Fall On the Western Greenway

As Fall descends on the Western Greenway, my singletrack commute home starts to take a little longer.

2011 Giant Talon 29er 1

Meet the 2011 Giant Talon 29er 1

My friends are doing it.  The racers are doing it.  All the cool kids are doing it.  They're getting bikes with big tires.  After holding out for a few years I've joined the revolution.  The 29er revolution.  Viva la revolucion!

Wild Wild Weston (July 2012)

A really trashy part of Weston.  No really.  You're looking at a pile of trash.

Eight lanes of asphalt highway are all that separate the towns of Waltham and Weston, Massachusetts.  These hundred or so feet divide people making around $50,000 a year from those making closer to $200,000.  Perhaps this is the unspoken math that has prevented Weston from embracing a rail trail to connect the two communities.  While they might shop together at the Auburndale Star Market, the folks in Weston are a little reluctant to invite the masses into their manicured back yards.

Regardless of the reason, the reluctance to develop a paved trail along the old railbed connecting Waltham with the rest of Western Massachusetts is a gift to fat tire bikers.  

Lexington Singletracks (July 2012)

Not exactly a straight line.

The Minuteman Bikeway in MetroWest Boston is one of the most famous rail trails in the country.  And with good reason.  It provides a scenic and historic byway from Cambridge all the way to Bedford. Along the way it visits the town centers of Arlington and Lexington with their excellent restaurants and cultural attractions.  It is gem.  But it is also an attention whore.

1000 Miles from Home

Somewhere near mile 994.

I traveled a thousand miles from home this year....and I did it all on a mountain bike.

One Down. Two to Go.

The squiggly blue line is much more fun than the yellow lines.

I set three goals for my non-skiing adventures this off-season.  I'm happy to say that this week I checked the first of these off my list.

I mountain biked to work.

The Western Greenway Expands: A Dream Is Born

My mountain biking universe just got a little bigger.  Walnut Street used to signify the edge of my nightly ride in Belmont, but two weekends of volunteer trail work by NEMBA has changed everything.

My Evening Loop

Luckily they're all pinecones

So it's early evening on a weekday, and I can still hear the phone ringing in my ears.  I've got about two hours of daylight left and a mountain biking itch to scratch.  Where can I go to find a little piece of heaven?

The Middlesex Fells are close, but there's a lot of "forest service road".  The trails have a few technical spots, and the hills will get you in shape pretty quickly.  However, there is only one loop for mountain bikers.  I treat it like my time trial course: where I go to gauge the progress in my conditioning.  That is to say I like to avoid it because it reminds me what a fat wheezy creampuff I really am.