November 17, 2021 - Hillsdale, NY to Lenox, MA, and Return

Start and end: Hillsdale, NY
Turnaround: Lenox, MA
Miles: 51.0
Feet climbing per mile: 62
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/78699972

My original plan for the third day of this trip was to ride to and from the Otis Reservoir in Massachusetts, roughly 70 miles. When the forecast was for a temperature of 32 at 8:00 in the morning I decided I would wait until it was 40 and then ride a shorter distance. On the previous day, my friend Barbara, who lives with her husband Brian, in Lenox, MA, posted a comment on Facebook saying I was close to them and inviting me to ride to their home. I accepted the invitation and was on the road at 10:45 when it had finally warmed to 40.

My ride began with two miles of climbing. I felt tired and wondered whether I had it in me to make the 50-mile round trip I had planned. I decided to ride for a while and then decide whether to call Barbara and Brian to cancel. The climb was followed by a fast descent and then some easy riding, so I did not make that call.

After 40 minutes I saw a pair of horses, one mature and one quite young. I walked away from the road along the side fence to get closer to them. I wondered whether the young horse with long hair was the offspring of the older one. Both horses followed me as I walked back to the road to leave. The older horse bolted when a truck came by, running to the far end of the fenced area and several times kicking up its hind legs. At first I thought the horse might have been spooked by the truck, but maybe it was saying goodbye and showing off.

One hour into my ride I saw some goats but they didn't seem to be curious about me as they continued eating, never coming to the fence.

What does it mean to be thickly settled? That's what the sign said in Housatonic. 

The condition of the some of the buildings in Housatonic, one of which you see in the picture below, suggests that it's no longer thickly settled.

After riding 17 miles, next to the Housatonic River,  I saw what I think is dredging.

About 19 miles into my ride I saw a sign saying ROAD CLOSED. I approached one of the men working on the bridge and asked whether I could walk through. He told me I couldn't because too much was happening. That seemed ridiculous because the crew was small, the distance across the bridge was short, and they could have paused for a minute while I passed.

Glendale Road

The worker who wouldn't let me cross the bridge told me a detour that was shorter than the one indicated by the signs on the road. You can see the detour I took in the map below.

Half an hour after being denied passage across the bridge I encountered another road closure. I had seen a sign that said "NO THROUGH TRAFFIC" but I'm often able to proceed anyway. But when I saw the large gap in the road I was sure that I would need to backtrack and make another detour. However the workers had filled in a part of the gap so that they could cross from one side to the other, and one of them offered to carry my bike and hand it to me after I walked to the other side of the gap. I told him about the detour I had taken and my aphorism "How much of an adventure can it be if everything goes according to plan?". He responded by saying life would be boring.

I took the picture below after I had crossed the gap. The man in the left of the picture is the one who helped me. 

Interlaken Cross Road

I arrived at the home of Barbara and Brian at 1:30, half an hour later than we had planned. It was great to see them for the first time since before the shutdown for the pandemic. Barbara served soup for lunch which was perfect for the middle of a ride. I left at 2:45 hoping to be back at my motel before it got too dark. Before leaving I had found a route that would avoid both road closings I had encountered. Sunset would be about 4:30 so I had less than two hours to ride 25 miles. I decided I would make no stops to take pictures. About an hour later I made my first exception when I rode through Housatonic. There's something about decay that I find interesting, even beautiful.

Building 3

Two and one half miles before the end of my ride I walked for about a third of a mile because the road was steep and I was tired. Furthermore it was 15 minutes past sunset and getting dark on a road with a small shoulder and moderate traffic. As I was walking I stopped to take the picture below because the house appeared to be not level although I'm sure it was (I did my best to orient my phone horizontally). I've often wondered why roads that feel steep usually look not so steep. Maybe it's because we visually treat the road as if it were horizontal even when it's not.

I arrived at my motel just before 5:00. It wasn't pitch black, but it was darker than I would have liked. I had dinner at Four Brothers Pizza Inn, the same place I ate the night before. I went to sleep at 10:30 so that I could get an early start the next day in order to arrive at my next destination before sunset.

Previous day: November 16, 2021 - Danbury, CT, to Hillsdale, NY
Next day: November 18, 2021 - Hillsdale, NY, to Brewster, NY

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