Western Mass/Western New England Roll Call
 

(Ignore the old screen name, folks, I've lived in beautiful Western Mass for three-plus years now!)

Cyclists in the area, shout out! There doesn't seem to be much of an online community presence for Western Mass/Southern VT/Northern CT. Yet, I've done some of the most beautiful rides of my life around here, and some are right out my front door.

I regularly do 30-40 miles, sometimes longer, through Shutesbury, Leverett, Wendell, Pelham. I sometimes hit the other side of the river, up through Williamsburg and Ashfield. I rode a bit with the Northampton Cycling Club Wed. evening ride this year. I also added a bike to my stable this year that's more suited to dirt/gravel roads and light single-track, and have been enjoying Earle's Trails and Montague Plains with it, as well as some of the wicked gravel climbs in the area.

Where ya from? Where do ya ride?

Im in Springfield and most of my rides are south of here to the back roads of Conn. Have been known to make forays to Pittsfield,N"Hampton for the rail trails and up to & past Greenfield via 5/10 & 47 to Brattleboro.
Most of my rides are day trips on a hybrid

Winchendon here ! During the week I ride out of Leominster after work. On weekends I spend a lot of time out toward Templeton, Athol, and Orange area. I was out in Greenfield a couple weeks ago, many moons ago I use to do a training series out at Turners Falls airport.

Hey, Folks, thanks for chiming in! Let's hear from some more regionals!

Bumping this, hoping that it's just low population density causing ppl to be so scarce...

I'm so far the furthest west, in Pittsfield, MA, sort of commute, sort of road ride, sort of mtb, sort of tour... all over the northeast...

Jay

Springfield VT, but I used to live in/around Springfield MA.

Wilbraham, MA checking in! I head south into Connecticut for a lot of my riding, but I also get up to the Quabbin pretty regularly, or out to the South Hadley/Amherst area. I think the Western MA/Northern CT area in general just has a lot of great back road/farm road options to choose from.

My usual weekend ride is in the 50-60 mile range, and I try to get in 4-5 of the area centuries each year. We seem to be loosing daylight pretty quickly this year, so I think my weekday riding is coming to an end, but I had been commuting in to work about once a week (11 miles each way) or getting out for an hour or two in the evening.

I'm in your vicinity. I live 3-5 months of the year in Becket. I ride cross state from Newton to Becket frequently. I have loops south through Otis and Monterey, up to North Adams and Greylock, out to Northampton and west to Stockbridge. I do some mountain biking- there are some excellent trails right outside my door but I have developed a real affinity for cobbling together dirt road rides in the area after doing the D2R2 a few times.

The dirt road rides in Central to Western MA and southern Vermont are some of the most fun, spectacular cycling in the area.

Buzzman, I know you! We used to chat a bit here on BF when I was still living in Watertown. Glad to hear you're still enjoying W. Mass -- how 'bout posting links to some of your favorite dirt roads? I'm always searching -- especially for ones that don't go up, up, UP all the time... :-D

Steve, do I remember correctly that you have commented on my blog at times?

Cool, I almost rented a small place in becket but it was too far to ride to work given the rolling hills between Becket and my work. The one person I contacted said a lot of Becket is seasonal. I've only lived here for about a year, have done a little road cycling, a little mtb'ing, a lot of commuting and a bit of touring.. still exploring the mtbing around here as well. Lots of loops that you can do in Pittsfield State forest, roads, singletrack and woods roads that bring you into NY can be combines with road rides back...

Jay

Oh yeah! I remember you, too. Isn't Western MA the bomb?

But most of the dirt roads do go up, uP, UP ALL The time! That's part of the appeal! The dirt roads around Chester are amazing. Great old infrastructure for the trains hidden in the woods. And reservoirs and dams. Won't be out there for a while because I'm headed to NYC for work for 3 months. Might get a ride out there before I go though.

yeah, I was doing the commute from Becket to Lenox for a while. About 15 miles there and 15 back and I'm up at the top of a really long climb- Becket Road- almost 700' elevation gain in just over a mile. It definitely took it out of me. And in the summer the commuting was iffy due to some pretty intense storms that would blow in over the mountain. I ended up driving a lot more than I had planned. :(

Still the riding is spectacular and definitely gets you in shape for the hills!

W. Mass is indeed the best. How 'bout posting some of the routes through Chester, if you have them mapped...? ;-)

I think I may have, but I haven't been getting out to forums/blogs as much over the past year or so.