Shutesbury S-Curves

A short, twisty loop in the hills north of Amherst: it leaves Montague Center by North Leverett Road, climbs to Lake Wyola on Locks Pond Road, crosses Shutesbury and drops down Leverett Road through the linked S-bends along the brook to Leverett, then returns on MA-63. It's 23 miles of narrow pavement and thick woods. Coffee at the Montague Bookmill at the end. The road is narrow with blind curves, so watch for oncoming cars and wet leaves in the fall.

Shutesbury began in 1735 as a plantation called Roadtown, named after a road that crossed it, and it became a town in 1761. Lake Wyola, at the top of the loop, was called Locks Pond until a dam finished in 1883 doubled its size to about 130 acres. On its shore is Lake Wyola State Park, also called the Carroll A. Holmes Recreation Area, which the state acquired in 1997; it's a short detour off the route, at 94 Lakeview Road.

From Shutesbury the road drops toward Leverett through the S-bends, in thick woods with little room on the shoulder. At the south end of Leverett Pond the town has a small boat ramp on Depot Road with two gravel pull-offs that fit only a few vehicles. The loop finishes in Montague, where the Bookmill fills a mill on the Sawmill River whose central part dates to 1834; it became a bookstore in 1987, with the motto "Books you don't need in a place you can't find", and it has a café with a deck over the water.