Watch out for that tree

Route 116 from Adams to South Deerfield. 39 miles.

This is another woodsy hilltown highway, where there are few other cars and the strongest come-on is for Cold Soda. Motoring west to east, we cleared the ranch houses of suburban Adams and began to climb a tight and bending little road with trees so close we could almost flick them with our fingers. The town of Savoy (pop. about 700) was literally the high point, reached via a seven-mile run from Adams that rose nearly vertical 1,000 feet. There's a turn-off in Savoy that leads three miles southeast to Windsor State Forest, reputedly a nifty place for a picnic, but our right foot seemed stuck on the accelerator pedal.

Plainfield (pop. about 600) offered the obligatory white Congregational Church, while Ashfield (pop. about 1,800) featured earnest road work that brought us to a dusty halt in front of Elmer's Store. But the two-lane highway began to do some serious curving thereafter, running alongside and then crossing the South River amid thick forest. There were more twists and turns after Conway (classic New England photo opportunity: abandoned covered bridge!), whereupon the road flattened out and raced into South Deerfield.

Addendum: The Yankee Candle Car Museum, on Route 5 and 10 in South Deerfield, made a fitting postscript. There are more than 85 pristine cars, from 1885 to today, on display here. We'll take the canary yellow 1955 Morgan Plus 4.

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.