I hadn’t had a chance to explore these trails much the last time I was on them, but I had time to go further this time, hiking uphill on something called the “College Trail.”  This leads up the North side of the Holyoke Range, joining other trails and eventually linking up with the Metacomet-Monadnock trail.  I didn’t make it quite that far up, as it was late in the afternoon and I needed to get back home before sundown.

I did see something I don’t think I’ve noticed on other local trails – a tree with graffiti carved in it:

The oldest carving seems to be from 1979, assuming that it was actually carved that year and not backdated by the carver.

In an unrelated event, I was in the grocery store the following day, and I saw an unusual sign in the frozen foods aisle.  This is something one hears a lot about in modern American political discourse, but I didn’t think it was available for purchase at one’s local supermarket:

There you have it.

I took pictures using both my regular camera and my iPhone, so the quality varies.  Some of the images have been enhanced because they were too dark (at some point I will play with the iris settings on the camera so that it doesn’t darken down stuff when the flash is on and the subject is far from the camera).

Here’s the stage setup:

They had plastic pigeons all over the place.  Here you can see a couple on the main drum kit:

I was pretty close to the stage, having a depth of 2 people in front of me at first, more like 1 as the night went on.

There was a brief opening set by Peter Stampfel, who is formerly of the group The Holy Modal Rounders, and his daughter Zoe.  I was not familiar with Stampfel or the Rounders before this.  It was sort of folksy, bluegrassy, irreverent, and odd all at once.  Fun stuff, though Peter seemed to forget some lyrics a couple of times, and he didn’t seem to have a lot of physical stamina for performing.  The only pictures I managed to get of them are overexposed:

That set only lasted 30 minutes, and then approximately 45 minutes passed before TMBG took the stage.  They had horn players with them once again, in addition to the 5-member group they’ve been for years now.

The stage layout was different than they’ve ever done before, as there were 2 drum sets, one on each side.  John Linnell’s keyboard was at the front of the stage, but was directly in the center, rather than its usual location off to one side (generally he’s been stage left).  Here’s Linnell at the keys:

I took notes on the setlist on my phone, so I can reproduce all the songs in order here:

• Dr. Worm
• Withered Hope (always excellent with horns)
• Birdhouse in Your Soul
• The Guitar
• Dig My Grave
• Meet the Elements
• Take out the Trash

At this point in the show, Marty moved to the electronic drums, and John Flansburgh talked about how Marty had programmed them with special sounds.  Marty demonstrated the odd sound samples that corresponded to the different pads, and then they played

• Why Does the Sun Shine? (the Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)

Marty on the little electronic set:

Marty changed the sound of the electronic drums to more normal sounds for

• Meet James Ensor

After that, the special guest of the show arrived: The Deranged Millionaire.  This character, played by John Hodgman, first appeared on the band’s DVD Venue Songs, in which he was the driving force behind the band creating special songs for each venue they played in on their 2004 tour (apparently he had bought Brooklyn, and was going to kick them out if they didn’t do the songs).  During this concert segment, they played several of those venue songs, with Hodgman talking about each venue and its city, and maybe explaining the song.  He appeared on a projection screen:

but was doing his thing on stage in front of a little video camera (which was mounted on a lone bass drum):

He clearly didn’t have all his lines memorized, as he kept looking at what I assume was his iPhone:

The venue songs that were played:

• Los Angeles
• Anaheim
• Albany
• Dallas
• Vancouver
• Pittsburgh
• Glasgow
• Charlottesville
• Asbury Park
• Brooklyn

These songs were done with Marty on the usual drums, and without the horns.  After these, they played:

• Museum of Idiots
• Clap Your Hands
• Whistling in the Dark
• Seven
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• New York City
• The Mesopotamians
• They Might Be Giants

Here are some shots of the horn players (I don’t remember exactly when in the concert they occurred):

The band exited the stage, and then came back for the first planned encore.  In this, John and John got in front of the video camera with some knit sock puppets:

Here they are on screen in a couple of blurry shots:

Dan Miller, the guitarist, went to the keyboard at this point, and Marty got out a board with 3 “ring for service” type bells on it.

And with this setup, they played:

• Shoehorn with Teeth
• In the Middle, in the Middle, in the Middle

and then they took up their normal instruments for

• Damn Good Times

They left the stage again, and came back for one more encore, which contained 2 songs:

• Alphabet of Nations
• Mr. Me

In this show, they had their normal confetti cannon, which was fired off near the beginning of the evening.  However, they also had a different cannon, which kept firing confetti into the air continuously for a minute or more, fired during the second encore.  I turned around and got a picture of the stuff floating above the audience:

And that was pretty much the night.  It was a good long set – the total time TMBG spent on stage was about 1 hour, 45 minutes.  We got out of the place a little after 11:00, and I headed for home, ringing in 2010 in my own living room.

The first ceremony was held at the bike bridge over Main St. downtown.  It drew a pretty good-sized crowd:

It was originally thought that this section of trail, which parallels the train tracks through town, would be completely done by the date of the ceremony, but as you can see in the top picture, there is still a bit of paving to be done.  It should be finished by sometime in November.

As people were milling about, waiting for the event to start, I spotted local radio and stage celebrity Kelsey Flynn:

She was there putting together a radio story, which can be listened to here.  Here she is recording while people spoke:

Four people spoke on the trail system, the new bridges (over Main and North Streets), and what it took to get to this point.  They also mentioned upcoming projects, such as a trail connecting the Northampton trails to the Manhan trail in Easthampton.  The first to speak was Mayor Clare Higgins:

She was followed by Ward 3 City Councilor Bob Reckman (whose ward we were standing in):

(Reckman is the one with the moustache, not the baby)

Then came City Director of Planning Wayne Feiden:

and finally Ward 4 City Councilor David Narkewicz, who chairs the Council’s Bike and Pedestrian Subcommittee:

Wayne Feiden thanked various groups who were involved in helping realize the new trails, including Friends of Northampton Trails and Greenways, of which I’m a member.  Also present were some people from the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail.  They said that the sinkhole in that trail was in the process of being filled in, and was more than half done.  I heard this past week that the work has been completed, and pictures can be seen at this site.

Once the crowd broke up there, I went a on a little tour of the Northampton trail with its new sections, led by Craig Della Penna, a local realtor and trail advocate.  He talked about the history of the older trail, and of the railways that used to run along the beds the trails use now.

The old Northampton Bike Path goes through the village of Florence, and there is a new section of trail heading through part of Leeds (both Leeds and Florence are sections of the City of Northampton).  At the end of the new Leeds trail, the Leeds Civic Association was hosting the second ribbon cutting, as well as other activities. Here’s the scene at that end:

Most speeches were given by the same cast of characters as earlier (Higgins, Feiden, Narkewicz):

I actually got a halfway decent shot of the moment the ribbon was cut this time:

The mayor had a local kid assisting her for the cutting.

Once that was over I had to head home to make dinner.  It was nice to have almost uninterrupted trail to take me all the way back to the center of Hadley from Leeds.  I got home in just under an hour.  I didn’t have much time to take pictures of the trails themselves, but hopefully I can do so on a future excursion.  Meanwhile, construction is starting soon on the trail down to Easthampton – can’t wait until they finish that!

The drive out there was uneventful, and there were no problems with my bike on the back of the car.  This is the ski lodge where the event is based:

I arrived, got checked in, put on my number, etc.  This is my number attached to the back of my shirt:

I got that shirt from this event 2 years ago.

Here I am near the starting line as we were just about to line up for the 50-mile ride:

I started out in long sleeves and pants, as it was chilly, but I had other layers underneath for when it warmed up.

I could tell I was speedier and more endurant than the previous time, as I kept fairly close with people at the front of the pack for a while.  2 years ago, the whole pack left me behind within a few miles of the start.  I was able to go quite a ways without resting, and in fact, I stopped the first time mainly just to take come pictures.  This is one of them:

That’s off of route 42 in or near the town of Richmond (I included an iPhone pic of the same view in a live post).  I generally tried to take pictures of things that I didn’t photograph 2 years ago, as I didn’t think I needed to duplicate the old stuff.  Plus, that allowed me to stop less.

I got to the first official rest area in relatively quick time, and then spent half an hour there between using the bathroom, having a granola bar, and blogging (note to self: posting 6 pictures from my iPhone with only a 2-bar cell connection takes a while).  I was feeling pretty warm at that stop, so I stripped down to my short-sleeve jersey and shorts, and put on sunscreen.  This seemed like a good move until I got going again, when I got cold riding in the wind.  Within an hour, though, the temp got warm enough that I stopped being cold.

I had something happen during this second leg of the ride that I hadn’t experienced before: a falling leaf hit me in the face and pasted itself onto my sunglasses.  The wind just held it there.  I had to reach up and pull it off, otherwise it probably would have stayed there until I slowed sufficiently for it to fall off.

Partway through this second leg, I took a couple pics of a pond:

And after a couple more miles, some mountain shots:

Even with 2 photo stops, I still made as good time to the second rest area as I had to the first.  Here’s where they setup the second stop, located in Great Barrington:

I was there for about 20 minutes, then got going again around 12:10.  I still had almost 20 miles to go, but figured I could cover that distance by 2:00.

Soon after that, I came to this paper mill, which I had seen last time but not photographed.  I think it’s a pretty neat building:

And just a couple miles from that was what looked like a village center, which from Google maps looks like might be called Housatonic.  It’s definitely part of the town of Great Barrington:

The route then headed North into Stockbridge, following the Housatonic River, and heading slowly uphill over a couple of miles.  Eventually, I passed the Norman Rockwell Museum:

The road levels off for a bit after that, but then one turns West onto Route 102, and the road ascends again.  It’s a gradual hill, but it’s long, and by this point my legs were getting a little tired.  That climb ends soon after 102 crosses the Mass Pike, and then there’s a nice long downhill ride back into West Stockbridge.  In that town’s center, I stopped again (and blogged), and then started the last 10-mile stretch.  Mild hills felt like a lot of work at this point, given my muscular tiredness, and I had to downshift much more often (and into lower gears) than I had to earlier in the ride.

I did make it back to the ski area before 2:00, though, cutting off an hour from my time 2 years ago.  Here’s a picture of me at the end (after I’d eaten and stuff):

Thanks very much to everyone who supported me with donations.  The total amount I raised was $715, about equaling the donations I got last time (and this time the economy is worse, so I really appreciate people’s willingness to give).

In the future, whether I do more charity rides or just riding for fun, I can certainly challenge myself to ride a distance like this in even shorter time, but I feel like I’m ready to attempt greater distances.  50 miles has, in a sense, become “no big deal” for me.  Stay tuned to this site for further developments!

If you can see a picture below, then I’ll be able to include those during the ride.