Photos (from the top down):
1) Turnaround in East Hampton, 30 miles.
2) The four survivors at the Bolton Notch Tunnel, 63-mile mark.
3) Joe Drivere admiring the sunset in the Amston woods (he is not doing what you think he is doing).
4) The author mugs in front of the terminus sign in East Hampton at 30 miles
5) Crossing the Lyman Viaduct in Colchester
6) Ten depart from Eric's House in Andover.
The e-mail arrived from Eric Anderson in early September: "It has come to my attention that TCC is in need of an epic rail trail ride. Why you ask? Well don't ask, just rest assured we do. So, before the winter comes and we all retire to the couch to begin the winter transformation from in-shape to pear-shaped there is time for one last stand against the lethargy of modern life. Like any epic journey (think Beowulf, or Lewis and Clark, or Lord of the Rings for that matter), it begins with a quest. In this case the quest is to ride the length of the Airline Trail and Hop River Trail in one day/night and then spending more time regaling ourselves with tales of our boldness and woodsman-like savvy all the while consuming chili and drinking the bubbly nectar of the gods (AKA beer)."
On the afternoon of October 3, 2010, ten arrived at Eric's house in Andover to answer the challenge. They came equipped with all manner of cycling paraphenalia ranging from fat-tired mountain bikes (Chris Stoltze, Ray Torres, Eric Grove) to modified road bikes (Agatha, Joe Drivere) to the Cadillac of rail-trail travel, the cyclocross bike (Eric Anderson, John Hankins, Kathy Manizza, Ken Larson, Dave Jacobowski). Their bikes and helmets were festooned with all manner of illumination equipment and pre-ride discussions focused on lumens, candle-power, and battery run-times. Part of what made this ride epic was its 3:00 PM departure time, which meant that about half of the ride would be completed in the autumnal darkness.
With a celebratory "we're off", the crew departed Eric's house and rocketed from the highest point in Andover down Bear Swamp Road to the entry to the Hop River rail trail along Route 6 in Andover Center. From there we headed west toward Willimantic encountering the occasional stick and log that had been introduced to the trail by the previous day's tropical storm. At Flanders Road in Columbia the trail becomes impassible, so we hit the road for about four miles and connected with the Airline Trail South, which runs from Lebanon westward to East Hampton. Amanda Lawrence found us here, and the our numbers grew to 11. The Airline trail through Lebanon, Columbia, Hebron, and East Hampton has been greatly improved over the last few years, and we rolled easily on the smooth surface. By the time we crossed under Route 2 in Marlborough we had picked up another rider (Aaron) boosting our size to 12. At the 30-mile mark we arrived at the western terminus of the trail at Cranberry Bog in East Hampton, took a few photos and then turned ourselves back the way we came. Along the way coming and going we crossed over the Lyman Viaduct. The viaduct is a half-mile trestle that was built nearly 100 feet above the valley floor when the rail line was originally constructed in 1877. By the 1890s the locomotoves had gotten too heavy for the trestle to support, so they simply filled the body of the trestle with gravel, leaving the trestle in place. The very top of the structure is still visible as you travel along the gravel trail.
By the time we had reached the end of the Airline South on the return trip in Lebanon the headlights were on and we were heading into darkness. Skip Kuzel had joined us in Amston, and Kathy and Ken jumped in his car and headed back to Eric's, all part of a well-orchestrated plan. At the start of the Hop River Trail we found a bag of goodies that John's wife Beth had stashed for us, and took a fig newton break. We then continued up the Hop River Trail to the convenience store in Andover, where Eric's e-mail had promised a stop that had it all: "Dunkin donuts, Subway, an ATM machine, various munchies, and an extensive porn magazine collection". I was not specifically aware of anyone taking Eric's generous porn offer, but I did notice that Dave Jacobowski lingered in the store a suspicously long time while the rest of us waited outside.
When we reached Eric's road in Andover, five of the remaining group declared that discretion (as well as chili and beer) were the better part of valor, and bailed out, heading back to Eric's house. Five of us (Skip, Agatha, Eric, Chris, and yours truly) continued another 9 miles to Bolton Notch. Although the original plan had been to head all the way into Manchester (another 1.5 hours of riding), we looked at our watches (8:30 PM) and decided that beer and chili seemed like a more sensible option. We rolled onto Eric's driveway at 9:30 PM, with 72 miles with a blazing 13.8 mph average on the odometers.
The spread at Eric's was delectable and comprehensive. Evan Johnson, serving as Eric's Boy Friday, had shown up early to host the activities, which featured chili, jambalya, chicken shishkabob, and home-brewed oatmeal stout which had been concocted by a guy named Tony, who had signed up for the ride and then bailed when he got Red Sox tickets. The important thing here was that he left the beer.
While we fell a bit short of making it all the way to Manchester, we did establish that the Twighlight Rail Trail concept is viable and it appears that a new annual tradition may have been created. We will leave a little earlier next time so that we can make it to the Manchester end-point. Tony will be invited back - as long as he brings the home-brewed oatmeal stout.
