Catching up - through the Pioneer Valley

Day 11: Northampton: A 4 mile run takes me from Look Park across the northern part of Northampton to the bridge crossing the Connecticut River. A few things I've learned:

• Look Park was created thanks to the donation of Fannie Burr Look - a million dollars, it says, in her 1930's obituary. Her husband ran the Florence Manufacturing Company, which became the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush (toothbrush) company.
• Northampton was originally called Norwottuck, or Nonotuck -- meaning in the midst of the river. Wikipedia says that the current name was given by an English settler who had come from Northampton in England, but there is a lot more Native American history to explore there...
• Calvin Coolidge not only has a bridge named after him, but he was also the Mayor of Northampton

Day 12: Norwottuck: A 7 mile run today along the Norwottuck Rail Trail. This is perhaps the only part of this journey where my actual running route mirrored the virtual running route! This rail trail is a DCR State Park, used to be an actual railroad (the Boston and Maine RR), and is part of a long term plan to create a 104 mile rail trail from Boston to Northampton (in progress... https://www.masscentralrailtrail.org)

Day 13: More of Norwottuck: 4 more miles takes me through the Lawrence Swamp to the current end of the Norwottuck Rail Trail (until they can complete the trip to Boston) I knew that the Lawrence Swamp was a great habitat for birds and an important conservation resource. I didn't know that it's actually an important source of water for the town. According to a UMass blog, 60% of the town water comes from surface reservoirs such as Atkins and Pelham, but 40% comes from groundwater from the Lawrence aquifer, that feeds the town wells.

Day 14: Daniel Shays Highway - A short 3 mile run takes me to the intersection of Rte 9 and 202 (Daniel Shays Highway). Daniel Shays seems to me to be an interesting corner of American history - there are the stories about hiding out in the Holyoke Range horse caves when the Massachusetts militia were sent after him and his men. But it's also an interesting story about the common citizen and fighting back against government control and taxation. 

Day 15: The Quabbin - Another 4 mile run takes me to the entrance to the Quabbin Reservoir -- lots more history here about how Boston took over 4 towns in Western mass to create a drinking water reservoir for Boston. Way too much history to report here, but worth reading more about, and exploring, now that it's a protected watershed area.

Day 16: Ware - A long 9 mile run today goes all the way through Ware. Ware was another town that was part of this 'Equivalent Lands' compromise that gave Connecticut settlers land in Massachusetts to make up for mis-surveyed land. Ware also took in a lot of the displaced citizens from the towns that got washed out by the Quabbin. 

Day 17: A long 19 mile hike takes me out past Charlton.

Williamsburg to Look Park

Days 9 and 10 - 6 miles on Sunday and another 4 miles today takes me from Chesterfield through the town of Williamsburg (not to be confused with Williamstown!) as well as Haydenville, before ending up right at Look Park in Northampton.
A few notable things:

The Chesterfield Scout Reservation was on the way -- this reservation, owned by the Boy Scouts for 50 years, was sold in 2018 to the Tolgy Wood organization, who runs an annual Renaissance Faire there, and who were planning to run all sorts of events and Live Action Role Playing events. Covid seems to have hit them hard, though, cancelling all of their events. I hope they make it through.

Williamsburg is the next town to go through -- seems to be famous for it's great flood of 1874, when the town was nearly wiped out, and it's 'quaint' downtown. Tracy Kidder, the famous author, lives here. I do wonder who Williamsburg was named after - I don't think it was Ephraim Williams, who left his estate and money to found Williamstown and Williams College. It appears, however, that there were a lot of Williamses in Western Mass during that time, so maybe it was one of his cousins...

The landscape changes from the wooded hills of the west to more and more retail and restaurants -- the Williamsburg Snack Bar, Bread Euphoria, Scotti's, and, yes, a Dunkin Donuts. We've arrived in Northampton.