Sunderland to Northfield Mass loop around Connecticut River

Had a fun ride yesterday.   Terrain was pretty good, mostly flat.   Saw quite a few late 60-70 something retirees in their full road biker spandex outfits out bicycling too.     They still have gorgeous, expensive road bikes, but they're like 20 years out of date.   Amuses me, Idk why.      Probably because roadies used to think that super skinny tires were best (fastest), but modern road bicyclists ride much wider/thicker tires.    700 x 35 tires have been proven faster than 700 x 25's.   Way more comfortable too.

Anyhoo, the ride I did only had 1800 ft elevation gain over 43miles, fairly flat.   Longest climb I did was half a mile long with 200ft elevation gain, so pretty easy compared to the Covered Bridge ride I did before.   

Also, my butt didn't get sore at all, so I'm ready for longer bike tours I think.   1-2 days before the ride, I discovered that the seat clamp holding the fore/aft position of the bike saddle had gotten loose enough that the seat had slid all the way back without me noticing.   I think that was why my lower back was getting sore on rides.    Oops.   Didn't notice because I keep a dust cover over the suspension seatpost to keep it from getting dirty and squeaking, and the clamp was still tight enough to hold the seat level.   So I'm happy to report, I biked for over 4 hours and my back felt fine, no issues.

Had some fun food stops, one was my favorite gas station along Rt 2, they have good prepped food.   Cold/hot.   I often stop there when heading up to Vermont to camp in the truck.     Also finally risked eating at the sketchy taco truck in Northfield.   Glad I tried it, yummy.   And happy to report a day later, no digestion issues.

My only regret for yesterday's ride was not bringing a chair to sit on for lunch/breaks.    I think I may go to REI and try the Helinox, which is lighter.    Going to test first, and bring my current Kilosgear chair to compare.

 

The helinox is 22 ounces, the Kilosgear I already have is 36, so it would save nearly a pound of weight.   But I have doubts that saving a pound of weight is worth $160.   I've been losing over a pound a week for the last year.    

For half the price, $80, I'm considering this Crazy Creek chair option, pic above.   It's 2 ounces heavier than the helinox at 24 ounces, with built in foam and carbon stays to support the back panel,  but it looks more rugged and easier to pack/unpack.    Reading the helinox reviews,  people break the plastic connector rod connectors sitting on uneven terrain.   At worst for the Crazy Creek, there are complaints of stitching slowly failing, but i can repair that easily on my sewing machine if it happens.

With the Crazy Creek chair, if I'm stuck in my tent waiting out the rain, It gives me a way to sit up inside the tent without damaging the tent floor, making it easier to read or watch movies on my phone.   I can unbuckle the straps and use it under my air mattress for puncture protection or more insulation during cold weather camping.   The down side is sitting on the ground, which isn't as comfortable for my butt even with the back support, and it folds up a little long compared to the helinox (12" vs 20").      Another bonus though, I could use the crazy creek when sitting in my truck camper's roof top tent.  that would be a nice option.   

I still love the discontinued kilosgear chair.   It's like a lazy boy version of an ultralight chair, so I think for day trips I'll just bring the kilosgear chair, even though it weighs 1 pound more.   It's more comfortable than benches, and it feels super solid.     Getting old, but I love taking a comfy 10-15 minute break on long rides, and the chair helps a lot.   Gives my butt and lower back a break.  

I had the Kilosgear on the Erie Canal ride, but I didn't bring cooking or meal stuff; it was too easy to find food along the trail.   I think I'm worrying about adding 10lbs of food and cooking stuff.    The tiny 1.5 liter pressure cooker I got weighs the same as the kilos gear chair.    Not to mention the stove, dry food, and bear vault canister.   Then again, I'm 220lbs now, and I was 265lbs when I biked the Erie Canal trail, how much should I worry about adding 10lbs of food and cooking stuff; I need to get over it I think.    I'd rather have healthy beans/oatmeal meal options when touring.    It's too easy to get caught up in all the weight saving stuff you read/watch online about bikepacking, but I think i'm way too old for the minimalist approach.   

 Anyway, here's a map of my ride

 

After the first 5 miles, you join a few miles the Ct river rail trail.   

The rail trail ends in Turners Falls Mass.   While crossing the bridge i took photos and video of the falls.

 

 I posted a short 30 second montage of short video clips I took of the falls to my instagram account, 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZr_HYBRe4h/ 

Cool cantilever/arch dam design

Near the top of the longest climb of the day, I saw this house with birdhouses decorating the top cover over their front door.

 

Also during the climb there was this very unbothered deer staring at me as I pedaled by.    What impresses me is i was able to activate the camera mode on my phone, unhook it from the mount, and snap photos one handed while pedaling uphill.   I was only going 4-5mph, so at most would've only hurt my pride if i fell. 

 

 

 

 Used AI to edit out the power lines, French King Bridge on Rt 2 over the Connecticut River

 

Green River Covered Bridge Guilford Vermont

 

Had a blast yesterday.    Just realized, I think it's technically the first time I ever biked from one state into another.   Lol.    From the north side of Greenfield Mass, up to Guilford Vermont.

I brought everything I needed for the ride.    There were no stores along the way.   Glad I brought my swim trunks and towel to cool off before biking the last hour back to the truck.   I'd sweated so much, the thin, khaki colored sun pants I wear over my bike shorts looked like I'd peed myself.   They dry quick on the downhills though, so it was fine when I got back to the truck.

For food, I pre-made a pinto bean mix with sliced raw onion, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, pickled banana peppers and home made Southwest sauce.    After mixing it all in a small mixing bowl, I packed it it into a double walled, insulated, stainless steel container.   On the 1.5 hour drive to Greenfield Mass, I had it in the truck's dometic fridge, so the container was super chilled before I started the bike ride.     I packed a couple of large wheat/low carb wraps on the bike with a plastic plate.   Worked great!    So when I stopped an hour into the ride for my first wrap, the bean mix was still nice and cool.   I brought a silicone covered spoon to help scoop it out of the insulated container.   I saved enough bean mix for a 2nd wrap a couple hours later when I got back to the covered bridge.     Way better than eating a cliff bar every hour.   I also brought a couple large apples, a peeler and a paring knife.     Peeling an apple is the only safe way to get rid of the pesticides IMHO (washing doesn't work well because of the wax they spray on).  I use the paring knife,  so I don't break my front tooth crown biting into the apple.

Anyhoo 

I got to the bridge about 1.5 hours into the bike ride, then I did the loop you see at the top of the map pic above.    that loop was a sh!t ton of climbing.    My bike computer decided there were 8 climbs on this ride, and the last 2 climbs were each over 2 miles long.   The very last climb had 560ft of elevation gain.    Thank God I have such low gearing on my bike.      There were multiple times I was fully in the granny gear and only going about 2mph.

I can't explain why, but I had a blast doing this ride yesterday.   I could have easily driven it in the truck, but it just feels like way more of an adventure biking it.   Biking speed is just fast enough to keep me interested, but not so fast where stuff whizzes by.    And it's quiet enough, I can hear the river in one ear, and listen to an audiobook in the other.

Most of the time the trees gave me shade, almost zero bugs, I was by the river half the time so I didn't have to worry about water.     This photo shows the cnoc bag and sawyer water filter combo i use to filter  water.   I had two, 1 liter bottles.   I fully drank 2 liters and about 2/3rds of a liter after leaving the bridge to head back to the truck.    I probably could have gotten by on just the 2 liters I started with, but I was far far happier not worrying about that and being able to drink as much as I wanted.   

Here's my water filter setup    The hanging bag weighs less than half an empty bottle.   I could just scoop water with one bottle, screw the filter on top of the bottle and squeeze into the other, but then you have a contaminated bottle.    It also takes more effort to squeeze the water, and you have stop occasionally to unscrew the bottle a little to let some air in, and then resume squeezing.   The bag just lets gravity push the water through the filter.   It takes about 5 minutes per bottle, which gives me time to snack and relax before moving on.   If anything, I kind of like the forced break.      Sometimes I get into go go go mode, and it's helpful to take a break occasionally.

 

I changed the wheels to the tougher, heavier rims I have with bigger tires.  55mm bead to bead vs the 42mm tires I have for all road riding.    The bigger tires made me slower, but it was more comfortable for sure.   I'll probably ride the 55's when I do the bike tour from my parents, and when I do the Vermont rides.    They drop my average speed from 11mph to 9-10 on the long rides, but it's worth the speed penalty being more comfortable.   I'd rather  take an extra hour to ride 50 miles and be comfortable than be miserable the entire ride. 

 I took a couple videos.   First one is of the covered bridge   In the video player, in the bottom right there's a little square thing to the left of the flag you can click on to make the video expand to the full screen.

 The second one was on the Mass side, close to where i parked.

 

I brought stuff to shower at the truck before driving the 1.5 hours home.     Also had a nice indian dinner from the fridge before driving back.    Yay having a microwave! 

 anyhoo, here's a photo dump from the ride yesterday.    if reading this from a computer, just click on a photo to start the slideshow, use left/right arrow keys to scroll.    

 

 

 

 

Retaining a little water from yesterday.   It was a good hard ride.    Going to do my easy recovery ride today, eat right and hope to see a good weigh-in tomorrow.    Tomorrow will mark 1 year since I started my weight loss journey.   Was hoping to break 220 officially.   If I don't, it's ok.  I got super close.   

 I saw 220.6 Sunday.    Did a  hard ride Sunday (25 miles) and yesterday (32miles).    So even though I saw 222.4 this morning, I'm pretty sure that's just water.     So I'm going to go do my 11 mile, easy loop and I'm going to go easy on it.    Then I'll just putter around the house today and see what happens tomorrow.    Wish me luck.   Technically if I see 220.4 or lower that's <100kg and that's my main goal.   to weigh less than 100kg's  from here on out.