| | Entrance to my complex. Very pretty, but almost impossible to see out of from a car, and it's very hard to see at night. Typical Massachusetts thought process. |
| | | Looking down the final hill, aka "Hell". It's nice to start with, but as you'll see, it sucks ass on the return trip. |
| | | One of the few outbound uphill parts. That's what really sucks...outbound is almost all downhill, so going is skate...the return? UGH. |
|
| | typical foliage for my area, which makes things quite cool, even on hot days. There are parts that feel like a thermocline, the temp drops so fast. The shade is especially nice on my snow field-blasted eyes. |
| | | A brook that runs under the road. You can barely see it, the foliage is so dense. That's one of the reasons I stayed in Mass. as long as I have...it's really a beautiful place. It's just that the natives are morons. |
| | | Close-up of brook, it actually babbles, as it runs over the rocks...has a wee bitty waterfall, and on really hard runs, the sound is very calming, helps me get my breathing under control. |
|
| | Other side of road, where brook exits. This was taken on a decently bright day too...you could film some kickin' horror flicks in those woods. |
| | | Entering Southborough, about 1.3 miles out. I like running through Southborough, they have nice WIDE run lanes along the road. |
| | | Other side of the sign, note the date the town was founded, and that's not particularly old for the area. I lived in one town founded about 1630 or so for a while. One of the big reasons why driving in Mass. can be both incredibly fun and incredibly maddening. |
|
| | 2 - mile mark, turn around. This is not a particularly high - end house for this area. Average price around here is $500K. |
| | | first uphill return leg, about three-quarters of a mile long. Not particularly steep, but I think the total rise is about 15 feet...it sucks. |
| | | Typical southboro mansion, not mine ;-( That's the back yard, and it's about 75 yards from the house to the road. This isn't even in the top ten RT to house size of yard size for this area...no wonder I don't own a house here. |
|
| | One of the bogs of Westborough. This has moving water, so it doesn't reek, nor create a billion misquitos. It's really prettier than it looks at 50 MPH. |
| | | Uhlmans' Ice Cream, the start of hell. From here, until about 50yds outside of my complex, it's all uphil, and about a 30 foot rise or so. |
| | | The start of the real rise, about a third of a mile, and curving. The camera is being held out of the roof of my car, note that the hill rises past the curve in the road. That mailbox is the first of four landmarks I now call the "Four Gates Out Of Hell" In a nice headwind on a hot day, that's EXACTLY what it feels like...escaping Hell. |
|
| | Coming back into the complex, again, camera at roof level, the total rise here is about 3' in 30 yards. |
| | | Penultimate hill, nice and steep. It's hard to get an idea of how nasty this one is, but again, the camera is being held about 4' off the ground, and the end of the hill is a bit higher than that, only about 50 yards long. Arg. |
| | | local pimpmobile...I WANT THAT CAR!!!! Oh man...I know the guy who owns it...it OOOZES down the road...sigh... |
|
| | My front door (203), 4.2 miles done. |
| | |
