factory null
Berkshire Epic
by Steve O'Neill
Sam wanted to do a 2-day bikepacking ride.
To be candid, I didn’t start out wanting to do this. I even felt relieved when I found that my crank was seized as I pulled my bike out the night before. I installed a new derailleur hanger and was skeptical that it would fix some prior issues with shifting (it did). As it turned out, Sam actually had a compatible bearing in his shed. I couldn’t weasel out.
We left at noon. Sam ripped off his rear derailleur, a brand new Ultegra RX, while shifting into the easiest gear just as we were going into singletrack. He had put the b-screw in all the way but the RD just didn’t have enough capacity for his 42t cassette. He said it worked in the stand which is totally reasonable.
I rode back to his house to return and pick him up in my car. Almost ripped my bumper off on the curb as I hastily pulled out (no damage). We went back and he selected his all-mountain bike with a Fox 34. This time, he used a camelback in lieu of a frame bag, which he had no room for.
Loaded down, my bike felt great while doing interesting singletrack at a spirited pace. We rode through the sand pits near Williamsburg. Inside the pits, we realized our way was impassable so we did something slightly different.
At a certain point, the sun glimmered on the branches and we crested over a dirt hill. I found myself in a tube of lightly yellow and orange trees, having not experienced foliage like that so far this season. I felt excitedly as if we were riding into fall.
Eventually we turned onto a slightly creepy Maine-like road with tons of no-trespassing signs. Lots of strange shacks and houses; hunting gear everywhere. One double-wide(?) had a 30 foot tall hunting tower that was orange with corrosion.
Nobody bothered us, and that creepy road became a challenging and satisfying rock garden. That itself became a nice bit of singletrack, with some walking at the end because of steepness and rocks.
Then to Huntington. We rode by Jonathan’s house and tapped on the door. He came out and seemed really glad to see us. He actually jumped on his bike (a beautiful titanium hardtail with a Pike and eeWorks cranks) and rode up Huntington Ravine with us. We both were surprised the bridge had been repaired. We parted ways at the top.
Thereabouts we rode up from Huntington up 143 just to get food. Huge hill, and me and Sam kind of both cracked. Stopped at the Chesterfield General Store(?) and got amazing sandwiches. I have been there a few times recently on rides, never coming from that direction, and I really like it. Filled our bottles with water from the hose.
Rode north just re-routing as necessary. Lots of steep gravel climbs. Tiring. Beautiful sunset.
It got dark as we got onto some dirt doubletrack. Thankfully the terrain was mostly mild. Rode up to Hawley in good spirits. Found a tent camping site just off the road - possibly renegade. Filtered water, and stayed the night.
“Carbs are just sugar with extra steps” - Sam
tags: mountain-biking