Hills! The Last Ride of 2014

George St, December 30, 2014

The 89th and last ride of 2014 took me on a perambulation around the Woo City neighborhoods and included a number of strenuous climbs, not least of which was the fabled George St, site of the George Street Challenge. The promo video made by the Major Taylor Association says George St is a 24% grade. I didn't time myself, I just launched from Main St and roared up as best I could, faltering near the top but prevailing and then pausing briefly to snap the above photo.

But George St is just one of many challenging climbs around the city. There's Farnum St near Elm Park, there's Newton Hill, there's Havelock Rd. There's Green Hill and the climb up to Holy Cross, neither of which I did on this ride. Nevertheless, in a short 12 miles of circuitous neighborhood meandering, I managed 1,178 feet of ascending.

We are now fully in the midst of winter riding and I love it. The key is proper dress. As long as you keep warm, winter riding is fantastic. Everything is crisp, sharp, dramatic. Architecture's clean geometry stands out, the red brick and granite edifices suffused with rich afternoon sun, dazzle. The woods, bereft of foliage, afford clean sight lines through the trees so that the very contours of the earth reveal themselves. Slicing through the side streets and odd corners of the frigid city, I feel powerful, youthful, imbued with wonder. When not huffing up some sharp incline with head bent and eyes to the tarmac, I look around amazed, overjoyed to be alive & pedaling through this old city.

Elm tree and moon atop Amherst St hill

I'm starting to put together a more coherent route now that I've explored many parts of the city so far. Set out from Elm Park, up William St, down to Main St, zip down two blocks to George St., climb up that to Harvard St., take a right, down to the Worcester Art Museum, left onto Institute Rd, through WPI, then across Park Ave (still on Institute Rd) and then a right either onto Hall St (a dirt road) or up a little more to the awesome steepness of Farnum Rd (with its still-in-use gas lamps) and up up up to Bancroft Tower (featured in this blog before, here and here), around the Beechmont/Salisbury St 'hood, then backtrack to Highland Ave, cut across and into the woods of Newton Hill (a towering mound that is officially part of Elm Park and that's comprised of trails and a disc golf course and a summit with a tall monument pole and a great view in all directions), ride the trails to the summit then head carefully down the rough & steep descent to the roundabout where Highland, June, Newton, and Pleasant Streets all converge, shoot out of that and pick up Monroe or Howland Terrace and on to Hadwen Rd off of which you can launch an assault on Havelock Rd and once on top, then it's back down one side or the other and a return to Elm Park via a variety of side streets (including the poet street, Longfellow).

Of course, this is just one iteration, albeit one that is all about climbing and mostly occurs on the west side of the city. To the east of Main St and on the other side of rt. 290 is Green Hill and Holy Cross and also vast areas of old industrial lots & red brick warehouses & battered neighborhoods of rickety old triple deckers & gritty side streets & hints of unknown menace. There's the area around Clark University and the noble Queen Anne Norcross Brothers buildings on Claremont St, also University Park and the Canterbury/Cambridge St stretch. And that's just what I've found so far.

Ride Summary: 12 miles, 1178 feet elevation. Strava route.