Submitted Mon, 10 Jul 95 by Ken Koellner, Updated June 2006

Location

984 Lowell Street

Carlisle, MA  01476  

978 369-6312

                    

Difficulty--

Easy:60%, Moderate:30%, Difficult:8%, Caution:3%

Description

Great Brook State Park may be the best family mountain biking area in Massachusetts. The park has a variety of facilities for numerous actitivies. The park includes ample parking, a working dairy farm (and home-made ice cream stand), a duck pond and even a sort-of kiddie-zoo with a few barnyard animals. There's a variety of trails thru meadows, around pastures and thru woods for hiking, biking, XC-skiing an equestrian activities.

Great Brook is a great place to go for any outing with a group of poeple, some of which do, and some of which do not mountain bike. There are numerous nice spots for setting a blanket and picnicing. Riders can go off and cycle short loops of a couple miles. Hikers can go off and hike. There's some ponds where children may enjoy fishing. Many of the trails at Great Brook are wide, level, double-track which are ideally suited to family rides. These double-tracks are also quite attractive since they are very natural in texture and are not rutted like jeep roads.

In addition to the double-tracks are a variety of very easy single-tracks. Many of these are paths are routed around the perimeters of meadows and pastures. Please stay on the paths and avoid cutting across open spaces.

Some of the more out-of-the-way trails offer more challenge. The Wood chuck trail is a nice loop with a couple larger hills. It isn't far off the beaten track so you do want to keep a look out for hikers, horses and other bikers. One of my favorite rides at Great Brook is the Heart Break Ridge. This trail is a straight out and back of a couple miles. There is a loop at the end but it's boggy and impassable except when frozen or during the dryest part of the summer. This trail starts with a short steep climb. It's tough to clean the last fifteen feet or so because of some nasty roots. The trail continues with some moderately technical but not nasty single-track along the top of a ridge. The trail then becomes narrow but smooth and fast 3rd-ring single track.

Great Brook is very popular since it is such a great family and beginner area. Because it is such a popular family area, it's not a great idea for advanced riders to come to Great Brook to do their serious weekend pounding. It's wise for fast riders to avoid this park on nice summer weekends. It certainly is a good idea to avoid riding hard on the main trails. The main trails are frequented by family groups of four of five people, both hikers and bikers, including young kids, often on little bikes. Some of the more out-of-the-way single-tracks offer more challenge without this risk over running over slower bikers. In recent years NEMBA has been building new singletracks and constructing bridges. Most of these are on the newest map which is usually available as a handout in the main parking area.

Map

This is a scan of af 5/30/2000 DCR map of the area. (200k)     The latest map is here.     DCR website.

Directions

From I495, take Rt 225 East crossing Rt 27. Take left on Curve St. and follow Curve St. north to North St. Take North St. to clearly marked park entrance.

From Rt 128 (I95) take Rt 225 West. Make a right onto Lowell Rd. in the center of Carlisle. Follow Lowell Rd and make a right on North Rd. The main parking is at the duck pond and farm. If this lot is crowded, you should park at the barn and XC ski center. For bikers, its only like a minute from this lot to the duck pond. For picnicers, it's quite a hike with a bunch of stuff.

Rules

This is a multi-use park with trails for hiking, horse-riding, biking, and XC skiing. Signs indicate what activities are allowed on which trails. Biking is allowed on almost all the trails. The major exception is that bikes, hikers, and horses are banned from XC ski trails from December 15 to March 15 when there are over four inches of snow on the trails. Since XC skiing is the primary activity in the park in winter and most of the trails are reserved for skiing, it's best that bikers avoid this park when the ground is snow-covered.