MA - Mohawk Trail

The Mohawk Trail is a 69-mile scenic byway that meanders through deep forest and historic towns, passes scenic hikes and dramatic vistas, all the while criss-crossing and paralleling five major rivers— the Millers, Connecticut, Green, Deerfield and Hoosic.

The byway dates back more than 10,000 years, when Native Americans first began hunting and trading via footpaths along the rivers. Obviously, the current road is much newer and very well maintained. Making driving along very easy.

We only travelled along the Mohawk Trail for a short while through the Connecticut and Deerfield River Valleys, stopping at a couple of places to break the journey and marvel at the sights.

👆 Historic Deerfield - for much of the colonial period Deerfield was one of New England's frontier village with quite some skirmishes between the settlers and the the indigenous Pocumtuck nation.
Today, it feels like a 'live-in museum village' dedicated to the heritage and preservation of Deerfield, MA and the history of the Connecticut River Valley. There are plenty of historic houses (i.e. museums) interspersed with homes of people actually living there including a big school.
It felt all a bit unreal.
👆 Shelburne Falls - Bridge of Flowers is a lovely place to wander across. It's like a garden of flowers connecting the towns of Shelburne and Buckland.
Originally the bridge was build in 1908 as a trolley bridge to allow rail freight to be transported across as the nearby iron bridge from 1890 had a twenty ton weight limited.The bridge eventually fell into disrepair in 1927.
In 1929 the local women's club decided to create the seasonal flower garden. And what a great job they are still doing!
👆 Shelburne Falls - "Glacial Potholes" began to form after the last glacier age about 14,000 years ago. The formation of these river-eroded features have been created by the great glacial lake, Lake Hitchcock. After Lake Hitchcock drained 14,000 years ago, Deerfield River was able to cut downward into its delta sediments. This erosive process, which continues today. The river found itself on top of the gneiss bedrock and could start eroding holes in the hard gneiss
👆 Williamstown - the end of our tour along the Mohawk Trail. Just before we got there, the heavens opened and we had the most torrential rain one can imagine.
After a days driving, I wanted to walk to dinner but no way in the rain. Actually, just as well that we drove. It seems to get dark very quickly and in typical American country towns, everything is further apart than you think.

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So many and different types of beer around. So difficult to choose. Not really a beer drinker but found a few I like - Blue Moon, Pumpkin Ale, Blueberry Ale. No way to know how to choose - so only going by the alcohol content and setting the bar at 5%. Not many around at that level.
But imagine me drinking 6%+ beer, would pull the legs from under me.Read more