Boston area riding.

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Now that I've been in Boston since September, I have pretty much became completely bored riding. I went to Belmont WheelWorks and they told me the best mountain biking in the Waltham area was Great Brook. I went out there and did not really find anything fun except for Stone Row (which I did find good). Is there something out there that I am completely missing? Did I just talk to an employee that knew absolutely nothing and is there something else close to 128 that I don't know about?

Moreover I haven't been able to find any good roads. I talked to some people at the shop and they recommended some roads going out to Carlisle through Concord and another route taking Route 27 from Maynard and Sudbury. Are there any other ridible roads in the area that anyone can recommend? I just need a little variation in my life.

[AA]

If you want to find the good stuff ride with the locals. Couch post rides all the time (leaving from Bedford, very close to Waltham) Road and mountain.

[smashitup]

i did stone row last year at nembafest, and it rocked! i wish there were more trails like that!

[tmorash]

There are a lot of good trails in the Boston area, but Waltham/Belmont is another story. The McLean Hospital/Belmont trails are okay if you are local and looking for a decent workout, but is nothing to get too excited about. For a good ride, expect to drive 30 minutes North to Fells and Lynn, West to Vietnam, or South to Foxboro. I moved from Watertown to Roslindale last year and now call Blue Hills my home trail. It is pretty good with miles of trails, some great climbs, and some technical areas. However, if you have the time to drive to Blue Hills, I would direct you toward the trails above first.

[Richie Rich]

I lived in Waltham and Newton for a while and for a good ride you have to drive. I'm not a believer in the Fells. It seems like everytime I a good trail there it is illegal to ride. Get in your car and drive to either Foxboro, Vietnam, Wompatuck or Leominster. Great Brook is fun if you don't have a lot of time and your looking for a fun relatively easy ride.

Richie Rich

[EVIL BOTA]

Harold Parker isn't to far from there.Or the fells.Not sure how close to 93 you are,but either one of them is only 10 or so minutes up and down 93..

[mtbtom]

Now that I've been in Boston since September, I have pretty much became completely bored riding.

Hey man, if you're bored with the riding around here then all I can tell you is that you're not looking hard enough for trails.

Get a good guidebook on Boston area riding. Jeff Cutler's book is a good one. Try to hit all of the rides in the book. Try finding your own trails - get a few street maps and look for greenspace, town conservation areas or roadless parcels of land - think about how you can link these lands togther for longer rides - even if the area is small in acreage one of the nice things about being in a forested environment is you can be 100 yards from someone's Mc. Mansion and not even realize it. Go on some NEMBA rides and pay attention to where the hell the ride leader is taking you. I can tell you there are lots of trails throughout Waltham, Weston and into Lincoln and beyond...

[titus1]

There are always good places to ride, if you take the time to look.

For MTB, I ride the Blue Hills (its basically in my backyard and I hate to drive someplace to ride - its an ethics thing...). Which leads me to the question, why have other respondents to this post steered this poster away from the BH?

As for road riding, suggest you take a group ride (go with the locals). If you are a strong rider, hook-up with the BRC which has a Sat. ride leaving from the Star Market, across the street from Belmont Wheelworks that will take you along some great roads to the west and north of Boston. There is also the Charles River Wheelman (www.crw.org) who have lots of various rides for varying abilities, leaving from all sorts of locations in the area. A good one is the Sat. morn Nahanton (newton) ride. Beware of going out with the first group, though as it is filled with Cat 2 & 3 riders and it is not unusual to have an ave speed ~24mph over 42 miles.

And as another poster said, sometimes, you just have to break-out a map and just go exploring.

Happy trails to you and who knows, may see you out in the Blue Hills sometime.

[Rych]

I don't think blue hills opens until Thursday.

[zach11979]

I also recommend Blue Hills, you should find some excitement there. Also I went to Harold Parker last weekend and had a fun time there. There's a trail in the Northern section of the park that appears to have been recently created/cleared that was really fun to ride.

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Is there anything decent at Callahan? I looked like there were a lot of trails there.

[splat]

Callahan is fun. and you could come visit me .I'll give you a tour of Vietnam

[keram]

Definitely recommend Callahan. Park at the road that splits Framingham and Marboro sides and go towards Marlboro. Right away there's an awsome climb and if you keep on going left same descent. If you do this 3 - 4times you're done for the day. Rest of Callahan is a nice riding but Marlboro climb is a killer. The other one I recommend is Foxboro. Tons of trails, some ridden by atvs, pretty challenging. Much more challanging terrain than Callahan. If it were closer I'd ride Foxboro all the time.

Whitehall Res. connecting to Upton State Forest connecting to Peperrcorn Hill connecting to Vietnam and back (tiple basin blast) Lots of trails, ecellent riding, high milage, very little road connections. Can do all areas or just a couple. Get in touch with some one from BlacKstone Valley Nemba. Tons of great MTBing in that area within 30 t0 45 min from you. Great on the weekends when you have time and want a NICE 25-35 mi ride on non crowded trails

[splat]

Whitehall Res. connecting to Upton State Forest connecting to Peperrcorn Hill connecting to Vietnam and back (tiple basin blast) Lots of trails, ecellent riding, high milage, very little road connections. Can do all areas or just a couple. Get in touch with some one from BlacKstone Valley Nemba. Tons of great MTBing in that area within 30 t0 45 min from you. Great on the weekends when you have time and want a NICE 25-35 mi ride on non crowded trails


Have you done the triple Basin Blast ? Don't get me wrong it is a great ride ! I can't reccomend it enough , but it is not EASY ! you are talking 6 - 8 hour ride there ! any one else here planning on doing it ? CP are you going to do it again ?

I have not done the "official" ride with the group, but i got enough information on a couple of trail maintenence days from them and ventured out by myself. (i couldn't keep up if i wanted to) Starting at Whitehall journeying through Upton, Peppercorn, through the powerlines to Vietnam and did a loop through, then back. Spent a good time riding, wandering, hiking, and resting. Much very nice singletrack and tech stuff. From what Kevin says he's looking for, I believe that this would be a very interesting, challenging weekend day ride for him. I had a makeshift map at that time i made from info given to me by some of the area riders. i'll see if i can find it. Otherwise, like i said someone like yourself (Splat) or other BV member could get him that info or take him for a tour. I don't think he'd regret it. it's quite a ride, i was out there for the better part of a Sunday last year. Took a relaxing swim in the res. before departing too

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Headed out to nam now. Let's hope my car doesn't get toed!

[woodyak]

Come on up to the North Shore. I'll show you some trails that rock. I promise you won't get bored. Let me know if you want a tour guide.

Kevin, how was "The Nam"? Hope the car didn't get "toed"! I like that one. Surely was a fine day for a ride. One of many more to come. Good riding to ya

[sizlinseagulsoup]

lol, that was the most atrocious spelling mistake I have ever made. Reminds me of a skit from "Police Squad" (classic TV show). They had a "toe truck" instead of a "tow truck" It was comical... kind of...

Anyways, the riding was awesome, my thrist for great riding was definitely satiated. I'll definitely have to take up Splat's offer sometime, since I am not sure I found all the best stuff (although what I was worth the trip). I pretty much just hugged the powerlines the entire time, despite my best efforts to get lost.

woodyak - Where up on the North Shore?

[woodyak]

Along 128 North starting from Beverly to Gloucester/Rockport. The trails are mostly technical single track with some freeride stuff thrown in. Tons of quick steep climbs and flowing twisty trails. There are so many trails here they could keep you busy for months trying to ride them all. Each time I think I've ridden them all someone shows me another trail that rips.

These trails are not very heavily ridden so it's not as worn down as Lynn Woods and Nam. Don't get me wrong, I love Lynn and Nam but it's nice to have something different. A lot of the trails are hard to find and it's very easy to get stuck on fireroad loops so you'd want a tour guide.

If you're interested I ride on Saturday afternoons and Thursday evenings after work.

lol, that was the most atrocious spelling mistake I have ever made. Reminds me of a skit from "Police Squad" (classic TV show). They had a "toe truck" instead of a "tow truck" It was comical... kind of...

Anyways, the riding was awesome, my thrist for great riding was definitely satiated. I'll definitely have to take up Splat's offer sometime, since I am not sure I found all the best stuff (although what I was worth the trip). I pretty much just hugged the powerlines the entire time, despite my best efforts to get lost.

woodyak - Where up on the North Shore?



Definitely hook up with Splat and connect to the other areas also. I know this dosen't help you with local Waltham riding but...guess there's not really a whole lot of tech. epic style rides in the imediate area

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Nam was only 18 minutes from my dorm. It will probably be 14 minutes away if I end up transferring to Brandeis next year as planned. If I end up going to Boston University... then... I probably won't be going mountain biking anymore since I don't have the 1000 dollars per year to pay for parking.

[AA]

Nam was only 18 minutes from my dorm.


Wait a minute. Bently College is in Waltham off of Forest street. You need to either drive through Newton & get on the pike to 495 or 128 to the pike to 495. It's 30 miles to Milford and you got there in 18 minutes? You must have one fast car for a college student.

[MTBME]

Kevin

It depends what you like. You mention stone row. If you like smashing your bike into rocks, try Lynn Woods, Leominster or Vietnam. If you like rolling cross country trails, try places like Groton or Townsend for a change.

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Nam was only 18 minutes from my dorm.


Wait a minute. Bently College is in Waltham off of Forest street. You need to either drive through Newton & get on the pike to 495 or 128 to the pike to 495. It's 30 miles to Milford and you got there in 18 minutes? You must have one fast car for a college student.


The section between the pike and 495 was only 15 miles, and we all know the speed limit on the pike is 95 mph. :-P

My estimate is probably off, since I tried to factor out the time I spent getting gas and the the few minutes I spent sitting in traffic, since there usually isn't traffic.

Even so, 25 miles at 90-95... 18 minutes is reasonable (16.66 minutes if you want to be technical)

[OldSloDoggie]

... then... I probably won't be going mountain biking anymore since I don't have the 1000 dollars per year to pay for parking.


Don't overlook the option of the "'T". There is riding near the Beverly Farms, Gloucester, and Rockport stations on the Boston-Rockport Commuter Rail Line

[sizlinseagulsoup]

Oh, I didn't realize that the T went near any mtn biking spots. Is Lynn Woods near the T?

Even so, I could do some urban riding and hit up Lynn. Make a quick stop at Government center, ride some stairs, make Romney angry.

BU and that area may sport more MTBers willing to take you along to "destination areas" also. So long as you pay for gas and beer