Mount Greylock, MA
 

With Autumn upon us I thought I'd take the ride up Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. Glad I did. The day was crisp and clear, the Fall colors were beginning show themselves and the view was outstanding.
If you simply want to make the climb itself, a fairly easy route would be to start at the Visitor Center, 30 Rockwell Rd., Lanesboro, MA. The grade is steepest during the first and last parts of the ride but should be very doable by any fit rider. It's an average 6% grade over 8 miles. Bring some full cut gloves and a cold weather jersey and prepare for a very memorable ride!

In a few weeks I guess the road will be closed so if you choose your day, it would even be traffic free. Just keep an eye on the forecast for possible ice in the morning if we get a rare freeze event overnight...

Jay

Pete and Jay - thanks for this reminder! I've been thinking of making Greylock a destination once I build my legs back up to what it takes to ride a century in the Berkshires (I'm doing the Great River Ride 100K next weekend as a stepping stone). Do either of you know what Greylock Mountain Road is like? I'd be coming from Hadley and would have already covered about 41 miles by the time I crossed Route 8 in Cheshire, so the shorter ride to the top would be appealing. The reservation map at the DCR website suggests it should be feasible - about 2 miles on a dirt road, then three quarters of a mile on a bike trail - but I'd prefer to talk with someone who's done it before committing myself to it.

You on a road bike? Most of Greylock Road is an unpaved road that I'm sure is probably quite beat up via dirt bikes/atvs... I would guess that you'd want a mtb if you were to go up Greylock road to the old Adams road... The easy access to Rockwell road is from Rt 7 (from the west) which is a lot longer coming from Hadley. The road from North Adams is shorter but a bit steeper than the southern approach to the summit.

You could ride the Ashwillticook rail trail though for a bit which parallels Rt 8 all the way to Adams, MA...

Maybe Pete has more up to date info.. I live west of greylock so normally getting to the visitor's center on rockwell road is fairly straightforward.

You can cut through the Berkshire mall to get from Rt 8 to Rt 7 but it is a fairly short but steep hill that you have to go up and then down to get to rt 7. (there are also ways to cut over north of the mall too..)

Jay

Jay - thanks for the info! If I try Greylock Road it would be on a road bike with wide tires run at low to moderate pressure (35 mm or 42 mm depending on the bike). I suppose I could give it a try, and turn around if the going gets too rough.

yeah, that's a good approach. I mean about a month ago I hiked the Bellow Pipe trail to the summit of greylock and the bellows pipe trail is a designated mtb trail and a lot of it is pretty beat up with bridges that are falling apart. MA doesn't have money to fix a lot of trails (who does?) so a lot of the trails these days have no maintainance, post irene/lee. So unless some bike club, like NEMBA, are taking care of the trails, many of the old roads are kind of semi-washed out...

Jay

I did it this spring from the visitors ctr side. Do yourself a favor and give it a try after the road is closed to cars. That decent is a blast when you KNOW there are NO cars coming! I past the visitors ctr and it was about 45 degrees; flurries at the summit. Lots of fun!