Mohawk Trail and Deerfield Valley

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Orange

   Orange sits in the north of central Massachusetts, in the quiet country of the North Quabbin, where the Millers River runs through a valley of mill buildings, farms and low forested hills. It is a modest town of about four thousand people, with a small main street, a skydiving school at its airport and a long industrial history, and Athol, a slightly larger neighbour of about eight thousand, lies a short ride to the west. For a rider it is a handy place to start a ride, with fuel, coffee and supplies close at hand.

   Read the complete Orange write-up.

2. 2. Greenfield

   Greenfield sits where the Green River slides into the Deerfield, a short way above the wide Connecticut, in a part of western Massachusetts where valley farmland gives way to steep, wooded hills. It is a practical, brick-fronted town of about twenty thousand, a county seat that has weathered the decline of its old cutlery and tool factories and found a second wind with farmers' markets, small breweries and a lively main street. Few outsiders think of it as a destination, which suits the people who live here.

   Read the complete Greenfield write-up.

3. 3. Shelburne Falls

   Shelburne Falls is really two villages, Shelburne on one side of the Deerfield River and Buckland on the other, tied together by an iron bridge and a curious flower garden. The garden is on a former trolley bridge, a concrete arch built in 1908 for an electric railway that closed in the 1920s. Local women planted it in 1929, and the Bridge of Flowers now blooms from spring bulbs through the autumn, a long ribbon of colour over the river. It is a true village, with about two thousand people, some pottery and glass studios, a good bakery and a couple of cafes, and the whole thing is small enough to walk in an hour.

   Read the complete Shelburne Falls write-up.

4. 4. Charlemont

5. 5. North Adams

   North Adams lies in a bowl of mountains in the far northwest corner of Massachusetts, in the Berkshires, with Mount Greylock, the state's highest peak at about 1,060 metres, rising just to the south. For most of the twentieth century it was a mill town, and the vast brick factory complex on the edge of downtown, once the home of an electrical equipment company, was converted into MASS MoCA, one of the largest contemporary art museums in the country. The town has the slightly worn, determined look of a place that has reinvented itself, and the old brick storefronts have cafes and galleries.

   Read the complete Near North Adams write-up.