There were a few barns sighted on today’s ride, but the most important barn was the figurative barn at the end of the ride: my niece Karen’s home in Natick, a suburb of Boston. I still have a short 40 mile ride to the beach tomorrow, but this is where we will be staying the next few days after the ride ends, so it really felt like the proverbial horse rushing to the barn at the end of the day.
The feeling was compounded by the fact that most of the ride was on busy, sometimes poorly maintained Massachusetts roads with narrow shoulders, the day grew increasingly warm (ending around 90), and I was accompanied by Karen’s husband, Jeff, an experienced cyclist.
Together, for most of the ride, we just put our heads down and drove to the finish line. Near the end, Jeff took over leading us in as we were in his neighborhood, so I was freed from having to keep glancing at the cue sheet.
As a result of this pace, we finished early, but had little time to take pictures. Quite frankly, most of what I saw was the narrow strip of road ahead of me, which required all my attention. We did see a few traditional New England churches, like this one in Templeton.
And there were a few barns.
Erving, Massachusetts (solar panels, again!)
Athol, Massachusetts
Bolton, Massachusetts
Sudbury, Massachusetts
The Technical Stuff
Northfield, MA to Natick, MA
79.8 miles
3,622 feet of climbing.
Average speed 14.7 miles per hour
Weather: Bright sunshine all day. Temperatures mid-60s to start and around 90 at the end. Winds calm.
You can see the entire route to date here.