From Dam to Dam

Got out on Thanksgiving for a quick re-build ride -- I'd been sick most of the week before, and was still getting back into shape. Because I was due to help out with the house before guests arrived, I did a quick 18 miles over one of the most persistently steep hills in the neighborhood -- Gulf Road, in Belchertown. One of my favorite climbs, with a lovely brook burbling beside it almost the whole way up.  A nature preserve rewards me at the top: Scarborough Brook, brought to us by those excellent folks at Kestrel Land Trust. If you live near the Pioneer Valley, please consider helping them; they help ensure that the area stays beautiful and natural.

Scarborough Brook preserve from road

Further inspection revealed an impressive beaver dam and pond:

Beaver leftovers

Beaver works

Yesterday, a longer jaunt down to a human-made dam, on the Quabbin Reservoir:

Local towns were razed and flooded in the 1930s to produce a scenic,  functional reservoir 

The big hill in the middle is the one the loop climbs 

Someone was dissatisfied with the service for the port-a-potty at the top

View from the top, as sunset approacheth

Steel, water, earth, sky

I try to be thankful all the time, not just on Thanksgiving, but it's hard to avoid a special rush of grattitude this weekend for the beautiful place in which we live. It's some of the best riding I've done anywhere.