Tour of Litchfield Hills - The Long Way to Cleveland - CycleBlaze

May 7, 2023

Tour of Litchfield Hills

My departure date is getting close. I'm a little nervous about my ability to carry myself over all those hills with these aging muscles, but I'm not as worried as my wife Phoebe. Not about me, mind you. She's worried that she won't have time to do everything that has to be done on the home front - taking care of the animals, keeping up with the Airbnb that we manage together, mowing the lawns, planting the garden, etc. Plus, she's getting more and more commissions for glass projects and teaching glass techniques.  I don't know how she manages when I'm here. Anyway, without her understanding and patience, I would never be able to do something as self-indulgent as a three-and-a-half-week bike ride.  

This morning, I replaced the canti brakes and cables on the bike. Then, to test my legs a bit I fired up the bike and did a 55 mile loop around the county. It's fairly close to the route of an annual charity ride called "Tour of the Litchfield Hills". Why anyone thought that calling a charity ride a tour of hills would attract people to pay for the ride is beyond me, but it's a very popular event in August and it's raised a lot of money for a local hospital's cancer program. And it has hills.

I met three bikers doing the Atlantic Coast route from Key West at the top of the hill in Norfolk. Unfortunately, I didn't take their picture, but they had bikepacking gear, having given up the fully loaded look a few years ago. Very streamlined.

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Colin BakerPlenty of elevation. You will be in shape for the tour.
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11 months ago

The ride to Canaan is the same as the start of my planned route, and I took some pictures today so I wouldn't have to stop during the actual trip. 

I haven't been on a tour in about six years and I haven't looked at my gear in a few either. What a mess! I'll sort through this and select just what I need.
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My father had a mower just like this one in the 1960's. He used it for maybe a year or two and then got a bushhog. Huge difference.
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Beautiful Torrington.
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I'm always interested in roadside markers that you don't notice from a car. This one is on Klug Farm in Torrington marking the site of the first meeting house in the town. It was erected in 1746.
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Colin BakerAs you get older you appreciate these things more.
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11 months ago
This machine was also built in 1746, to facilitate the construction of the meeting house. Looks like it still runs.
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Colin BakerMy father would have liked this. I have not seen a spoked tractor wheel like that. Unusual but nice touch.
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11 months ago
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Canaan is famous for producing some of the best agricultural limestone in the country. Quite a pile of oolites.
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Colin BakerThat’s interesting. Even in metamorphic terrains one finds good deposits of useful sedimentary stone. Rockland Me has big limestone deposits used for making cement. I have never checked it for fossils.
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11 months ago
jim katzinI recently finished reading Quarry and Kiln, by Roger Grindle. It's a history of Maine's lime industry. mostly in Rockland. Since limestone quarries loom large in Nicholas Snow's paintings, I wanted to learn more about them. You've probably read the book.
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11 months ago
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The area is also known for its iron furnaces. This one is Beckley Furnace.
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Colin BakerThis is interesting. It must have taken a vast amount of wood to produce iron. Was this opening where they collected the liquid iron as it flowed out of the iron ore? I am not familiar with smelting furnaces.
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11 months ago
jim katzinGood call. That is exactly what this arch was for. In all there were four arches in this type of furnace, the largest one being this one. Molten iron was extracted from the crucible via the channel shown in the next picture. The other three arches were for forced air, loading and inspecting.
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11 months ago
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