State Lines

Day 7
Thursday 5/31/18
Shelburne Falls, MA to Williamstown, MA 32.1 miles

I had some resistance to cutting yesterday short to stay at a B&B in Shelburne Falls. However, my opinion may have been swayed by waking up in a bed, and a breakfast of fresh fruit & yogurt, eggs florentine, bacon and a mixed fruit crisp.

We had one prominent point on our ride today. The elevation chart showed a giant spike smack in the middle of our day. Prior to reaching the impeding mountain, we had smooth sailing along the Deerfield River atop fresh pavement. This gave me the opportunity to jabber to myself “Like Buttah!” for several miles.

Eventually our road started veering upwards, and continued up for about 7-8 miles. We were rewarded with views of the Berkshires and into Vermont. Followed by a screaming downhill into Williamstown.

We had our first “warm showers” experience, and stayed with Nora and Brett who were extremely welcoming and generous. We capped the night off with cribbage and riverside pizza.

Some shots from our ride:

A little front porch cribbage to end the day:

Day 8
Friday 6/1/18
Williamstown, MA to Waterford, NY 38 miles

Great day of riding today. Nora and Brett almost convinced us to stay over for one more day in Williamstown. We consumed our breakfast of cold pizza, by which point the morning rain abated, so we decided to chug onward.

We quickly left Massachusetts, cut through the Southwest corner of Vermont and entered New York! We spent most of our day cruising over rolling hills on smooth pavement through lovely farm land.

I am writing this post from the comfort of our tent as raindrops gently splatter above. We ended for the day near the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal bike trail in Waterford, NY. Waterford has a visitor center and city park that boaters and cyclists alike can stay at, equipped with bathrooms, showers and electrical outlets for recharging. Boaters are docked along the rivers edge, cyclists (just us) tenting in the grass.

We plan to follow the Erie Canal bike trail across New York State. I am looking forward to cycle touring infrastructure through New York. The canal system provides several free camping options spaced out along the trail.

Crossing the Hudson:

Our water front locale for the evening:

By Dan