BikeRide

The Tour of the Litchfield Hills is one of my favorite organized tours in Connecticut. This year I rode the 30 mile course with my 10-year-old daughter on our tandem. The hills on a tandem were very challenging. We had a great time, and the ride had a record turnout, and beautiful weather. We even got our picture in the local paper.

A couple other blogs with ride reports:

Cool Hills, 77 Miles, No Sweat

Mike’s Blog: Tour of the Litchfield Hills

Hobgoblin Rides: Not a Century

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

This past Saturday I planned and lead a 125 mile ride with my cycling club. We met in Collinsville, Connecticut at 7 am. I made up the route and tried to string together some of the roads from some of my favorite rides I have done in the past. We headed over the Nepaug Dam, then took lots of backroads to Winchester Center and Norfolk. Scott and Pat suggested an alternate route to avoid the super steep Burr Mountain Road. Randy got a late start, and caught us on the way to Norfolk.

At Norfolk we took Mountain Road. I had scouted out this road earlier in the year. There are some dirt sections, but it was hard packed and smooth for the most part, so it was passable on skinny tires. The road passed the edge of the Canaan Resevoir which is very scenic, and on the other side of Canaan Mountain there is a fun downhill past a dairy farm.

When I was planning out the ride, I saw a road called Cobble Road. To me that didn’t sound very smooth, so my original plan was to go farther to connect to route 63. When we got to Cobble Road, I could see that it was paved, so I lead the group right onto the road, but just after the turn, there was a sign that said “Road Closed.”

I was about to have the group turn around, but there were a few chants of “I’m sure we can get through”, so we headed down the road. Soon we could see that water was over the road. Scott lead the way, and made it around a few puddles, but the water got deeper, and soon he had no choice but to go through about a foot of water. After a few of us had ridden through, there was no going back. Water was above the botton bracket on the bike, and we all had wet shoes after the crossing.

There was a short hill before connecting to Route 63. We were only on Route 63 for a mile or so before turning onto Music Mountian Road. I had first discovered this road on a fall drive a couple of years ago, and ridden it in the opposite direction last year. Music Mountain is a gradual climb, and a very nice backroad. Just after passing a waterfall, we made the turn on Cream Hill Road. This hill is longer and steeper than I had remembered, but the climb is rewarded by a fun descent. I saw some other cyclists heading the opposite direction.

We made a stop at the West Cornwall Store to refuel and fill water bottles. Coleman found an unopened Bud Light outside the store, so Scott drank some of it. Beer has lots of carbs … right? We set off again across the covered bridge, and started climbing again on the way to Sharon, CT. This was another scenic section of road that crosses the Appalachian Trail. In Sharon we cut across Lovers Lane, a dirt road that connected to Route 361, and headed north to Millerton, New York. We crossed route 44 and continued on some more scenic quiet roads. I saw more cyclists out enjoying these great roads and nice weather.

We connected with Route 22, but I saw that there is a rail trail that we could have taken to Taconic State park, and that would have been a little better way to go. Route 22 has a good shoulder, but more traffic.

We stopped at the Depot Deli across from Taconic State Park. It was a good place to stop for lunch. There are picnic tables outside. The Deli is right at the end of the rail trail, and there is a bicycle shop across the street. I got a turkey sandwich and topped off my water bottles.

We left the deli and started the climb to Bash Bish Falls back over into Massachusetts. This is a very steep climb that I had done last year on the Berkshire 300K. We all made it up the climb and regrouped at the top.

After a fun downhill, we cut over to Route 7, but then missed a turn. Don’t trust Google Maps. They had the wrong name for a road, so we went too far on route 7 which was super busy with Memorial Day traffic. After a couple of miles we figured we had gone too far, so we turned around and backtracked. We turned on Maple Avenue and headed toward Mill River. I bonked at about the 80 mile mark, and fell behind the group. I just wanted to pull over and take a nap. I made it to the Mill River store, where we made our final stop. After a couple of ice cream sandwiches, I got my blood sugar level up, and I felt better.

There were two other cycle tourist at the store with fully loaded panniers doing a weekend trip. This is a really great area for bicycle touring. I struggled up the climb out of Mill River and back route 183 to Connecticut. After getting back into Connecticut the road has a lot of gradual downhill, so I recovered and felt better on the final miles down Sandy Brook, to Riverton, and back to home.

This was a really challenging route, but it was very scenic on backroads with very little traffic. It was a great group of people to spend the day with exporing the countryside. Eleven of of finished the ride.

With stops it took us about 9:30 with about 8:00 of actual time on the bike. I hope to make this ride an annual event.

Route: Collinsville CT, Nepaug, Winchester Center, Norfolk, Mountain Road, Cobble Road, Route 63, Music Mountain, Cream Hill, West Cornwall, Sharon CT, Millerton NY, Bash Bish, Egremont MA, Sheffield MA, Mill River MA, New Marlborogh MA, 183, Sandy Brook, Riverton, Pleasant Valley, Route 44, Route 179.

Photos

The Tour of the Litchfield Hills is a charity fund raising tour to benefit the fight against cancer. The ride started in Torrington, Connecticut.  Many of my club mates participated in the ride. There were options for 30, 50, and 75 miles. We did the 75 mile route. National Womens Road Race Champion Katherine Curi of the Webcore team showed up to do the ride, and ended up riding with a group from my club.

Curi is a native of Goshen, Conn. There was a large turnout for the mass start at 8:00 a.m. I figured there would be a large pack, but it split up pretty quickly on the hills climbing out of Torrington. I felt pretty good on the hills. Jim from my club was riding, so I decided to back off the pace of the front group a little and stick with him. I’m not sure how long I would have been able to stick with the front group anyway, and didn’t really want to ride alone. Jim was good company.

The ride was on really nice roads. I’ve been on most of the route before either riding or driving, but I don’t get over in that area of Connecticut often, and it is a great area for riding. There were a lot of rolling hills, with a few step climbs.

There were quite a few supported stops stocked with water and bananas. I felt great until about the 60 mile mark, and then started feeling the fatigue set in. There was a bit of a headwind the last 10 miles. We averaged 18.2 MPH.

Back at the finish there were sandwiches, pizza, fruit, and drinks. There was an auction were someone bid over $2000 for a signed Lance Armstrong photo. In all, $57,000 was raised to help cancer related causes in the local community, and over 800 riders turned out to participate, exceeding the expectations of the event organizers.

This was certainly a ride I will look forward to doing again in the future.

Photos …