New features at Bachelor St

[liquid157]

I was riding at Bachelor St several times over the last month and found a trail that has a large tree trunk lying horizontally with a man - made ramp leading up it. This log ride is in an unfinished state as many of the tree branches have not been removed to allow the whole length of the tree to be ridden. My first question, hopefully anyone who knows about this trail can answer, is was construction on this feature not completed because it is not an authorized stunt on State Forest Property ? I haven't heard about any stunts being banned from the State Forest and I hope this kind of feature is allowed because I would like to see more stuff like this at Bachelor St. If everything is legit I was wondering if construction on the log ride was interupted because people ran out of time, if that is the case I would like to offer my time and/ or my chainsaw to help complete the project.

[TA]

If you are talking about the trail off of Roller Coaster, that is a bootleg trail built by some kids. I don't know If some one stopped them or they gave up on it. In my opinion that trail is poorly built and should be avoided.
As far as building stunts I don't think Mike Smith will be to happy about it. Natural features are one thing but man made stunts are completely different.

Terry

[Superb Man]

Yeah, that's the view of things at bachelor st. Let's face it-Bachelor st serves up one of the most unique, rugged, fun and challenging ride experiences avilable anywhere AS IS--with all that glorious natural rock, sweeping descends and challenging ascents-man made stunts are unnecessary distractions and, The Park Manager there-who has granted bikers unpprecedented access-is not interested in stunts and has expressed this opinion clearly to us.

Furthermore, I would rather see Mr. Vangel's (and his dogged trail crew) superlative trail building efforts directed towards expansion of the trail network on the north side of the forest (towards bay Rd) rather than bogged down in building stunts on the already great/ exciting trails of bachelor st.

Bachelor st hasn't stopped growing or getting better for the last 10 years-and that trend is set to continue--trust us, there's more good things on tap.

If Jumps and stunts are you're bag-I might suggest you check out the trails that Mr. Vangel (Bachelor St's prime architect) has also built For Jiminy Peak and now Killington as well. He's a real artist!

Liam O'Brien
ginaliam@mac.com

[fisherking]

Where is Bachelor St? I Haven't heard of that before?

Thanks

[Superb Man]

MTFISHERTIM,

Batchelor st is the colloquial name for the Holyoke SF-on the east side of rte 116 in Granby/Amherst.-it's coupled with skinner sf on the west side of the Notch (rte 116).

Both sides have miles and miles of bike specific singletrack. Batchelor St.(and yes, it's spelled with a T) is in Granby, MA (use mapquest) and the Parking lot to the trails is right on Batchelor st.

Folks ride there all the time--post a request and someone will certainly show you around.

Liam

[MTBME]

Seems like MTFISHERTIM missed out on the NEMBA fest at Batchelor state park earlier this summer. Nice stuff. Worth the trip.

[fisherking]

Yeah, we ended up having vacation at that time. Didn't make the connection that is was Holyoke SF.
Sounds like it is worth a trip out there sometime this year though.....

Mike