2008 is the 4th year I have done a version of this great loop bike ride in the Berkshire Hills of Northwest Connecticut, Taconic State Park of New York, and Western Massachusetts. The ride includes many roads with the word “Mountain” of “Hill” in the name, a few dirt sections, one portage through a “pond”, and two covered bridges. This year we started the ride in Norfolk, Connecticut and 21 riders showed up for the start. Some were regulars of the Eastern Bloc Cycling Club, and there were a few new faces.
The ride started out on Mountain Road from Norfolk past the Canaan Reservoir which turns into dirt. The road was smooth dirt for the most part, and the view of the water was worth a few bumps.
After Mountain Road there was a fun descent, then the real fun began as we took Cobble Road. With the rain the day before the water on cobble road was a little higher than normal. A few of the new faces were a little surprised by the bottom bracket deep water, but this is the signature part of this ride.
After getting my shoes wet on previous year’s rides, I followed Coleman’s lead in took my shoes and socks off and carried my bike through the water.
After the water crossing the we soon arrived at Music Mountain Road. As you can imagine, Music Mountain Road is a good climb and very scenic. Music Mountain is the home of the oldest continuing summer chamber music festival in this country.
View from the top of Music Mountain
From Music Mountain we turned left on Cream Hill Road, which is another steep climb. I don’t know if it was the cooler temeratures, or if I am in better shape this season, but the climb wasn’t has hard as I remembered in the past.
Near the top Cream Hill
After Cream Hill we descended to West Cornwall and crossed the covered bridge. Our first of two covered bridges on the ride.
Past the covered bridge we crossed Route 7 and headed up a steep climb on the road to Sharon, Connecticut.
On the downhill into Sharon I avoided a few dogs that chased me down the street, and made it to our first stop at a convenience store where we filled water bottles and a few people got a slice of pizza.
Scott fueling up on a slice of pepperoni
The stop was a little long and someone complained that we should wait at least 40 miles for the next stop, but hey, stopping for food is half the fun. Just after we got going again we took Lovers Lane, which is a little shortcut to route 361 on a downhill dirt road. There may have been one too many potholes because soon after we got back onto the paved road I noticed I had a flat back tire. So again the group stopped as I changed the flat. On my first attempt, my spare tube had a hole in it, so it was about the slowest tire change possible, but with a little help getting the tire pumped up to 115 psi, we got back on the road and headed north into New York. 
A few people were hammering on the front of the group and split things up a bit. Some riders decided to cut the ride short and turned off on Route 44 in Millerton, New York. We continued North to Taconic State Park. We took a rail trail to the store just across from the park entrance. We got some water there, and I went to the bike shop near the trail to get a spare tube just in case I flatted again.
The next part of the ride headed up the climb to Bash Bish State Park into Massachusetts over Mount Washington. This climb is a 15-16% grade in places and the most challenging climb of the ride.
Proof that I was on the ride! Here I’m climbing Bash Bish. Nice Hair!
We regrouped at the top of the climb and headed down a fast descent on the Massachusetts side on Mount Washington on East Street. I started off going pretty fast down the climb but backed off a bit because there were a lot of potholes and bad pavement and I wanted to see what was coming up. Just as we got to be bottom of the hill, there were 5 or 6 riders just ahead of me, and all of the sudden Paul lost control and hit the ground at about 35 miles per hour. It was a terrible sound of metal and skin hitting the pavement. He must have slid 30 to 40 yards on his ass and shoulder down the road, across the sand and into the grass. As I rode past still trying to slow down it smelled like burning rubber.
That’s gotta hurt!
I quickly slowed down and turned around to see if he was o.k. Paul was laying in the grass and looked really bad. He was shaking like he was in shock, but after a little while he recovered a little and took inventory. Thank God he didn’t break any bones or have a head injury. He was laying on his back so at first the amount of road rash wasn’t so noticeable, but then he turned over and put his hand on his butt and said “is that my ass?” It was soon apparent that the smell of burning rubber had been Paul’s Lycra shorts disintegrating. He had the worst case of road rash I have ever seen.
Someone called 911 and a volunteer fireman showed up soon with an ambulance not far behind. The fireman had been a volunteer for many local MS rides, and said he had dealt with road rash many times before. Paul went in the ambulance to the local hospital to get his road rash cleaned up. The firemen took his bike to the firehouse. With that excitement over, we continue on minus one rider to South Egremont, Massachusetts, then south to Sheffield.
View of Mount Washington from Sheffield Egremont Road
In Sheffield we rode south briefly of Route 7 then turned to cross the Sheffield Covered Bridge. After the bridge there was a short dirt/gravel section that actually had some big rocks that were a little hard to navigate on skinny tires, but we all made it with no flat tires.
From Sheffield we took County Road that climbed gradually north, then we turned south to Mill River where we made our last water stop. The store had some home made cookies that helped fuel me for the final miles.
On the way back to Norfolk we climbed Tobey Hill Road, which is very steep, and then there was a difficult hill on Route 272 on the final miles of the ride. 
Tobey Hill Road
We made it back to Norfolk and some of us had a beer and some food at the Speckled Hen Pub. I made it through the ride in better shape than previous years. I made sure to down a Hammer Gel before each of the major climbs and I think that helped keep me from bonking. I’m looking forward to some other good rides in 2008.
Full set of photos from the ride | View Slideshow
