The near perfect fall weather conditions continue for our Saturdays. I hadn’t ridden south of the Northampton area in a while, and I know there are beautiful routes just over the state line, south of Granville, MA. One of my favorites is a loop around the Barkhamsted Reservoir. I decided to post a ride start from Westfield to make it more reasonable for time and climbing instead of starting from Northampton.
I modified the route late on Friday based on Tim P’s knowledge of some roads I have never been to down there. This modified route would take us through the little center of Riverton, CT and keep us off main roads for quite some time, and offer up a rather challenging climb.
I had four other riders meet me at the start (Madeline, Conan, Brent and Eric C.) under mostly clear skies and about 50 degrees F. I was pleased to have this many riders, as this weekend was pretty busy in the valley with homecoming/family weekends and, many of the usual NCC riders were racing TreeHouse CX.
I led the group out of downtown to Granville Rd. This was the first major climb of the day. I have ridden this many times. It climbs up past the Springfield water supply facilities.
The group was quite stronger than I, and so I dropped for the first time of the day, although somehow I earned Strava medals. There was a “top” just over the town line and they waited for me. I was able to hang on for the next segment, taking us by the Granville Resevior and eventually to the center of Granville, MA.
From the center, to keep us off the main roads, there is a beautiful side road- Water St- which I have ridden several times. But, wait for it….
This confirms my rides always have some sort of a bridge out theme!
(Unfortunately this website no longer has all the previous ride reports over the last 14 years I wrote, so I can't link you to "bridge out rides".)
Anyway, luckily, it was not any huge pit or tracks we had to navigate. It was an easy over some blocks. Honestly, this time I was like “WTF”? In any case, the benefit of a bridge closed is zero traffic and perhaps an even more enjoyable landscape.
Eventually, we arrived in East Hartland, CT, which I call the “five corners”, as well as the beginning of the reservoir loop.
We began the fast descent into Barkhamsted on the very busy Rte 79- probably my least favorite part of the ride. So much traffic buzzing past. But the reward was the beautiful Saville Dam, which had plenty of tourists, and one that offered to take our group photo (finally not a Tim selfie!).
From here on was new territory (mostly) for me until the end of the loop back in East Hartland. Usually I ride up Beach Rock Rd just after the dam and pop out on to Rte 181. Instead, we continued on up northwest a bit and hung a right on East River Road. This road parallels the Farmington River on the west side, and Peoples State Forrest on the east side. This was my favorite section of the route. The road had little traffic, was quiet and I felt like I was on a secluded access road.
Eric provided me with the details of what to expect in Riverton, (and how to not miss the left turn off E. River Rd), which was very helpful. We arrived in the tiny center of Riverton for refreshments and a break. The place was hoppin’.
The resting was needed. From looking at the map, I was dreading the next section- the Hogback Rd climb. This looked to be the steepest (but not longest) climb of the day. Strava has the segment as a cat 3 climb, 550 feet over 1.5 miles, averaging 6.7% grade, with a maximum grade of 15%. Not surprisingly, I dropped and enjoyed the scenery. Halfway up this climb there are gates and a beautiful view of the West Branch Reservoir at the Goodwin Dam.
At the top of Hogback, there was a bit of confusion, as my Garmin said go right, but others had left. This was an important decision because left was a steep descent that I would not feel like climbing back up! Left was “right” and down we went, but not for long- there was a sharp climb lingering behind a corner that none of us were ready for. Never a dull moment.
The Old Forge Rd and West St trend upward, but do roll a bit, so not horrible at all. I don’t think we had a single car pass.
West St dropped us back down to Rte 20. Eric mentioned he had never ridden this cut-through, so thanks to another Tim, we all discovered something new. The view here to the east is Barkhamsted watershed. At this point on Rte 20, I was back in familiar territory, with West Hartland center to the right.
Rte 20 rolls up and down as it heads north toward the Tunxis State Forest. On one of the short kickers I couldn’t hang on to the group, so I dropped and never saw much of them again until we returned back to the Hartland five corners. This was just fine with me. The scenery is better taken in at a slower pace.
The west side of the Barkhamsted features a long, screaming, curving descent, but as with this whole ride, I was trying to pay attention to the scenery. Off to the east, the reservoir is viewable as you lean into the curves.
What goes down, must also come up? Of course- as the northern most tip of the reservoir is reached, it is about a three mile unrelenting climb back up to the Hartland five corners. I scored my worst Strava time on this one, although, consider that many of the other times on this segment were in a race. It was nice to relax.
Our final feature of the day was a really fast, scenic and fun descent down Mountain Rd. What I love about this is about 3/4 the way down, looking to the left (north) is a huge clearing with all the fall colors, seeing for miles over conservation lands and then the buildings of Granby, CT in the distance.
The way home was straight north on Loomis St, crossing into Massachusetts in Southwick. My legs seemed to wake up at this point so not only did I keep up with the fast paced group, I even was on the front a bit pushing it, resulting in some Strava PR’s! Loomis Rd dumped us back near the start on Granville Rd. It now was just a short ride back through town to get to the start location. Conan and Eric hit the gas on the final stretch, so I chased. Turns out Conan had an average of 17.0 MPH for the ride and did not want that to drop. Well, pokey me had 16.0 MPH, and same situation, so that worked out well- and I even got 0.1 MPH above!
A great group of riders on a great day. Many thanks to the riders that come out to join me on these rides.
These rides that take us out to places we rarely see are always my favorite and most memorable. There is so much to see on the bike, for me it is about the experience and not a race. As Madeline described it “I love grinding up the hills”. I tend to agree with the addition of, the more you grind, the more you see and enjoy.
I ended around 2:30 PM with 57.49 miles, 4913′ elevation at 16.1 Mph average.
