all felt a little lightheaded by the exhaust fumes of a old pickup truck that passed us shortly before.

It wasn’t clear if that was the pickup truck that blocked us on the first part of the Old Albany descent, but fortunately halfway down, realized, he had a group of eager beavers behind him, and let us pass The upper part of Old Albany had been grated, but the bottom part was still sketchy as Gus remarked when we completed this section. From here on it was all Upper and Lower rd back to the finish. Even though it got quite cold, we still made it with enough daylight.