Ride Around Town

Becket Arts Center

Steal this idea! Ahh, two steals here, the first the book title in that first sentence: the second ...well, in these internet days, ideas are so easily stolen and perhaps good ones should be.  Perhaps this post will help spread someone else's idea. Perhaps you're a cyclist with a blog, who will in turn pick it up and post a neighborhood ride, introducing your neighborhood.



Thanks go to Steve at There and Back Again, whose blog stole this idea. But certainly not from me. He linked to Matt at Barn Door Cycling, who owns, or owned, the original idea. So extra thanks go to him. I know Steve is in Virginia, and believe that Matt is in Illinois. I am in Massachusetts. Where are you riding, reader? The idea for you to steal is to post a ride around your neighborhood, introducing that neighborhood, or town. Here's mine.

This morning dawned grey, the sky low, the air a bit foggy.  I knew my local mountain, Mt. Greylock, was in the clouds, and would not make good climbing or descending. But I needed some climbing, and enjoyed the two posts mentioned above, so ... why not ride around town, and abandon my original plan. Not just my town, more like my neighborhood, though it is really too rural to be that either. But it is hilly, so I went up and down, crisscrossing the main road and working my way generally south. Rt. 8 passes north to south from VT to CT. In my area there are ridges to either side, so if you leave the main road you ride fairly steeply uphill. The main road itself is a series of rollers, some longer than others. Here's one view of what life here is like.

Heartwood Owner Builder School

If you want to learn something about timber framing, or house design, or are a woman wanting to learn about carpentry, come here to take classes at Heartwood Owner Builder School. It is a wonderful school, and very knowledgeable, and a lot of fun, where you will learn useful skills, and also meet great people teaching, cooking and in your class. And we can go for a ride, if you bring your bike. Other people have done that.

Washington Town Park

Our local park, right on Rt. 8, was an auto dump not so long ago, in the 1970s, but the dump was abandoned, the town owned the land and residents turned it into this park. There is a bike trail for children that you see in the foreground, a gazebo for parties, music, picnics and just relaxing, courtesy of Heartwood, the baseball field in the background. There's also a well-surfaced basketball court, barbecue grills, a soccer field, and some great birding on the trails.

Hinsdale Flats ACEC wildlife habitat

The birding continues a bit further north, in the headwaters of the Housatonic River, and a proud part of the Hinsdale Flats Area of Critical Environmental Concern. You could find moose here too, if you're lucky.

Eden Glen

Rather than include another photo that doesn't adequately depict a steep road, here's one of a stream that normally runs rapidly downhill. It has been a very dry summer, and the water level is scarily low in all the streams and rivers.

Old Ford, lovely some day maybe

There are some oldtimers in town, like this Ford, waiting for some rejuvenation.



The town is small in people, 541 in 2009, but large in area, about 38 square miles. Zoned rural you won't find any stores, highrises, or gas stations here.

Historic one-room schoolhouse

Even our 2-room schoolhouse was closed in the 1960s, after a legal battle with the state, which the town lost. That building is now the Town Hall. The original town hall is now a historic site. Grammar school children go to Becket to school. But once there were six schools in town. The population was larger, and so were distances, without the now-ubiquitous automobile. Most kids walked to school. This is one of those old schools, now taken care of by the historic society.

Becket Library, which also serves Washington

Becket, actually North Becket, founded in about 1840, boasts a general store, as well as our shared library and arts center. All are lively spots, community centers, much busier in the summer months when our populations swell with summer residents, campers, and vacationers. Well, as lively as it gets in our still-rural neighborhoods.

Winter heat, summer chores

It's summer now, but winter is long here, and not so far away. Many people heat with wood, and summer chores include splitting and stacking the woodpile. 


My ride continued south a bit, but without photos. It ended being about 37 miles, including something over 3300 feet of climbing, and  Ride with GPS tells me a maximum grade of 13.5%. My bike computer reported somewhat fewer miles, and slightly less climbing. If any readers have opinions on how accurate Ride with GPS is, I'd love to hear them.



There is no possibility of getting similar climbing practice here to my planned route in the Pyrenees. Even riding both sides of Greylock, still in my plans, will provide less climbing over more miles. There may be some shorter, steep road sections, which I'll search out.

So that's my town (well, towns.) Hurry up now, get on your bike and write up a ride introducing your neighborhood, then leave a comment here, and better yet also with Steve and Matt so that we can find it and learn a little about riding in another place.

Saturday's Ride

It appears that I can train either with way more intensity than ever before (both of my group rides, and the hill strength routines are intense for me) or I can drop something and add a longer weekly ride, of 50 or so miles. But, since long rides in my neck of the woods will have at least 3000 feet of climbing, I can't do all five of those days. A long, flatter ride would be fine. But I do know that rest counts, and am paying attention. For now, I'll stick with intensity and rely on my endurance holding up. It's my only actual strong point in cycling. Well, that and curiousity. Stubborness. Resilience. Though you'll notice none of those are classic cycling attributes, like strength, or speed. Anyway, my next trip doesn't include lots of miles. It does include lots of climbing.



Historic Washington Town Hall

Saturday's ride turned into a recovery ride, which first took me up a steep, if short hill, to the top of the ridge where the town center was located before the railroad arrived. The historic town hall is here, though it is no longer used as a town hall, but maintained as a historical building. One of the town's cemeteries is located there.



The Berkshires were settled late in New England history. These aren't big mountains, but they are hilly, and both the Connecticut River Valley to the east and the Hudson River Valley to the west, were settled first, before the hills were explored and settled in the mid 18th century. Historical records show the town's largest population about a hundred years later, in 1850; it hasn't ever again reached 950 people. 

These cemetery stones tell stories. One reads: "Sally, wife of George Smith, died Sept. 7, 1793. Aged 26 years." The photo doesn't show the smaller stone, next to it, which reads: "Sally, Daughter of George and Sally Smith, died Aug. 30th 1796. Aged 3 years." Most of the stones are granite, or marble, but occasionally there is a reddish-brown one, which looks to me like some kind of sandstone, though not as weathered as I would imagine sandstone would be. I look, and wonder what determined the choice of stone, and if the same person did much of the carving.

By the end of the 19th century, William C. Whitney, President Cleveland's Secretary of the Navy, had secretly purchased 42 farms on the top of the mountain, an area of about 5 x 7.5 miles, to build a summer estate. At its height there were 24 houses, 30 barns, roads and outbuildings. Bikes were very popular then, and so he built bicycle paths. But William Whitney died in 1904, his heirs chose not to maintain the property, and eventually it became October Mountain State Forest, now protected (though heavily logged.) While the original cycle routes are long gone, there are many dirt roads that provide good cycling. However, today I stayed on the two paved roads that skirt the forest preserve. It is easy, pretty riding, through this protected forest land, and generally flat. By the way, the Appalachian Trail passes through on its north-south route from Maine to Georgia. 

Dream Away Lodge

The middle of my ride took me to the Dream Away Lodge. I hadn't been there since before the rooster took on the job of greeting guests and visitors. If you're nearby, go there .. for dinner, a beer, music. It's a fun place, in a beautiful location, with good food and chock-full of local history and memorabilia.

Berkshire Cycling: Washington Skyline Loop 1

31 miles                 Paved  roads

Start: Rt. 8, Washington

Towns: Washington, Becket, Chester, Middlefield, Hinsdale

Skyline Trail in Middlefield

This proved to be the most enjoyable cycling so far this year, mostly riding on Skyline Trail in Chester, Middlefield, Hinsdale. The ride took me across Wade Inn Road, which could be fun, if only the road surface were repaired. It is a mess and my travel was cautious. 

Abandoned mill in Chester

I rode to Skyline Trail via Chester, a town on Route 20 that I don’t often get to. It boasts a fine, small, summer theater company, The Chester Theatre Company, where we’ve seen a handful of excellent one-act plays. 


Chester is at quite a lower altitude than Washington, located on both Rt. 20 and the Westfield River, with the major east-west rail line running through it. You can tell how much lower the town is by the width of the river here; they don’t come this wide at home. It was settled in the 1750s, the railroad arrived in the 1840s, and for a time it had a busy granite industry. The town must have known more prosperous days, with this old, abandoned-looking mill building probably part of them. 

Westfield River in Chester

My ride turned quickly back north, climbing up Reservoir/Middlefield Road to Skyline Trail, a challenging climb.

Historic center of Middlefield

Once up to Middlefield, I turned left onto Skyline Trail, which goes through the village of Middlefield. This road rolls along the top of the ridge and is a lot of fun. You can see the ridge in Washington from the town of Middlefield. And the two towns are similar, both have historic, white-painted wooden town halls that are now closed. Both town halls are now in the old grammar schools, brick buildings that look to date from the 1970s and are now closed. Both modern town halls are good places to stop and fill a water bottle, as neither town has any stores.

Skyline Trail continues to Rt. 8 in Hinsdale, where I turned left to return to Washington.

Roads; Rt 8 South/ Wade Inn east/ Rt. 20 east/ Middle field Rd. (Reservoir Rd.) north/ Skyline Trail / Route 8 south. Click here for this route on Map My Ride, with cue sheet, map and climbing details.



Berkshire Rides List 

Berkshire Cycling: Washington–Lenox Loop 1

31miles                   Paved Roads

Start: Rt. 8, parking lot at town park, Washington

Beefalo babies in field

Wanting to watch Friday’s stage of the Tour de France (the riders were in the Pyrenees, traveling through exactly the area I will be in September,) I rode to Lenox to watch on Arcadian Shop’s lovely large-screen television. The route uses Route 8 for a stretch, but it isn't too busy, descends down the always-fun Kirchner Road into Pittsfield, makes its way to Lenox, including a bit of the not-bike-friendly section of Route 7 between Lenox and Pittsfield. That road is better north of Pittsfield and south of Lenox. Riders need to use either Holmes Road or East Street; East is probably better, but neither is good.

West Branch of the Westfield River

I would love to recommend riding anywhere in the county, but the sections of this in Pittsfield (Holmes Road, East Street and Route 7) could all use some attention from their keepers to make them safer for bicycles.

Roads: Rt. 8 north to Kirchner Road. Follow to Williams Street, left onto Holmes Road, left (south) onto Route 7 to Arcadian Shop. Return north to East Street, right on Williams, bear right onto Washington Mountain Road, left on Frost to return to Rt. 8. Click here for this route on Map My Ride with cue sheet, map and climbing details.



Berkshire Rides List 

Berkshire Cycling: Around October Mountain

32 miles   Moderate   Paved Roads

Towns: Washington, Becket, Lee, Lenox, Pittsfield, Dalton, Hinsdale

Parking: Washington town park on Rt. 8

Lilacs in bloom, May

One of the unexpected delights of cycling is smelling the world around you. In late May the lilacs are blooming in the Berkshire hills (no longer in the valleys though) and the fragrance is marvelous.

After last week’s rest stop (I could call it defeat) when climbing October Mountain via Washington Mountain Road I decided to focus on longer rides with less climbing, so Friday I rode around the mountain, instead of over it, this time keeping it generally on my right side. Much of it is a pretty ride, with varied terrain, one decent climb up Kirchner Road, a steep descent and a good flat ride linking them. 

The road goes past the trailhead for Basin Pond, land preserved be Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC.) This is an excellent hike, especially late in the day when the setting sun lights up the west-facing slope. BNRC is a fantastic local organization that protects important habitat and open space in the county, and deserves support from everyone who lives in or visits the Berkshires. 

Basin Pond Trailhead

 From the parking lot at the park in Washington, I headed south on Route 8 to the intersection with County Road, where McInerney comes in, then followed County onto Yokum Pond Rd. and down to Route 20. This is a fast, steep, curving descent to Route 20, where the road dead-ends. I drive it almost daily going to work, and when the road is ice-covered occasionally have seen cars opt to slide into the bank rather than into busy Route 20. I know this road is steep, by most any standard, but I don't know how to get a photo that shows incline.

But before getting to their trailhead I passed a mystery blue box. They have appeared in many places around the county, dangling from the trees at about the same height. Later I learned they are used to monitor for invasive beetles. 

Riding down Route 20 into Lee I thought this ride should be subtitled Go Out and Ride in Traffic. The shoulder on most of the road is wide enough, but it is after all a shoulder, complete with broken glass, bad surface and grates. I often see cyclists riding here, but for me the semi-trailers were nerve wracking. 

Beetle monitoring box

The route passes by Herman Melville's home at Arrowhead. I noticed from the sign that it is open only by appointment, this time of the year. Turning right on Williams Street I rode back east and got lunch at Berkshire Organics, a small shop specializing in local and organic food, near the intersection of Kirchner and Washington Mountain.  

Today I rode straight onto Kirchner Road, not up the mountain. This is a longer, but a less steep climb and has state forest land on both sides of the road. It wasn’t easy, but certainly was easier than the alternative ride up Washington Mountain Road. Kirchner Road ends on Rt. 8, where it is a right hand turn and an easy ride back south to the car. Click here to see the route, with cue sheet and climbing details on Map My Ride.

Arrowhead, Herman Melville's home

Roads: Rt. 8 south. Right on McInerney, immediate left onto County, stay left onto Yokum Pond Rd. to Rt. 20. Right on Rt. 20. Right on East St. Right on Mill Street. Left at deadend, then straight onto Walker Street. Right onto East St. (becomes Chapman Rd.) Right onto Holmes Rd. Right onto Williams St. Straight onto Kirchner Rd. Right onto Rt. 8 back to Washington. 

BERKSHIRE COUNTY RIDES LIST

Berkshire Cycling: Washington – Becket Loop 2

12 miles                Moderate               Paved roads

Towns: Washington, Becket
Parking: Washington Town Park, Rt. 8

My riding recently has all been training, not worth reporting here, but valuable for me. From the bottom of the hill I live on, all roads go uphill: gradually to the south and north, more steeply to the east and west. This is good hill training territory, but they are hills, not mountains (whatever they may be named.)

Mid-spring chartreuse

By the way, the more I use Map My Ride (which I think is a great tool) the less I understand its climbing grades. A grade is a grade, and the percent should remain the same, because the road doesn’t change. But their numbers change, apparently varying with the distance of the ride. It must be taking some kind of average, and I take it with a grain of salt. Someone could explain this to me.

Blooming shadbush

However much as I enjoy spring, with its growth, colors, and early green vegetables, there are simultaneously many things I dislike about it: spring here is very short, this year made up mostly of snow, glimpses of sun, extended periods of rain and fog. Also, there is far too much to do, the snow melt exposes every project not finished last autumn, not to mention all the erosion and downed branches from the winter. There are chores. And there is the garden, with its endless spring busy-ness.

On the other hand, one of the joys in riding (forget those chores, get on the bike!) is watching the forest floor and trees come back to colorful life. The shades of chartreuse in the woods start so pale that they can barely be seen, coloring up until sometime in June.

Trillium dot the forest floor

Now wildflowers paint the forest floor here with their blues, reds and whites; the stronger yellows and pinks will come later in these high woodlands.

Violets

Historic one-room schoolhouse

This ride is a nice short one that links easily with others, Ridden this direction it offers a good, gradual climb to the top of the ridge, which is generally flat and goes past the historic Washington School House and St. Andrew’s Chapel on the Bucksteep Property. The ride down Frost Road is fast and steep. 

In today's ride I got in about 800 feet of climbing and made a start back to hill-fitness. And I badly need to get back there if I am going to get back into the mountains, which I plan to do.

Roads: South on Route 8 Route 8 to the intersection of County Road in Becket. Right on County, then immediately straight onto McInerney (which becomes Washington Mountain Road, aka Pittsfield Road.) Follow it to Frost Road, turn right onto Frost, which is a nice fast downhill back to Rt. 8. Right on Rt. 8.  

Berkshire Rides List

Berkshire Cycling: Washington to Hinsdale

14.5 Miles                 Paved and Dirt
Towns: Washington and Hinsdale
Parking: Washington Town Park on Rte. 8

Beefalo

Bright, clean plumage, territorial calls, courtship behavior: these make late April and early May a good time to keep your eyes open for birds. And it’s easy because the trees are not yet leafed out. My ride today takes me to Hinsdale, starting on a road I travel most every day. Yesterday, just where I’ve stopped on the cycle today, near the beefalo, I saw a hawk fly down to a branch ... close to the road, maybe 15 or 20 feet off the ground. While I was grabbing for my binoculars in came another one. They jumped around a bit, I thought, hmmm, spring rituals. One left, and came back, left. The other stayed, by now with my binocs on it. Back comes the ... male, it turns out and they made whoopee. Up close and personal in the binoculars. I felt like a voyeur, though. As soon as he left she starts eating what I believe was a gift he left her the first time he arrived, proof he could provide while she had eggs. It was some kind of largeish bird, based on what I could see I'd guess a grouse or some such. The eating lasted way longer than the whoopee. When she was finished she carefully cleaned off her bill, walking the length of the branch while wiping it from side to side on that branch. Amazing what spring brings. 

Today I didn’t see any hawks, but the beefalo were there. They are a modern cross between cattle and buffalo and said to make good eating.

The ride takes me over both paved and dirt roads. Our dirt roads can be challenging in the spring time, I imagine more so for the road crews than for cyclists. They are rutted and full of potholes from the winter and subsequent thaw. All need attention, but the heavy spring rains will destroy any work done, so they wait for the weather to stabilize. I ride slowly, watching the woods.

Wild ramps, aka wild leeks

There is a beautiful small stand of ramps, wild leeks, near a small stream. When I moved here 30 years ago I had read of ramps as an early nutritious spring green found in the southern Appalachians. I’d never seen them. But they are here also, a member of the onion family. Unlike our other early lilies, trout lilies, blue bead lilies, they don’t bloom. You can easily recognize them by smelling a broken piece of leaf. If you do cook them, be forewarned: they taste delicious, but smell atrocious while cooking. By the way, they make a good pickle when treated like dilly beams.  Happily, with the current interest in local foods we can sometimes find both beefalo and ramps in the markets here.

Hinsdale Flats ACEC

I rode past Plunkett Reservoir, which in the summer is home to two, maybe three, kids camps. Now it had several men fishing and boats on the water.  The ride passes through the Hinsdale Flats ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern.) Designated in 1992, it is big: it includes 14,500 acres in the Housatonic and Westfield River watersheds, mostly in Hinsdale and Washington. It protects six rare species, critical wetlands, forestland and historical and cultural sites. The ACEC program is is one of Massachusetts best environmental programs, which does not forbid homes or businesses, but brings a higher level of awareness and care to the natural environment. The Hinsdale Flats offer spectacular birding and habitat, including for people. The moose we occasionally see are surely the largest resident, followed by the black bear. It would be a great place to kayak.

Oh yes, this is a cycling blog. This ride is easy; flat for my part of the Berkshire Hills. A good training ride, which I badly need. After six weeks of antibiotics and respiratory infection, I am in hideous shape, in no shape at all actually, and very frustrated. Usually this ride is the beginning of a longer ride, but it still hurts to breathe deeply and I head back home. This time of year there is not much traffic on Route 8, but when summer arrives with its second home residents and vacationers it gets quite busy. 

Roads: North on Rt. 8; left on Kirchner; right on Plunkett Reservoir Rd., right on Michaels Rd., right on Rt. 8.

Berkshire Rides List

Washington - Becket Loop 1 (part 3)

At four corners, I rode straight for a mile or so on Lenox-Whitney Road, but as rain threatened I turned back. There is a lot, really a lot, of swampland high in the hills of western Massachusetts. It is fabulous, important wildlife habitat. Based on the theory that if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck, I could tell you that I saw a bobcat on my ride today. But it was too far away to be certain and I didn’t get my binoculars on time. Certainly it looked like a bobcat: no tail, muscular, much bigger than a domestic cat. I suppose it could have been someone’s boxer in the woods, though that’s extremely unlikely. But I didn’t hear it quack, or meow. So I won’t tell you it was a bobcat. Today I also didn’t see moose, though there are a lot here.

There is a helicopter landing pad at Four Corners, and a chopper had just taken off as I arrived there. I haven’t been that near to one of them since I was in Ste. Enemie in the Cévennes Mountains, and it is almost as incongruous here. The road goes up two small hills before reaching Washington Mountain Road. This isn’t just good habitat for birds, moose, bobcats, it is also good habitat for beavers. I don’t know whether the winter storms or beaver control is harder for the road crew, but you will see all kinds of contraptions aimed at keeping water flowing. If the beavers dam the streams thoroughly the ponds flow up over the roads. It is said that in the early 18^th century, people could travel almost anywhere in this part of the world by canoe navigating the extensive wetlands created and maintained by beavers. It is possible that they are only second to us humans in changing a habitat into something they prefer. 

The center of the town was here, high on the mountain. It's hard now to imagine the landscape as mostly cleared fields. What is now October Mountain State Forest was filled with bustling farms, businesses, a school or two. The historic town hall and the cemetery behind it tell something about the town’s history: no fancy buildings, no fancy monuments. These two stones tell their own story. The larger one reads: "Sally, wife of George Smith, died Sept. 7, 1793. Aged 26 years." The smaller, on the right, reads: "Sally, Daughter of George and Sally Smith, died Aug. 30th 1796. Aged 3 years." There is much history to be read here, sometimes literally on gravestones and plaques, sometimes in cellar holes now found in the woodlands.

Turning right on Washington Mountain Road, then left at Frost Road, I headed back to the car. And it was frosty. This road is steep. Map my Ride indicates a grade sometimes over 10% as it descends 400 or so feet in less than a mile. It  has recently been repaved, the road surface is smooth as an eggshell. It was easy to go fast. Easy and fun. Easy, fun, fast and cold. The sky had clouded up, and at 35 mph, 40 degrees is cold.





Click here to see the route, with map, cue sheet and climb details, on Map My Ride.
Roads: 

Rt. 8 & Lower Valley (at town park) /Lower Valley /Rt. 8 South /McNerney Road /County Road /Lenox-Whitney Road

West Branch Road /Washington Mountain Rd. (aka Pittsfield Rd.) / Frost Rd. /Route 8

Berkshire Rides List

Berkshire Cycling: Washington – Becket Loop 1 (part 1)

17 miles                 Paved and Dirt
Towns: Washington and Becket
Park: Washington Town Park, Rte. 8

No question that my preference is for paved roads, but it hasn't always been. I used to spend more time riding  local dirt roads. Then last week at work, Andy, a volunteer doctor and avid cyclist, mentioned how the dirt roads are perfect for colder weather: speeds are lower, so it’s warmer than 35 mph downhill. Besides, the bare trees provide a different perspective and view of the world around them. 

It is cold enough now in early November, the leaves off the trees and a skim of ice on the swamp in the morning. For many weeks a pied billed grebe had taken up residence, diving and surfacing, diving and surfacing. But with the first ice it disappeared. The beech leaves linger on their trees, many until the spring when the buds swell with new growth, pushing the old leaves off. In the autumn, they turn a beautiful bright yellow, then with time fade to a sort of parchment color. The American Beech is a common tree here, beloved by black bears, which thrive in years with big crops of beech nuts. You can often find bear claw marks on large trees, and claw marks from smaller animals like raccoons and squirrels on beeches of all sizes. A big beech might be 60 feet tall, though that’s only half the size of a mature tree in a stand of old growth, where they might be 120 feet tall. The difficulty is finding a stand of old growth trees. Trees of New England tells of a tree in Tennessee, still standing in 1900 and showing these words carved into it: “D Boone cilled a bar on tree in year 1760.” The tree fell in 1916, when it was estimated to be about 365 years old. We don’t see those old trees today. Now the American Beech is threatened by development, logging and the fungus Nectaria coccinea, which usually attacks younger trees, with more penetrable bark. Sadly, younger trees are pretty much all that’s left. Moreover, these younger trees do not produce the big mast, needed by bear, squirrel, birds, turkey for food.  

There is lots of good riding on the dirt roads in the hilltowns of the Berkshires. I set off on a familiar one, but this time with camera along, under sunny skies. It is one of the flattest rides in Washington. From the town park on Rt. 8, I followed Lower Valley Road almost to the driveway of Heartwood Owner Builder School. If you want to learn how to build your own timber framed house or barn, or to build fine cabinets, or you’re a woman, wanting to learn some basic carpentry skills,  look at their website, http://www.heartwoodschool.com. It’s a fantastic school, with excellent teachers, a wonderful atmosphere, and good food, where you’ll meet lots of like-minded people. Today I rode to their driveway, just to take the photo, then turned back and followed Depot Brook along Lower Valley Road, which turns to dirt where Johnson Hill goes straight. It quickly returns to Rt. 8 where I turned south towards Becket. Though 8 is a major thoroughfare here, with not much shoulder, this time of year there is very little traffic. 

I rode south, through the village of Becket, with its fire station, library, arts center and general store, then to the intersection of McNerney Road. I turned right, then left immediately onto County Road. County  Road was at one time a main road in Becket and Washington; now it travels back into October Mountain State Forest.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, farmers in the Berkshire hilltowns knew the beech well: it grew on high ground and in the valleys, in forests and fields. The tree prefers rich, moist soils and has wide, spreading roots. Like oaks and maples, it has a taller, narrow crown in the woods, a wider and spreading crown in a field or near one of the stone walls that so often follow old roads in New England. Farmers moving west to Ohio or Michigan recognized the tree from home in New England, but it was bigger in the midwest and always indicated good soil.  And many local farmers did move west. October Mountain State Forest contains old walls, cellar holes, wells, cemeteries, school sites.

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Berkshire Cycling: Washington – Becket Loop 1 (part 2)

Once into the State Forest, the woods show a tremendous amount of ugly evidence of logging, and it doesn’t look  like the kind of sustainable logging urged by organizations like the Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative and schools like Heartwood. Trees are, or should be, or could be, a sustainable resource and they are certainly a resource people have always made use of. But even forests bragging of big trees, or trees we think of as big, are nothing like the size they would be mature: we cut our trees faster than they can grow up. This creates a different habitat, with a different understory, and supports different birds, animals, and insects. Trees rarely get old before they are cut.    

The history of this state forest is bound up with the history of the Berkshire cottages. The Washington Town History, available at the town hall, does a terrific job of telling the story and is worth the price of the book. But to sum up: Starting in about 1895, a mysterious buyer commissioned Senator Thomas Post to purchase businesses, farms and land. He did. Despite much speculation, for two years his identity was unknown. By 1897 he had purchased 42 farms, comprising 14,000 acres, an area of about 5 x 7.5 miles, which was about 1/3 of the town’s total area. William C. Whitney, President Cleveland’s Secretary of the Navy, was the new owner. His goal was to make a summer hunting retreat and game preserve, and to build that retreat in a hurry because he wanted it ready for the honeymoon of his son and new daughter-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt.  Many local people worked there building, besides the large lodge and stables, 24 houses, 30 barns, roads and outbuildings. It is noteworthy that he also built bicycle paths; bikes were very popular then. He imported buffalo, elk and other animals, and fenced them in along with the resident moose, black bear, foxes and more. Whitney was the biggest landowner in Massachusetts. But William Whitney died in 1904, shortly after his wife, and his heirs chose not to maintain the large property.  Less than 10 years after acquiring it, maintenance funds were cut off by the Whitney estate in 1906, and in 1915 the Commonwealth began acquiring the property for a state park. It is now the largest in the state, comprising 16,500 acres located mostly in Washington, but also in Becket, Lee, and Lenox.

The State Forest now offers great hiking: the Appalachian Trail runs through it, from north to south, I pass it here and there on my rides. There is a trail around Washington Marsh where it is easy to find signs of the healthy moose population. And the Berkshire Natural Resources Council has built a beautiful trail called Basin Pond in Lee, close to Route 20. The trail is worth walking just to look at its construction, the placement of rocks and bridges is beautiful.  You can find a map of hiking trails on the state forest's web site.


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