Ride # 34: Tree Killahz

Backyard Style, A Different Perspective
Saturday, 11:30 a.m., April 12
66 degrees and warming

Tree killers on the rampage in the Princeton Hills. I came upon massacre sites. Appalling gigantic stumps lining Gregory Corso Rd, Pine Hill Rd. A campaign of destruction.

I ride through the slaughter scape, bear witness, I breathe out OM AH HUM, I shout aloud, in a synthesis of New England and Jamaican Dancehall style speech, TREE KILLAHZ! TREE KILLAHZ! TREE KILLAHZ!

Gregory (Corso) Rd, Princeton
Stumps a-plenty

Pine Hill Rd, a corridor of death
Giant hardwoods centuries old
Gone

One of many

My glove for scale

Massacre Victim

WTF?!

Not irie at all.

But the ride was. First day in short sleeves. High sun, 70 degrees, the inevitability of warmth, occasional breeze. The neon lime green wind vest kept the core warm. A brilliant, sharp-lighted spring afternoon. You could sense the earth's stirring.

Fitness-wise, I am still yet to notch a 50 miler but that doesn't worry me. At this point I'm completely comfortable with an aggressive 30 mile ride of 2+ hours so going into the Rasputitsa well-rested, well-fueled, and well-Zen'd as I'll be, I'm confident I'll acquit myself well.

Yes-I !

Ride Summary: 32.55 miles (52 K), 13.3 mph, the Sterling & Princeton Hills, a peck on the cheek of Mt. Wachusett's not-yet-open Summit Rd, a lot of climbing elsewhere, plenty of sand and broken tarmac, no dirt roads. I'm honing my fitness more than training for the conditions I might face in the Hell of the Northeast Kingdom.

Road Kill: One opossum, one tiny snake, pale belly side up (neither photographed). And a helluva lot of wise old trees.

Setting Out:

Postmodernism

Back:

I Shad and The Little General