Middlesex Fells

[Malenfant]

Brand spankin' new member of NEMBA here (joined 30 minutes ago), so please let me know if this is the inappropriate forum...

New to the area and was thinking of riding the loop at the Fells this evening (5/11). However, it appears from the forum that there have been no rides or trail reports this year on the Fells. Is the trail not open yet? Is it still too wet? MDC does not say one way or another on its site.

I will use the "25 Mountain Bike Tours in MA" book with the loop trail map as my guides - are these close to accurate? It seems like the trail is well marked, but if anyone has advice to a solo rider, including answering the question of - is the trend clockwise or counterclockwise - free advice is always appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and NEMBA as a whole for their efforts,
- MM

[CouchingTiger]

The Fells is indeed open for the season as of April 15th. Conditions should be pretty good in general though I'm sure there will be some mud.

The only trails open to MTBs are the NEMBA bike loop (which is marked as such) and the fire/access roads that are away from the reservoirs. Make sure and stay away from the reserviors as they are heavily patrolled and it is illegal to be on the roads that border them (since 9/11 they have been really cracking down).

-Couch

[prophet]

Uh oh...I went swimming with a girlfriend of mine out to a rock formation ni the middle of one of the reservoice in the Fells. This is prolly a no-no, huh? As i am new to all of this, I have trouble staying "within the lines."