Today I bundled up to get out on my longest ride in months. I’m grateful to still have a decent enough base level of fitness that I can comfortably ride a fair distance with a good amount of climbing involved.
Stafford Road in Somers is one of my favorite roads in the area, but I normally ride up Mountain Road and then come down Stafford. It’s an incredible descent but today was my first climb of note. My legs and lungs were plenty warm by the top, where I turned left towards Stafford Springs instead of right to take the more familiar Mountain Road.
I’ve taken Old Springfield Road in Stafford Springs a number of times riding out near Crystal Lake, but this time took a turn onto Tetrault Road just before hitting the Sun Valley Beach Club to head north towards Monson. This was my first time on this road, which turned out to be a pretty steep climb.
Halfway up I came across a cool old sawmill which I pulled off to investigate while catching my breath. The mill appeared to be powered by a cannibalized tractor driving a belt and terrifying saw blades. I’d like to come by this area again on a weekday to see if I can catch the mill in operation.
Riding down secluded roads with state forest land on either side, a bridge suddenly came out of nowhere. As I stopped to take a photo, a young kid on a bike pulled up, set the bike in place using a kick stand, and climbed up on top of the bridge to sit there. Being a fair distance from any homes, I still have no idea where he came from or why he was there.
As I continued on into Monson I began to climb Munn Road, the road that my entire route was planned around. On Thanksgiving I joined my mom and siblings at my mom’s friend’s house for dinner at the top of Munn Road. I was minorly annoyed by driving so far into the middle of nowhere (in my head Monson is just past Wilbraham, not nearly to Wales and Brimfield), but catalogued some streets for future rides. Turns out it only took me a few days to get back out there.
Munn Road itself wasn’t too punishing, and quickly found myself out of the woods and surrounded by farmland on a hill. Off to the left I could see for miles. The descent from here took me back to the center of Monson.
I had enough water to get home, but I saw some folks filling up jugs at a natural spring and stopped just for fun. Water was tasty. Glad I stopped.
Two final climbs stood between me and a warm shower, and I spun a low gear and enjoyed the last bit of light to close out a great holiday break. It wasn’t long enough, but it never is. I’m looking forward more than ever to stealing moments of movement over the next few months of dark and cold – they feel so much more valuable when in short supply.