Three hours on the mountain bike today in Harvard Forest (3500 acre research forest owned/operated by Harvard that abuts my parents' land in Central MA). Lots of doubletrack / dirt roads and some single track. Also some roads that show up on a map but fade away into the woods or dead end at swamps...
I've ridden out there a number of times over the years, but there is such a network of trails and roads that I always seem to get lost at least once. Today I headed out there with a good friend to mix things up since neither of us have been on our mountain bikes since spring. Ended up doing more hiking than we wanted and my legs are torn up from thorn bushes and razor grass, but the weather was perfect and we had a blast.
(click pics to enlarge. Didn't want to clutter the thread with full size pictures)
Here's my friend Shane. Riding my old Klein Attitude Comp
Grassy road gradually faded into a swamp... we could see the road pick up on the other side of the swamp so we hiked over a beaver dam to get there.
My (well it's on loan from a buddy actually but I don't plan on giving it back...) WTB Phoenix. And yours truly emerging from the swamp...
The map showed a road leading up to this fire tower...but it was basically a quarter mile vertical climb through some serious brush/thorn bushes. (no photos from the top. There was a fellow from the DCR up in the tower so we decided to heed the no trespassing signs)
Reward when we got home. Rib eye, grilled onions and horse radish on sourdough. Washed down by some blueberries from the back yard muddled with cranberry juice, seltzer and lime.
