Bos/treal Day 1: Pedaling Through History and Hills

73 miles, 3505 feet of elevation.

The route: Cambridge, Concord, Ayer, Shirley, Lunenberg, Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, and finally Otter Creek State Park.

Before getting into our great first day, let’s recap what this ride is about.

Roughly 40 bikers join the trip every year, with a fundraising goal of roughly $2000 each for the Boston Cyclists Union. That’s a total of $80,000 to the BCU, then deduct perhaps $20,000 for expenses (food, support vehicle rental and operation, hostel fees in Montréal) and BCU nets $60,000, making it their largest fundraiser of the year.

With that money and other funds BCU hires an executive director (Ari Belathar) and a communications director (Mandy Wilkins). These two staff work with the board of directors to advocate for improved bike infrastructure in Boston and the environs.

Which brings us back to day 1 of Bos/treal! We started at 7:30 am in City Hall Plaza with a group photo (we are all wearing the official Bos/treal jersey) and then we headed west and crossed the Longfellow bridge and started our 400 mile journey!

Overall, today was a great ride, with spectacular weather (sunny, breezy and in the high 70s/low 80s), great paths, including the Minuteman bike path and a brief stretch on the “Twin cities rail trail” from Leominster to Fitchburg.

There were significant hills, with an elevation gain of 3500 feet. That would normally make for a fairly miserable ride but the fine weather and adrenaline of starting out journey powered us through.

I was very impressed with the well organized support team, especially the vast food spreads for snacks and lunch.

Biking through the old industrial heartland of Western Mass is fun, especially downtown Gardner, called “chair city” because in the early 20th century it was the chair making capital of the US.

Dinner at the campsite was “foil pouch dinner”, we created tempting pouches with veggies, proteins (like tofu, chicken, beans), and an array of sauces. We lay the pouches on a grill over a campfire and 20 minutes later we were ravenously scarfing dinner down.

What a great day, and the truly scenic part is ahead of us—tomorrow we bike 70 more miles and will be camping out in Vermont.