New England Visitors - Where to Ride?

[Stacey]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a few suggestions on where to ride in Mass, and possibly Southern Maine. We're taking a short vacation before the Mt. Snow Nat'l, coming out from Michigan and have a bit of time to burn. We'll be coming through Mass on 90 - up 495, and will be camping in Freeport, Maine. Any suggestions, downhill or cross country would be great!!

Thanks alot,

Stacey

[Dawgee]

off 495 theres Wrethum Forest , Veitnam , Theres Also Lynn Woods which i hear is awesome. Im from RI so i dont ride in Mass much. Im going to Mt Snow this weekend i hope it dont <shudder> Rain

[MMcG]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a few suggestions on where to ride in Mass, and possibly Southern Maine. We're taking a short vacation before the Mt. Snow Nat'l, coming out from Michigan and have a bit of time to burn. We'll be coming through Mass on 90 - up 495, and will be camping in Freeport, Maine. Any suggestions, downhill or cross country would be great!!

Thanks alot,

Stacey


Stacey,

Why not ride Vietnam in Mass. and perhaps make a small donation to NEMBA to help preserve a nice prime tract of land to hopefully be owned and managed by NEMBA while you are at it.

Will you be coming I-90 East? I wonder if any of the Berkshire Ski resorts offer DH riding during the summer.....anybody have a sense of this?

I do know that Sunday River in Maine is a great spot for some DH and I think some pretty sweet Freeride and XC oriented trails as well.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of great feedback from members. I live in CT which is a little bit out of your range, but I'm sure guys like SloMoJo, PK, Coucing Tiger, Todd and others should have some good recommendations for you. Why not shoot them a private message to see what they have to say.

Take care,

Mark

[Z]

When you say cross-country, what kind of rider are you?

If you like it really technical, try the North side of Lynn Woods. There are lots of drop-offs, new england "slickrock," and some nice views. It's really close to Boston, just inside 128/95 near route 1. The south side is pretty fun, too, and technical in a different way. There's a group that gathers at 6PM every Tuesday night to ride there.

Vietnam is also fun, like other people mentioned, but since we haven't purchased it from the landowner yet, there aren't any trail markers or good maps. It's really easy to get turned around on the twisty trails, so I am not sure I would really recommend riding it on your own.

Leominster (off of Rte 2 about 20 minutes West of 495) is a great place for rock gardens mixed with fast but technical singletrack. There's hours and hours of riding in there, plus rock climbing and a nice beach.

For really twisty stuff, go to Massabesic, east of Manchester, NH. You can tell it's been built by and for mountain bikers!

There's some great stuff in the Pioneer Valley (along Rte 91 between 90 and rte 2) like DAR and Holyoke range.

I haven't ridden Mt. Aggie yet, but it's pretty close to your destination in Southern Maine.

Hope that helps! (Hope you like technical riding!) :)
Z

[Tim]

http://www.bikerag.com/images/MAPS/MA/ma_vietnam_map_by_numbers.jpg

[Stacey]

<When you say cross-country, what kind of rider are you?>

We both race DH, and I love the wet muddy rocky stuff (ie. Plattekill, Bromont, etc.). Technical XC would be GREAT, we're just trying to keep our legs moving between various tourist activities :) I've heard of Lynn Woods, where exactly is it?

[Z]

http://www.bikerag.com/images/MAPS/MA/ma_vietnam_map_by_numbers.jpg


OK, I stand corrected... LOL... but I still challenge anyone to ride there for the first time and not get confused! There are more twists and turns and shortcuts than you see on the map.

I have a friend who went in a couple years ago, and we haven't heard from him since... ;)

Anyway, don't let me get in the way of yet another person falling in love with Vietnam and helping donate for the cause...

For Lynn Woods info: http://www.nemba.org/ridingzone/p_Lynn_Woods.html

[gungywump]

Stacy,

If you are going to be in Freeport. Bradbury Mountain State Park is in Pownal, Maine. It's only about 10-15 miles from where you will be staying. There is a 10 mile cross-country loop there. Maps available. Was just there last weekend.

Also, as mentioned Mt.A in southern Maine. Todd@MtA would be the best one to ask about that.

Fort Rock is near Portsmouth, NH. Todd@MtA or NOO know all about that place.

And then further south any of the Mass. locals above could help you out.

If you were going as far as Ct. I could give you more detailed suggestions. But, check out Bradbury for a quick loop.

[woodyak]

There are tons of trails besides Lynn Woods in the Boston (128 loop) area. Lynn is probably your easiest and safest bet. If you do plan on going there make sure you get exact directions to the good trails. A lot of newcomers have a hard time finding the good stuff and complain that there is nothing but fire roads. If you're interested in other trails in the area you can e-mail me.

[knucklebuste]

Fire Roads Suck. Went to Leominster State Park. I couldn't find the good stuff, just fire roads. WTF? Wherever I go. FIRE ROADS. Jeesh
knuck

[AA]

Knuckles,

You need to hook up on some group rides at some of these places (like Leominster). There is a LOT of singletrack in that place. The Wachusett NEMBA folks ride every Thurs night & Sat AM. Get on the Wachusett NEMBA email list and post a polite email stating something like..

"Even tempered nice guy seeks assistance navigating the preferred singletrack of LSF, will provide post ride snacks and camaraderie"

however posting to the list as follows will get you exactly where you are now......... riding blindly on some crappy fire roads

How not to post:

"What the F*C* every time I ride at that F*C*ING Sh*T hole I get eaten by F*C*ing bugs and the trails BL*W all fire roads and SH*T. Where is all the good SH*t WTF"

[Mt.A TODD]

Mount Agamenticus in York ME is a very difficult and technical place to ride. Many visiting bikers (and locals) get lost, discouraged, hurt. We just had a big search and rescue for some lost riders. There is some sort of old Indian curse on the mountain which creates a haze of confusion. We've also started having bear sightings. Have I scared you away yet??? You defiantly want to hook up with a local for a good ride. There are some maps at the trailheads but they do not cover allot of area. My suggestion is to stay close to Aggie maybe go over to second hill and drop bread crumbs along the way.

I am actually taking a vacation all next week and probably going to Mt Snow on Thursday with a buddy from Mavic, so if your in the area MON-WEDS I may be able to show you around.

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Whatever. You haven't seen the Prison Camps out at Rutland State Park. Went up there with Knuckle and we were takin' trees down with our rigs. Just mowin' over cuz we were bored with the technical stuff. Oh and there's Blood Swamp. You want to stay away from there if you're a newbie...that's some heavy stuff and I wouldn't go in there alone. I hear it's like the Bermuda Triangle in there and when the fog starts rolling in, you better hope you get out in time. Make sure you leave at least 30 minutes prior to darkness or you're all done.

[splat]

If your interested in the Vietnam , Let me know , and if I'm available I'd be glad to give you a tour of the place.

[knucklebuste]

Dud I went up there tonight. ALONE. Caus you wouldn't go. ALONE. Caus my wife wouldn't go. I passed by blood swamp on the midstate trail and just like it is said, it was all foggy. What's weird is that it was like 70 when I left my car and about 45 minutes later I was at the swamp and it was like 40 deg. Weird, all foggy and **** too. Some weird thing was following me in the swamp area. It wasn't a frog or a bear, something wacky going "BAGAWK, BAGAWK" some very large noisy bird I suspect. It stopped once I told it to "shut the fu*k up" . I was shittin my pants. I was dizzy too as I diddn't eat since noon so I started seeing stuff and getting the feeling I was being followed. So I said to myself "keep movin, I'm fine, I'm fine". The midstate trail is cool. It's very windy and in DEEP WOODS such that you can't see to the left and right of you as it's so thick and you get the feeling something is gonna jump out at ya. Not good. So I made it through blood swamp which seemed like 2 miles or so (forever) and made it to an open pasture and ate a granola bar to come to my senses. That was frickn scary. Sucks going alone. Probably another hour on the midstate trail and I would have made it to Barre Falls, but by that time it was almost 8 so I figured I might want to start getting the fu*k out of there since I was probably 10-15 miles from my car. So from there it was haul ass on the fire roads all the way back. I saw the reminants of the prison
camps and 2 large structures that are actually still standing and a cave/building that looked like it was dug into the hill. I peaked inside and there were big beams holding up the roof and I couldn't see the end of it and it was so dark inside I started to piss my pants again so I got the hell out of there. Oh yeah and before I entered the midstate trail off the inital fire road I saw dike #3 which was quite amazing. It was like a railroad tressel with 100 ft rivine's on either side and you could see for miles in each direction. The whole top of the dike was about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile long. There is singletrack up the ass in there but too much to do on a weeknight. I still haven't found the stuff that is supposedly "better than nam"
Either that guy who wrote the review was on crack or he never went to nam. However I think the rocky sections are north towards the Barre Falls Dam and I diddn't have enough time to get out there. So if anyone wants to scare the sh*t out of themselves I'd suggest taking a stroll up the midstate trail by blood swamp. It's right out of Friday the 13th and I was waiting for JASON to emerge from the swamp. This place is cool. It's mostly fire roads which are boring, but there is tons of singletrack that I couldn't explore and the midstate trail is cool but diddn't have enough time to go any good distance on that either. The place is big though and amazing. The whole time I kept asking myself if I was in fact in Massachusetts. Away from PEOPLE, COMPUTERS, CARS and the RAT RACE. JUST bugs, bike, mud and sweat.
knuck

[Stacey]

Just wanted to thank everybody for their great New England ride suggestions!! The rough plan is to ride Vietnam, Lynn Woods, then Bradbury state park (sample a little of everything). I can't wait to get out there!!

Thanks again,

Stacey

[splat]

I gave them a Nice tour of the Nam today! they seamed to enjoy it ! I was happy to do it , and I'm really glad she posted ! 8)

[knucklebuste]

Dude you are the official tour guide of NAM. Dude check this. $25.00 a head for nam tours. You could get out of IT. Think about it. ;D
Warning: Splat's hard to keep up with though. Especially on that FSR I sold him.
knuck