Pioneer Valley Tales & Trails

On the Byways of Western Massachusetts

With Carol Colitti Levine & Dr. Gary Levine, Photographer

 

side trek falls

 

 

Valley Living Magazine
2006 – 2010

Ditching navigation maps and apps, Carol Colitti Levine’s aversion to driving on highways steered her to explore and write about hidden gems along the scenic byways of the Pioneer Valley & Western New England for a local magazine, Valley Living. Carol convinced the talented Dr. Husband to collaborate as her photographer.

She named this quarterly travel column The Side Trek.

Click to see a few of them:

Shelburne Falls
Salem Cross Inn
Lobster Roll
Foliage Fore-ays
Berkshire Loop

 

 

Travel Treks
2010 – 2016

The Side Trek blog was born in 2010. Carol’s quirky take on politics, current events, books, and bizness. Her Back Roads Thoughts.

Its Travel Treks page continued to focus on hidden gems along the back roads of Western Massachusetts as photos below show.

 


2016

Signs of the Times
Hatfield

The “Valley” has gorgeous vistas and architecture. It also has many colleges, farms and factories. Conservatives and liberals living together. Sometimes in the same house!

Epitomized by these yard signs during the presidential primaries of 2016. As we stopped to take a photo, the woman homeowner opened her door and yelled, “Do you think we will still be married after the election?” Hmmm. Wonder if they are.

 

2015

Last Peak
Route 5 Hatfield

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Historic Deerfield

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Autumn Sojourn with Jean Jean
Ashfield & Conway

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Williams College
Williamstown

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Clark Art Institute
Williamstown

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Special trek to see Van Gogh and Nature, a limited exhibition. Vincent’s study of the impressionists in France. Arles. Auvers.

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Super Bowl bonus. Since the Patriots beat the Seahawks, the Seattle Art Museum loaned The Clark Albert Bierstadt’s wall-sized masterpiece Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast.


Susan B. Anthony Birthplace
North Adams

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Strawberry Picking Polka Dots
Hatfield

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Sprouting Spring
Sunderland

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2014

Turn of the Calendar
Shelburne Falls

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Half Autumn
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Quonquont Farm
Whately

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Spring in the Valley
Sunderland

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2013

Fall Photo Contest
mAdBen v. Dr. Dad

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Winter Hilltown
Shelburne Center

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Autumnal Still Life
Cummington

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Mystery of Blue
Hill
Great Barrington

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Mid-summer night’s dinner at Blue Hill restaurant in Greenwich Village. Famous for fresh produce from its farmLocavore award. James Beard winner. Alas. Our dinner’s vegetables disappeared. They never appeared on our plates. So, we decided to search Blue Hill Farm, the eatery’s namesake to investigate. Up the road on a pristine day, we found the culprit, overlooking the Housatonic River. We didn’t spy a stalk of corn or a wandering squash. Just a Jewish cow family. The Holsteins. Way down the hill. A view. To a kill?

 

Gorge-ous Trek
Chesterfield

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2012

Farm Foliage
Connecticut River Valley

 

Pumpkin Patch
Route 5 Whately

 

 
Shelburne Falls
Favorite SideTrek along a byway which must have seen its share of Indian skirmishes along the Mohawk trail. Recent fims set in Shelburne Falls: The Judge, starring Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga. Labor Day, Jason Reitman’s movie set here, starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. Based on J.D. Salinger’s paramour’s book.

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Original Williams House
Goshen


The Good Time Stove Company
Goshen

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Indian Summer
Bernardston

Northfield


Spring Weekday
Trek
Hatfield

 

 

 

 

 

2011

William Cullen Bryant Homestead
Cummington

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Where he retreated to pen pastoral poetry and think Thanatopsis thoughts.

 


So Long Side Trek!

Carol and photographer Dr. Husband said goodbye to Western Massachusetts in July of 2016, moving on to SideTrek . NYC. 

They loved their years of Side Treks along the Pioneer Valley’s country byways. And their many trips to Shelburne Falls.

 

 

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