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Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:41 am
by Robd2
Ideally near the Wed night MRC stow loop but I'll take anything near Stow-Harvard area. Any Reccomendations?
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:40 am
by rusto
To ride your road/cross bike on? Gary Sclar (Argus) would be your best source for this but...
There's a "rail trail" I've been meaning to explore that runs out of Wayland off of Rte 126/27 near Rte 20. Kind of far from Stow/Harvard though. Here's the spot:

- Screen Shot 2013-03-17 at 8.20.13 AM.jpg (107.97 KiB) Viewed 3425 times
If you want to simply do a loop, there's the Delaney Project here (click to biggify):

- Screen Shot 2013-03-17 at 8.34.24 AM.jpg (98.44 KiB) Viewed 3425 times
The circled portions are rideable on a road bike (w/proper tires) and certainly a cross bike. As you wander west and into the woods it gets too rooty and a MTB is needed. The pin indicates where you enter the park.
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:27 am
by Robd2
Thanks Russ, looking for some Battenkill like dirt roads in the area to get some specifity type work in without having to drive too far. Warren ave? in Harvard is sort of what I'm looking for, I think. Not really any climbing on that one but a dirt road we can work into a race simulation ride.
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:48 am
by rusto
Gary Sclar (argus) is definitely your man, he's put together at least one home-brew "D2R2" and lives in Harvard.
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:50 am
by argus
There is a great 75 mile loop that begins in Groton. Check-out my older posts from about 6 months ago. If you cannot find it, I can email you the course, but out of town so cannot email it until the end of the week.
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 11:06 pm
by David_Blore
it's been awhile since I've been on the westborough trails but you might try rice lane in westborough. It's dirt roads with an entrance on 135 at Davis, just before ellsworth park in Northborough. The trail will loop over and around lake chancy. BTW, there are a bunch on old foundations and building from what I think it was a WWII munitions factory.
trails were all fairly smooth and a cross bike or larger tires would be fine
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=rice+lan ... 01581&z=15
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:18 pm
by rusto
Here's Gary's route:
[ridewithgps]
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1474220[/ridewithgps]
Re: Looking for dirt roads
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:04 pm
by scott_sweeney
Rob if what you are looking to mimic is Battenkill roads, it's a bit tougher near us in Stow because the roads at that race are very hilly. There's a ton of dirt roads over in the Assabet Conversation Area in Maynard that I do hot laps on my CX bike, but they're mostly flat.
There's good hilly dirt roads on JPow's Fundo route, but that's way out in western MA, and if you're apt to do that, you may as well look more closely at Gary's route.
Good luck!