Friday, 01 September 2006

Friday, 01 September 2006
Ashby to Boston (Massachusetts)

It was dark under the trees but I was in no rush as I figured that I only had about 40-45 miles to go to Boston. I was packed and ready to go by about 8:30 and as far as I could tell under the coniferous canopy it was a nice day overhead. I threw away my cycling water-bottle as it had sprung a leak and I was hoping that it would be the only puncture of the day- and the whole trip! (I can definitely endorse Specialized Armadillo tyres.)

I cycled back to the SR 119 and just a couple of miles into Townsend where I stopped at Chris’s Café for breakfast. When I started this trip, and people would ask me where I was cycling from and to, it wasn’t very impressive as I hadn’t travelled very far. By the time I got to Newfoundland, Labrador or Quebec it was much more impressive. But now, as I get near to Boston again and people ask where I have cycled from, it doesn’t sound too impressive to say Boston – it’s not that far and I feel compelled to explain that I’ve been via New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and Montreal. I hope more to fan the flames of conversation rather than to bask in the supposed glory of a Herculean effort. It’s certainly been an adventure. (I did have one person who was amazed I was cycling all the way to Boston today!)

By the time I’d finished breakfast the library was open (10 am) and now that I was pretty certain of arriving in Boston today I could start to organise my return to the UK – changing flight and arranging transport from the airport. As I was cycling out of Townsend in the sun I nearly fell victim to the ‘car driver opening the without looking’ type of accident, but luckily I was going slow enough to swerve around – I couldn’t have stopped in time.

I was quite fortunate to be finishing my trip today as it’s a long weekend in the States – Monday is the Labor Day Holiday, which means that the roads and possibly the campgrounds will be busy. Also, with the tail end of Hurricane Ernesto heading this way, the weather forecast isn’t too good. The roads already seemed quite busy to me, perhaps with people starting the weekend early or perhaps just because I was so close to Boston.

I cycled through Groton and crossed the I-98 before detouring onto the SR 225 which was quiet and pleasant – until something hard and heavy hit me on the head as I cycled along under the trees. It seemed to fall straight down out of the trees, but clunked like a stone. What is a stone doing falling out of a tree? A cycling helmet is often an annoyance, but I was glad of it now. I was beginning to think that my last day was jinxed and might really be my last day so I resolved to concentrate and take special care for the rest of the day.

At Bedford I could cycle on the Minuteman Trail – a “Rails to Trails” project that would take me 10 miles into the Cambridge area of Boston – just where I needed to get to as Lucy and David live in Cambridge. The trail was busy with pedestrians, skaters and other cyclists and was a pleasant easy cycle as far as ‘Alewife’ in North Cambridge. As soon as I stopped and pulled out my map to figure out my next move, two separate cyclists converged on me to ask if I needed any help. Of course, I did. Being America, Cambridge is not quite the leafy suburb you might imagine – at least not all of it. One of the cyclists led me through a labyrinth of cycle paths to a bridge that would lead me to Concord Avenue, my first landmark. Once on Concord Avenue I simply asked at a gas station for directions to Walden Street, and still nearly went wrong at a point where Concord Avenue branches at a rotary (roundabout). For a country so big, the street name signs are often inconspicuous or absent. Once back on track I found Walden Street and David and Lucy’s house, the end of my cycling odyssey.

Distance: 45.1 miles
Cycling time: 4:02
Total distance: 4560.0 miles (7341.6 kilometres)