Potential Bike Trips

[dmaze]

nuclearpolymer asked in response to last weekend's bike trip entry where I wanted to go next. I have a couple of things in mind, largely in the 50+-mile range...

• Fitchburg to Camberville. I wound up doing this two years ago but it was a nice ride then, except for the one hill just inbound of the 2/495 intersection. Non-trivially hilly but not difficult. 50 miles.


• Ayer, Nashua River Rail Trail, Carlisle, Camberville. After I did Fitchburg I rode the trail north from Ayer into Groton. Instead of orbiting through New Hampshire and ever-so-scenic Lowell, it looks like it should be possible to ride from the end of the trail southeast to Carlisle and then back to Boston by normal means. 40-50 miles; actively flat except for the Groton-to-Carlisle section.


• Worcester, Gardner, Fitchburg. We did a Worcester-to-Fitchburg run last summer which was scenic, except that we left Worcester totally the wrong way. We could go around Mt. Wachusett and go northwest through Rutland and Hubbardston to Gardner (approximately following the Providence and Worcester), then east to Fitchburg (approximately following the B&M). 50ish miles, probably pretty hilly.


• Newburyport, Plum Island, Boston. This was on narya's list post-PMC last summer but never happened. We had a good route from Ipswich to Woburn. Avoid mosquito week. 60ish miles with the Plum Island option, not very hilly at all.


• Attleboro to Worcester. Via Wooooonsocket!, RI; approximately follow MA-146 and the Blackstone River. Haven't really plotted this one out, looks like 45 miles or so.


• Maine? It's apparently only 23 miles from Newburyport, MA to Kittery, ME. And NH-1A is very scenic. We could bike to Maine for the sake of saying we've done so, possibly with an inland return route. At least 45-50 miles.


• 128 loop. The bike map shows an obvious route just outside MA-128 from approximately Waltham to Canton.


• Train-oriented things. I snuck in the P&W above; following the B&M from Ayer to either Worcester or Chelmsford, or CSX (CR, PC, NYNH&H, OC) from Framingham to Leominster would amuse me.

I'd also like to ramp up some on the distance, and difficulty, and speed. Some of these succeed on difficulty; since a lot of them are commuter-rail based, you can also get distance just by biking on one end or the other (if Newburyport or Haverhill to Kittery is 25 miles each way, then Newburyport-Kittery-Haverhill-Boston is a century). This is also not a lot of ocean and not a lot of exploration, it's more "go from point A to point B" sorts of trips.

Comments

[dcltdw]

> What she said.

Urrr, what desireearmfeldt said. may not be clear through the reply chains...