Anyone have any good advice on routes between Boston/Arlington and Amherst/Belchertown. Please don't say route 9 the whole way!!

Thanks,
Roger

<http://hogspeak.blogspot.com/>

Get the Rubels bike maps. You can take the commuter train (off peak ) to Worcester and take Main St to Stafford to Rt 20. Rt 20 west to spfld. Springfield up Rt 5 to NHampton to rail trail to Amherst.
If you come to Spfld you can camp in my yard and I can ride with you part of the way.
e-mail me

As a Worcester resident that seems to be a really weird route to 20 from the train station. From Union Station take Grafton St. to Providence St.. left on Ballard st. which will take you to the Blackstone Bike trail which has a spur to rt. 20.

S. Main St. is not a good area in Worcester to say the least. Though once you hook up with Stafford it seems like it would be a nice ride.

For a split second I had a brain fart and thought Amherst, NY and couldn't understand why you would want that. I'm an idiot on occassion

Anyone have any good advice on routes between Boston/Arlington and Amherst/Belchertown. Please don't say route 9 the whole way!!

Thanks,
Roger

<http://hogspeak.blogspot.com/>

get the rubels, and check out the BBS (http://www.bostonbrevets.com/). their brevets start at hanscom field and a few of them have made it through amherst. you might get some ideas for route / shortcuts.

I went down main st as to hit the bike shop prior to getting to Stafford. I had no problems riding down main though it is seedy. I rode your way one year and found Rt20 near Auburn to Sturbridge rather hilly.
There is one really steep section on Stfford "Dead Horse Hill". After that its rolling to Rt. 20 and not bad the rest of the way. My route put me closer to Springfield without as many hills. I did use the Rubel bike maps for routing.

Ed

I just attempted this ride this weekend (I'm still new touring/medium to long distances and this took me way longer than I expected). In any case. Rt. 30 out of Boston, just past 95 to Newton St. north to some random side streets that led me to Rt. 117. Find your way to Rt. 62 to Barre, to Rt. 32 to Rt. 9.

One caveat I was riding to my father's place in South Amherst which is a lot closer to the lower point of the Quabbin than Amherst center which is just about dead center in the middle of it.

This route is almost entirely rural there's tons of nice scenery, although these are reasonably well traveled roads it's nothing like Rt. 9 and this route avoids Worcester entirely. According to google maps it's about 95 miles which is about 15 miles more than going Route 9 straight out. You could also take 122 North over the Quabbin but then you'd be taking 202 south and that road is really hilly.