Wild Hogs V Day 1

Meeting up at Ravine

The day started remarkably well. I met with Kevin at about 7 am and we headed up the road to meet the rest of the crew coming up from Lancaster. We met at the Ravine exit on I-81. They were a few minutes late due to construction, but we were on the road in good time.

The first few hours were outstanding riding. The sun was shining and the temps were very comfortable.

OCC Stop just before lunch

By our lunch stop in Newburgh NY the heat was on.

We stopped by OCC. They have changed things a bit. About half of the former showroom space is now dedicated to a small bowling alley and their new bar and grill. Many of the old bikes are on display as well as some others I had not seen before. From there we went for lunch at Subway (the OCC Bar and Grill was a bit too pricey for us poor traveling men. We stopped for gas (that gave us a little sticker shock), then we were back on the road. The temps just got worse as we went.

We chose to travel Rt 9 through the Hudson River Valley. It's a beautiful area with some spectacular homes along the way. We passed the Vanderbilt estate along with a huge number of historic buildings and other sites.

At our final gas stop we got to talking with the clerk who informed us that Friday should be the worst day of the week heat wise. Not so much what you want to hear when camping in tents.

We arrived at the Peppermint Park Camping Resort in Plainfield Massachusetts about 6 pm (named for the peppermint oil production that used to be done nearby). It was still very hot, but much better than it had been earlier in the day. As we made our way into the mountains of western Massachusetts there was a noticeable drop in temperature (from high 90s to low 90s.

Camp Set up

We got camp set up, then needed to decide what to do about dinner. The nearest town with any restaurants is about 12 miles away on back country roads. We set out to find a place called Country Pie Pizza at about 7pm. The list of places provided by the campground said it should take about 15 minutes. Unfortunately we let Scott lead.

The ride was nice. Twisting country roads as the temperature was cooling, were very enjoyable. The only problem was Scott missed the turn and we traveled nearly 10 miles out of our way. I will say that the pizza was excellent, but had we been much later, we would be hungry. They roll up the sidewalks around here very early.

Country Pie Pizza Ashville, MA

With our bellies full and darkness upon us it was time to make our way back to camp. Another pleasant ride in the cooler evening air, or so I thought. It was going well with Kevin leading using his gps function on his phone to be sure we could find it in the dark. All of the sudden we find ourselves on a dirt road winding up, down, and all around. I was having some serious flashbacks to Wild Hogs II (check out our gps gone wrong adventure from that year, 2010). The road did take us back to the campground, but I would have much preferred the paved road we originally came in on.

As I write this it is going on midnight. The camp is very quiet. I can hear the fan Mark has running in his tent and an occasional plane will pass overhead. Otherwise it's very still. I can sometimes hear a car somewhere off in the distance, but not much else, not even the usual woods sounds. My nephew Scottie is the only other one still up and he is at the showers apparently taking the mother of all showers. The Internet connection here is a bit slow and unpredictable but I will try to upload some pics and spruce these entries up when I can get the laptop to connect.

Off to bed for now. Hopefully it won't be quite so hot tomorrow. I think the plan is to make a run up Mt. Greylock tomorrow.