The last weekend in July I headed out on my bike for Greenfield, a destination I seem to hit once a year. I planned separate routes there and back, neither one being the most direct path. It was pretty much all roads I’d traveled in the past, and I did not end up taking any pictures that day, so this post has no visuals, I’m afraid.

I started by crossing the Connecticut River into South Hadley, and riding north on Route 116 through that town, then Granby and Amherst, which included riding over the Notch at the Amherst line (which may have been the biggest hill climb of the day).

I passed through the UMass campus, and then headed up Route 63 through north Amherst and Leverett. I got off that highway just after entering the town of Montague, passing the town center and the Book Mill. I headed up Greenfield Road, which mostly follows the river, and which at one point has a bridge over railroad tracks that is only open to bikes and pedestrians. Once I got to the northern part of town, I got to the Montague bike path, and I took it west across the Connecticut into Deerfield. Once there, I rode a bit further west to Routes 5 and 10, and headed north into Greenfield.

I rode up to downtown, and had lunch at The People’s Pint, as I’ve done multiple times before. Unfortunately, their soda tap was broken, and so I could not have any of their house-made sodas, which was a disappointment.

From Greenfield, I rode a bit west, then south through the edge of Deerfield. I made my way on some back roads (and a bit of Route 116) down to Whately center, and then went southwest from there into the Haydenville section of Williamsburg. Once there, I started heading along the Mill River toward Northampton, and got onto the bike path where it now has an end in Haydenville. I rode the path from there all the way to downtown Noho, and then followed Route 5 home to Holyoke.

Despite not covering new ground, or doing much climbing, I did put in my best distance so far of the year, hitting about 70 miles.

Next: a whole bunch more climbing.