Returned this Sunday to Massasoit State Park down the road in East Taunton with the sidekick for what we hoped would be two to three hours of solid riding around Middle Pond and perhaps on some of the calmer single track trails.
The day started off well enough – though it was around 50 degrees – as we headed down the main road – past Camper’s Beach, and onto the Middle Pond bridle trail to cruise the 2.0 mile course around the pond.
As you can see from this shot, I was cruising along pretty well.
And, as usual, the views from the Middle Pond Trail were quite impressive – particularly now that fall has struck New England with it’s usual ferocity:
But as we rounded the corner to climb up the west side of Middle Pond – while I was pushing up an incline, my chain snapped, and suddenly I wasn’t going anywhere.
I whipped out my Alien II multitool and went to town – only to lose the chain pin entirely and being completely stumped on how to proceed.
So, from 1.8 miles away, we hoofed it back to the car – as you can see below:
After that, we loaded the bikes back on the car and headed up the road to Silver City Bicycles where it took them all of five minutes to fix the chain – and give me a quick lesson in bike repair.
They’re great guys – go buy your bike there today!
Anyways, we had two hours of sunlight left, so we headed back to Massasoit again – and rode another eight miles – including that incline twice without losing a chain or any other bike parts!
During the recovery phase of our trip, we cruised around the Perry Bogs and took this photo of the holding pond for the cranberry bogs:
And, as a last thought, here’s the path we chose not to take while riding the Cranberry singletrack trail on the east side of the park:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
— Robert Frost
