Speaker: With riders taking on crazy rides of epic proportions this year, I knew that I had
to throw my hat in the ring. Today, we're in my home state of Massachusetts. I'm currently
standing on the tallest mountain on the east side of the state, Mount Wachusett. We're going to be
making our way 100-plus miles in 10,000-plus feet of climbing out to the tallest mountain
on the west side of the state called Mount Greylock. The sun's shining, it's a beautiful day,
it's leaf-peeping season meaning that fall foliage is in full effect here in New England.
We're going to hit a bunch of cool stops along the way. It's going to be a perfect day, let's go.
[music] We're making our way up Mount
Wachusett. A little bit of info, the mountain is all in total 2,000 feet, which is about 600 in 10
meters. The Strava KOM is held by a man named the Cookie Monster, not Phil Gaimon, but someone
that's done it in about 14 minutes. The entire reservation outside the ski resort is apparently
3,000 acres, and there's hiking, biking, not necessarily on the mountainside but around.
There's a lot of great stuff to do in the summer, summertime activities,
but in the winter here, it's pretty much all skiing. A lot of people from Boston make their way
out to this area because it's only about an hour from the city and there's obviously some pretty
good skiing. If you live in the city, there's a mountain an hour away. That's pretty sweet.
[music] We're here on top of
Wachusett mountain looking out East at Boston, the Atlantic Ocean, and then even further, probably
Bath England. When we go north, we're looking at Mount Nonotuck, and then when you go dead west,
it's out to where we're headed to Mount Greylock, which is the way the crow flies, 66 miles, but our
routes can take us quite a bit more. We got to go. It's cold up here, the wind's blowing, it's time.
[music] We're in Hubbardston,
smalltown, making our way west. We got this big church behind us here,
it's beautiful. Sun's coming from the side, we've got a lot of work to do,
we got to keep it moving. We're only an hour and change and so we got to keep it going here.
[music] We just came through some
back roads in Petersham, and we're making our way to Wendell and the Quabbin Reservoir. The Quabbin
gives water to basically everybody in the eastern part of the state, Boston,
and all that. It's really pretty, we're going to be going past a little bit of that.
We've got this beautiful field here. We've got this big tree-lined dirt road up ahead. [howling]
I wish you guys could smell this burning oak that's in someone's fireplace right now.
That dirt road was so beautiful, all the trees turning colors, everything super pretty. I love
this ride so far. It's put a huge smile on my face going through that section back there.
[music] If you're planning
on doing this ride, definitely don't hit out like on 28 like I did.
Go for something a little bigger, a 30 or a 32, something that's nice. It's got to be a bigger
tire because otherwise, you'll flat. These roads are great but there is a bit of chop.
[music] We're here at the Village Co-op. This is the first
rest stop that we're doing, about 50-ish plus miles in. This is a great spot. I've been here
many, many times over the years to grab snacks out on training rides. We're technically pretty close
to the most southern part of the route and that's also the lowest in elevation because we're down
near the Connecticut River. I'm going to go in, I'm going to get some snacks, we got to throw
our masks on. We got to grab some hand sanitizer and all that, but then we're going to come over
here and sit on this beautiful rock benches that they have all out in front of here.
If I can tell you guys, there's just a dirt road over there, just gentle traffic, we're really
out in the hills of Massachusetts and this little Co-op is just a nice little oasis to hang out and
grab snacks. Let's do this. I had to go in there get a lemon-lime seltzer, got a bag of salt and
vinegar potato chips, and a cookie. It's where my mind is at right now. I want something sweet but I
also wanted something salty. Check all the boxes there. This is more of my home turf where I used
to do a lot of big training rides, I love stopping at this store. We're well past the halfway point,
we're making our way out to Greylock. I even got to take the arm warmers off.
[music] You guys know it
wouldn't be an epic ride if I didn't show off one of the covered bridges. This is the Conway Covered
Bridge, also the Burkeville Covered Bridge. It was built as you can tell, sometime in 1869,
and regionally, it's a rare example of a multiple king rod bridge using iron tensioning verticals in
a modified howe truss system. It's apparently one of the only 19th century bridges to survive all
the crazy storms and different things that have happened to these covered bridges if you've been
following the other epic ride videos. Some of them caught on fire, nasty crazy hurricanes and storms
have wiped them out, but this one still shining today and I have to say it looks pretty sweet.
[music] We're here in Ashfield,
Massachusetts at the Elmer's Store. This is an iconic rest stop. You've got to it. You can grab
a soda, a pastry, everything, unfortunately, we've been foiled, they're close right now so
we're going to hit another spot though. There's plenty of places to grab food along this route.
We got to keep it moving though, the day is going. [music]
This is the Watson Spruce Corner. A lot of iconic road races come through here, big cycling
events. Everything comes through this four-way intersection. It's super pretty. The land flows
really low. Tons of cows, the foliage, everything right now is absolutely perfect. I love this road.
[music] I wanted to talk to you all about
foliage for a minute. Now, this area that I call home in the northeastern part of the United States
is called New England, and we have absolutely impeccable foliage. People flock from all over the
globe to be able to come see a New England fall, leaf peepers as they're called. Love this area
because of all of the different types of species of trees that we have here in this area. We
have oak, poplar, maple, we have tons of pine trees, elms. There's literally everything here.
The reason that these trees get so beautiful is basically when it gets cold and nasty out the
trees tend to lose their chlorophyll which is what keeps the leaves green. Once that starts
to happen, they start to die, then we get all of these beautiful colors. We get bright yellows,
the leaves turn gold, purple, red, bright red, and pretty much every hue in between,
and it just looks absolutely stunning. This area is super cool because when you
go further north, it changes, and when you go further south, it stays too warm. It's this
combination of cold evenings and really warm days that make these trees get really bright. I have to
tell you riding this time of year is absolutely phenomenal. If you're ever going to come out,
definitely want to do a New England fall because the weather and the views are absolutely stunning.
[music] How's everyone doing today? Pretty good?
You all look great. They look like they've lined up like fans on the side of a cyclocross race. You
guys are good. All of you are great. I got to finish this ride. The sun's going down.
No, really, thank you. It's good to see you all. No, seriously thank-- no, thank you. No, really.
Okay, fine. It's my pleasure to have been able to come through. [laughs] We're going. Hi, we just
came off 116 into Cheshire, now here we are. We came on to, I believe the road is called Stewart
White. It's a dirt road. There's a beautiful red farm with cows. Here, boom, we're looking at Mount
Greylock. That's the tower right there. There's absolutely perfect. There's mountains everywhere.
This is an absolute serotonin slam dunk when you come down this road. This just gives you
that energy. I'm looking at the finish line. I got to put on an extra jacket though, the sun
started to go down. I got to grab a snack, but we got a lot more to show you guys. Let's do this.
[music] One of the other great
things that you ride past when you're on your Greylock, we're practically almost 100 miles
into this thing, is you come past the Susan B. Anthony birthplace, back in 1820, I believe.
Susan B. Anthony paved the way for women in the USA throughout much of the 19th century. Anthony
was part of the abolitionist movement to help end slavery in the United States and ultimately
became our 13th amendment. After that, Anthony turned her incredible character and determination
towards allowing women to vote. In 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which later became the 19th
amendment to the US Constitution did just that. We just made our way through Adams, we came up
here for a small detour to a local orchard that's at the base of Mount Greylock, which we're going
to be going up to the top of to get an apple cider doughnut. All the local orchards have their
own apple cider doughnuts. We're inside getting them, and the woman told us that she just made
them fresh today. I got six, I'm definitely only going to be eating one or half of one right now.
I'm starving but if you don't know what an apple cider doughnut is, basically it's a batter. They
make it with buttermilk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and then they top the doughnut with sugar, and it's--
I'm telling you the smell is coming out of the bag right now and I'm salivating as I do it. I'm
going to crush this, but we got to go because the sun; I bet there's only an hour left of daylight
right now. Absolutely delicious. You're wondering how to say that and so they actually make it
phonetically. They didn't put it yes, keys. That's how you say it, yes keys, Jaeschke's Orchard.
That's how I want everything spelled. All the names when I'm doing the commentary and stuff,
I need them spelled like that. [music]
I finally made it to the base of Massachusett's tallest mountain,
Mount Greylock. Its peak sits at over 3,500 feet, which is around 1,100 meters. The climb should
take about 40 minutes to complete. There's two different ways to get up the mountain, but today
I'm going to be climbing it from Notch Road, which is notoriously steeper than the other side,
and both ways though, have beautiful, gorgeous vista views and serious elevation game. This is
a climber's climb and I'm hurting as I race to get to the top before the sun sets on what has
truly been an epic day of riding. We're at about 1,900,
40-feet elevation. I'm definitely feeling the last hundred plus miles. I've had a couple of
blocks since the apple cider doughnut but we're here now, and it's a sea of yellow.
It's really pretty. Every tree is bright yellow here. This climb is super steep on this part
that I've done. I can tell you honestly I've not done this part of the climb before. I've
done it from the other side. It's really-- it's hard. My legs aren't cramped because I didn't
nuke the pace here but this is a really hard day. This climb it was beautiful, so
it's like sugar and salt at the same time. [music]
Oh, man, this is unbelievable.
Absolutely beautiful up here. Breathtaking, I don't have words for how nice this is.
That's the top right there, that's the big tower that we can see all around. We're two
and a half or more miles to the top now. We're fighting daylight, so we got to get up there, but
words cannot describe how pretty this is. Handley, we got to keep going.
[music] We're almost to the top now,
3,517 feet, just look out there. [music]
I can see the top and it feels good to be done. [music]
That was a day of riding. We've made it to the top of Mount Greylock. We started
in Central Massachusetts at Mount Wachusett.
It was beautiful and sunny when we started. Now it's freezing cold. The sun has gone down.
It's absolutely breathtaking ride. I hope that you'll come out to New England sometime
and enjoy the beautiful foliage that we have here in New England. I had a blast showing this place
off. It's cold, I got to get out of here. Leave us a comment down below, let us know what you thought
of this ride. I had a lot of fun doing it. Phew. [00:14:12] [END OF AUDIO]