{"id":2145,"date":"2013-09-28T22:16:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T02:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2013-09-28T22:16:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T02:16:01","slug":"central-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/28\/central-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers will recall that, last year, to celebrate my 40th birthday, I biked to Boston and back.\u00a0 On the way out there<\/a>, as well as on the way back, I rode on a small section of what will eventually be the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, running the length of the state.\u00a0 The section I was on runs from Holden to West Boylston, just north of the city of Worcester.\u00a0 What I wasn’t aware of at the time, but realized earlier this year, is that there is another, longer section of trail that I had passed somewhat close to.\u00a0 That section runs through the towns of Barre and Rutland (further to the west than the West Boylston section).\u00a0 I decided earlier this month to ride out there and ride this section of trail.<\/p>\n

I began the same way as my Boston trip had, heading east through Amherst and Belchertown, then into downtown Ware. I took a slight detour on the way, going through the southern end of the Quabbin Reservoir reservation, riding across Winsor Dam:<\/p>\n

\"winsdamalong\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the view north of the water:<\/p>\n

\"quabbinsun\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And looking south I could see rather a large number of geese below the dam:<\/p>\n

\"lotsogeese\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back on the main road (route 9), I passed a swampy area, and as often happens there, I saw a heron:<\/p>\n

\"heronnearquab\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once in Ware, I then headed north into Gilbertville, and went farther north than I had last year, in order to head east on a more direct route to the bike path.<\/p>\n

The route I took was not very hilly for a while, but eventually did require a bunch of climbing of me, and then went downhill for a long stretch right to the beginning of the trail in Barre.<\/p>\n

What I had not realized was that this section of trail (about 5 or 6 miles total) was not paved.\u00a0 It’s mainly finely crushed stone\/gravel, with a few sections that are almost dirt trail.\u00a0 Here’s what the surface mostly looks like:<\/p>\n

\"wachpath1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a very pretty area that the trail passes through.\u00a0 Here are some of the water areas:<\/p>\n

\"wachwater1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"wachwater3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"wachwater2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The trail even does a bit of climbing and falling.\u00a0 There are a couple of tunnels under roads:<\/p>\n

\"wachtunnel1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"wachtunnel2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and a bit that heads between 2 rock walls:<\/p>\n

\"wachpath3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I took longish rest when I got to the end in Rutland.\u00a0 At this end (and only this end) of the section is a MCRT sign:<\/p>\n

\"rutlandmcrt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the path seen from that end, just before I started back:<\/p>\n

\"wachpath2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Riding back was a bit quicker to get to the western end of the path, and I then went just north and picked up highway 122 so that I could have a more hill-free ride home.\u00a0 I did make fairly good time getting back, completing the whole trip (85 miles) in less than 8 hours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers will recall that, last year, to celebrate my 40th birthday, I biked to Boston and back.\u00a0 On the way out there, as well as on the way back, I rode on a small section of what will eventually be the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, running the length of the state.\u00a0 The section I was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}