The idea of riding to a Greenfield dance was the first inspiration for the series of dance rides. Greenfield is far enough away from home that I rarely dance there because the drive is too long. That makes it a perfect destination to give a day ride an epic feeling. Plus, Greenfield has quite a reputation among dancers to the west of me, primarily because they have nowhere else to dance I believe.
The ride turned out to be challenging. It should take me 80 miles to get there from Londonderry, but instead I logged 95. I blame that mostly on my GPS. Previously, I had complete trust in it, but it seemed to be confused and wanted to route me on a bicycle prohibited highway. I didn’t come to this realization until I was standing at the on ramp at an exit I keep coincidentally finding myself at. By the time I was back on a feasable course, those 15 extra miles had been added to my day. The 20% lengthening of the ride left me a bit underfed and underwatered later in the ride when I was in rural areas of the hills of western MA with few stores or town to resupply at. My bike was loaded down with a weekend’s worth of amenities and clothing. At one point, unsure of the next supply opportunity and tired of cranking my loaded bike over 1000ft relief rolling terrain, I resorted to WALKING (!) a steep grade in the name of saving energy. The ride turned up around the town of Warwick. There, the one store in town, across from a tiny town festival, sold me some cans of iced tea out of a kitchen refridgerator and a homemade oatmeal cookie. I also met another distance cyclist in town who had a vintage ride with a front rack, friendly advice of dubious quality, and a Ben and Jerry’s bike jersey. Better yet, leaving Warwick was a five mile coast into the Conneticut river valley where I found a store with a sports drink and experienced rejuvination sufficient to climb back out the other side of the valley and into Greenfield. In town, a very refreshing dip at a local beach brought back my senses for the evening dance.
The next morning I awoke in a timely fashion and headed back towards the hills to meet up with my ride home. There was over 1000 feet of climbing at moderate but steady grades, plus a stop on the return trip with my friends for a quick loop around covered bridges in western NH. With 136 miles weekend total in challenging conditions, a final dip in a NH lake on the side of 101 and a bag of Hannaford bakery goods provided a very satisfying end to the weekend.