Quabbin Reservoir Cruise - 6/8/13

[Chewie4299]

Hello all. As I've already mentioned so some of you New Englanders I've been wanting to set up a cruise around the Quabbin Reservoir in central Mass. I travel all over New England every week and once recently I decided I'd drive home to Wallingford, CT from Westford, MA after telling Google Nav to avoid highways. It was a great experience by myself and the best part was when I drove by the Wachusett Reservoir.

When I got home I looked up the details surrounding both the Wachusett and Quabbin reservoirs and the areas surrounding them. Pretty crazy to me how the Quabbin, half a state away, is the the primary (only?) supply of drinking water to the greater Boston area.

A little later on I was perusing motorcycleroads.com and saw some great comments surrounding the "Quabbin Loop" and decided we need to do this as a group. It should be excellent fun and with some great scenery. It won't be as technical/challenging as some of the other great driving roads in the northeast such as the Kancamagus Highway in NH which I haven't been to yet but I hear great things about the area.

In doing some research I've found evidence of several cruises as well as bicycle road races in the area. Ferarri clubs, corvette owners, even f-body guys have cruised this area and loved it. I stole some of their ideas.

Here's my plan:

Start: Exit 8 off the Mass Pike (I-90)

From there we would take RT 32 north to the town of Ware where we pick up Ware-Greenwich Rd.

We follow that to loop inwards towards the reservoir and the back out to pick up RT 32A.

Follow that up the east side of the Quabbin to Petersham.

Then pick up RT 122 to Orange, then a little ways up RT 202 north to hit up some go karts.

www.202fun.com

When it's time to move on we take RT 202 south down the west side of the Quabbin to Belchertown

There we pick up RT 9 east heading back towards Ware.

About half way back to Ware we will detour inwards towards the reservoir again to the Qaubbin Visitor Center for some great scenery and probably a lot of picture taking.

From there we'll drive just a short distance up to a lookout tower with a great view of the Reservoir. There is also a nice big parking lot where we could take some more pictures.

From there we, again, make a quick loop close to the reservoir on our way back to RT 9 and then back to Ware.

From Ware we hit RT 32 again back to our start point.


Total length of the cruise is ~81 miles. Drive time should be about 2h 15m not including stops.

[ame="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Thorndike+St&daddr=Greenwich+Rd+to:202+ Entertainment,+207+Daniel+Shays+Highway,+Orange,+M A+to:US-202+S%2FDaniel+Shays+Hwy+to:42.2822678,-72.3445526+to:42.299587,-72.33304+to:42.3067827,-72.3174931+to:West+St+to:Thorndike+St&hl=en-US&ll=42.356514,-72.235794&spn=0.402373,0.758057&sll=42.171737,-72.320509&sspn=0.025222,0.047379&geocode=FQBwgwIdq WOw-w%3BFd6RhgIdWMux-w%3BFXpTiQIdhfSw-yFiNsWpSnHBZCldOM5Jf0jhiTFiNsWpSnHBZA%3BFa5IhQId4S iv-w%3BFRsthQIdGByw-ykhyhTtPMjmiTFlnX8ruFVWrQ%3BFcNwhQIdEEmw-w%3BFd6MhQIdy4Ww-ylBvgHHJLbmiTHhGyaMcNnzZw%3BFWLYhAIdLKqx-w%3BFXpwgwIdmGOw-w&oq=the+peop&mra=dme&mrsp=0&sz=15&via=4,6&t=m&z=1 1"]Google Maps Driving Directions LINK[/ame]


I wanted to include a stop for food and drinks but searched all around the route for a viable option without much success. There's a spot that looks good in Greenfield we could hit after the go-karts. It would add 20-30 miles to the trip which I wouldn't mind and include some nice roads through a state park on the way back to 202. I wasn't sure everyone would be into such a detour for a restaurant/brewery stop. If everyone likes the idea I'll make the changes.

I figured, barring that change, that we'd conclude the cruise and then decide on a restaurant to travel to for food and drinks.

I'd like to limit this to 10 cars max as yesterday's cruise to Atlantic City became a bit too unmanageable after 7-10.

Ideally I'd like everyone to have those GMRS/FRS 2-way radios. I'll be picking up one of my own shortly. If at least a few of us have them then that should be sufficient.

I'll provide the exact start time and location by PM/email once everything is final.

The list:
1. @Chewie4299
2. @scionfr_s
3. @sklimo
4. @Deslock
5. @avig
6. @TheFirstScion
7. @Inzandity
8. @james
9. @Loktai
10.
Photographer!: @M-17

[Chewie4299]

[BadLuck]

I get back 5/25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been looking forward to this run!

[cmspooner]

I might be up for it.

[JDMenrique]

I know the MassTuning Roof Top meet is 4/27. This run is a great idea.

[rba]

I've been trying to plan a drive on those roads for awhile now. I'm in!

[rba]

Something of note for those of you who haven't driven in this area: the police are, in my experience, bored and there are many speed traps. Driving into Petersham a 50 MPH zone quickly becomes a 20 MPH zone, for example. We'll need to be watching out for speed limit signs.

[PRORICAN]

I vote for 5/25 or later

[JDMenrique]

Originally Posted by PRORICAN

I vote for 5/25 or later

i wonder why, lol

[PRORICAN]

Originally Posted by JDMenrique

i wonder why, lol

Hahaha, can you blame me?

[Chewie4299]

Hopefully we can get someone with some proper photographication (made it up) skills to get some awesome shots.

I'm not that person.

[Chewie4299]

Guys, remember to shoot me a PM if interested. I'm going to include folks in the order in which I receive them. Initially I thought it might be tough to gather 10 in new england for this but I may have miscalculated.

[Clembo]

I'm going to have trouble on Saturdays from late-April on out - most of my other car club's activities are on Saturdays then. Will have to see what date you actually come up with and even then, ???.

This is a great run - wife and I drove it in the MX-5 a few years back. And yes, be careful of speed traps. I think that's how the towns make money up there.

We took a picnic lunch and a cooler just to be sure we would be able to eat. Might be an idea for this run if you wanted to stop and eat along the way.

I remember my Mom and Dad talked about their taking over towns and tearing down houses to flood this area for the reservoir. Quite controversial back then, especially for many who lost their homes. For anyone interested there is a little history here:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quabbin_Reservoir"]Quabbin Reservoir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

[Chewie4299]

Originally Posted by Clembo

I'm going to have trouble on Saturdays from late-April on out - most of my other car club's activities are on Saturdays then. Will have to see what date you actually come up with and even then, ???.

This is a great run - wife and I drove it in the MX-5 a few years back. And yes, be careful of speed traps. I think that's how the towns make money up there.

We took a picnic lunch and a cooler just to be sure we would be able to eat. Might be an idea for this run if you wanted to stop and eat along the way.

I remember my Mom and Dad talked about their taking over towns and tearing down houses to flood this area for the reservoir. Quite controversial back then, especially for many who lost their homes. For anyone interested there is a little history here:

Quabbin Reservoir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They did something similar to the exisiting towns and residents for Candlewood Lake in CT

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlewood_Lake"]Candlewood Lake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]