Azure All the Day

Thirty base-face miles today in unseasonably warm and welcome temps. Thermometer stayed in the forties all the way, and the skies were azure all the day.

I wended my way to the other side of the Connecticut, on a route I've titled Rive Gauche. Gave me a chance to check in on how the other half of the Valley weathered the winter. All the hills were still there. The long, steady incline of North Farms Road was quite the same, the foothills of Haydenville perhaps a bit steeper than I remember, the sweeping views over the river to Sugarloaf and the hills of Pelham was still inspiring (even in the stiff late winter wind over the snowy fields) and, as I approached the river on the way home, Sugarloaf loomed to my left and Norwottuck was way off to my right, to reassure that I was headed east, toward River Road, and the 116 bridge, from which I snapped a memento of a chill, bright, day and a good pre-season ride.