HillRiderEast

https://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/western/asrt.htm
Anybody ever do this trail?

Sculptor7

My niece was just telling me about it the other day. Don't know if she actually did it but she made it sound real attractive and I would like to try it some time.

HillRiderEast

I thought it looked pretty nice - expecting that it may be 6-7 miles in length. May try it tomorrow - weather is supposed by be pretty good.

johnnyk

The trail is 11 miles long one way. Start at the north end in Adams at the visitors center, plenty of parking. Very slight grade uphill but a nice return at end of ride.

mprelaw

We did the trail in April, and started at the North Adams end. As an old rail bed, the grades are slight, but it's pretty steady up for the first half of the trail. Winds out of the south can add to the degree of difficulty for novice and/or casual riders. Pretty nice scenery, though. I'll bet it's a very nice ride in the fall foliage season.

HillRiderEast

Was a great ride and you are right, long slow slope heading out from the Adams side of the trail, but not so bad. Lot's of older riders out today which was great to see. Some young families and all the kids were tuned into staying to the right. Lot's of places to stop, benches all the way through. This is gem for the Berkshires for sure. Heading home rt. 2 east towards Greenfield. Some road bikers appeared to be doing the entire mohawk trail from Greenfield to North Adams - made our ride look puny, but those road warriers are a different breed- made it look effortless.

Lots of harleys on the road todays as well Rt. 2 Mohawk trail rated in the top 10 nationally for for Harley riders.

Jay H

I live close to the Ash trail. The Mohawk trail reopened not terribly long ago from Hurricane Irene/Lee.

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier but a great little ice cream spot in Cheshire called Diane's Ice Cream or something like that is right off the trail (and off the A.T. which crosses the Ash trail there) and is a nice stop on the ride..

Also, at the southern terminus by the Berkshire mall has a farmer's market on saturdays in the summer which is a short ride from the trailhead there...

Jay

HillRiderEast

We saw the huge wash-out on Rt.2 - what a mess. We live further south in Deerfield. We are on higher ground, but parts of Deerfield is flood plain and boy did it flood, taking out bridges and detroying the farmland - farmers spent months scraping contaminated silt from their fields. Corn is growing well this summer despite the drought

Jay H

Yeah, when Rt 9 in VT AND the Mohawk Trail was closed, VT was sending all the traffic between Brattleboro and Bennington to like small county roads like 116 around Goshen, MA to go east west which must of been a PITA for travellers...

I've recently driven by the washed out bridge just east of Bennington and it looks like the new bridge is ready to be installed at some point with the temp bridge in use now... Right now the water leves there is pretty low but impressive how much earth it washed out on the river banks..

Jay

rumrunn6

I've been on trails like this - there is one near me in NH (Nashua?) I believe it too is 11 miles uphill in one direction ...

BikeNewEngland

It's the most beautiful paved bike trail in Massachusetts, and combines nicely with a ride over or around Mount Greylock.
Here are some more great rides in the Berkshires:
Berkshire Cycle Touring
Lenox Cycling Tour
South Berkshire Tour
North Berkshire Tour

rumrunn6

anyone know a good cheap place to stay this Friday nite near the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail?

Jay H

I could ask around, but are you looking for a campground or hotel? The Appalachian Trail crosses the Ash. rail trail right in cheshire and there are some leantos that aren't that far from the road.... But I don't know if you're a camper/hiker/backpacker or not.

There are also some car camping places around North Adams that are inexpensive... or state campgrounds too..

https://northadams-ma.gov/index.php?nav_id=62

The walk-in sites are nice and a bit wooded, the actual car camping sites seemed to me to be not very private and loud and packed... I biked there once and had the entire walk in place to myself!

https://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/western/clsp.htm

This is a DCR park and may have minimum stay requirements.... it's a nice park and is up close to VT. You can also check out Natural Bridges and a bunch of the small parks around there...

Jay

rumrunn6

ok thanks, I got a room for 1 nite at a little hotel, the Redwood. ever been?

Jay H

Well, I kind of live here so no. I have camped here before moving here but I generally camp or sleep in my car kind of person so no, I've never stayed there... TripAdvisor seems to really pan the place though... Hope you have a better XP!

Jay