{"id":3363,"date":"2020-09-27T22:47:09","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T02:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2020-09-27T22:47:09","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T02:47:09","slug":"wb4f-ride-7-a-trip-to-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/2020\/09\/27\/wb4f-ride-7-a-trip-to-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"WB4F Ride #7: A Trip to Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Map<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This past Thursday, I went on my seventh trip, heading south and east from home to a town I had never been to, and had only barely heard of. That would be Wales (not to be confused with the slightly more well known place in the UK).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began by heading across the CT River into Chicopee, and going south until I crossed the Chicopee River, then turning east on Route 147. I followed this road across the northeast part of the city of Springfield, and then headed into the town of Wilbraham on Stony Hill Rd\/East Boston Rd. That’s a nice, tree-lined road, and at one point the trees almost form a tunnel (click on photos to enlarge):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Looking<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just after this point I got onto eastbound US-20. Some more riding brought me to Nine Mile Pond:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pond<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pond<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bit later, I passed by this horse and sleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Horse<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That is displayed in front of this business:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Large<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In most of Wilbraham, there is a small amount of shoulder where one can ride a bike and not be in the traffic lane, but as one gets farther east, near the Monson line, there is an official bike lane for a couple of miles. Here’s a picture of it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Road<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This lane might be partly in the town of Monson, as Route 20 skirts the northern border of the town for a while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road then headed into the town of Palmer, and through downtown, where they emphasize the railroad history of the place. Here’s a typical sign from the downtown area:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Green<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A couple of blocks from that sign is this partial old depot building:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Small<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That is part of a little park that has a small play train (presumably for kids to climb in):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Small<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I continued east from Palmer on 20, and passed through a small spur of Monson before entering the town of Brimfield. In that little bit of Monson, I crossed the Quaboag River. Here’s the view south from the bridge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Calm<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The road had been pretty close to level up to this point, with only minor climbing, but there was a long stretch in Brimfield with a gradual climb. Soon after that climb, I came to the point where I turned off south, onto Hollow Road, which took me down into Wales. Here’s the town line sign:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Concrete<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s a pretty wooded town – here’s the section of road where that sign appears:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stretch<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bit farther south there is a little marsh off the east side of the road:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Small<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had to climb some more on this road, until I got near the center of town. In the center, they have this monument I came across when I intersected Route 19:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stone<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are some details of the monument:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Glass<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I went just a bit further south on 19, then began heading west. I passed this pond just after leaving the town center:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Part<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Part<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From there the road went downhill a whole bunch. It was almost all downhill as I headed into Monson, and passed just south of that town’s center. Then I started to climb again as I continued west. I had an initial, slightly steep climb, then some more gradual climbs as the road turned to the southwest. It eventually headed downhill again, as I entered the town of Hampden, before running into another road where I turned west, and headed into Hampden center. Here are some pictures of that area:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brick<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Stone<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That monument is apparently to soldiers from the town who served in World War I. Near here there was a town park where I stopped to eat my lunch. I ate in this empty picnic shelter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Picnic<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

which was right by this playground:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One gets from the parking lot to the picnic\/play area on this little bridge over a ditch\/creek:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reddish-brown<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I was eating, there was a parent with a small child on the playground, and at one point the parent pointed out something on the edge of the playground, which I could soon see was a frog hopping away from them. It went down into the ditch, apparently into the water. Later, once they had left, I took a look in the shallow water, and found a frog – likely the same one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I went a bit more to the west, and then headed north by northwest to leave Hampden. I passed through a corner of the town of East Longmeadow, and then into the southeast part of Springfield. I made my way north through the city, eventually getting back into Chicopee. I crossed the Chicopee River in the same spot as I had in the morning, though with a better view of the dam there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Looking<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From here my path was the reverse of the way I started out. I got home having ridden 59.88 miles, bringing the September total to roughly 387. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Odometer<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coming next: the final ride of the month!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Thursday, I went on my seventh trip, heading south and east from home to a town I had never been to, and had only barely heard of. That would be Wales (not to be confused with the slightly more well known place in the UK). I began by heading across the CT River … 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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363"}],"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=3363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3393,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions\/3393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}