Great Trails Everywhere – but Northeast Massachusetts Rocks!
There are great MTB trails everywhere these days – a wonder of our time and some perhaps a byproduct of the godawful pandemic. And, if you lean towards the technical trail – rocks, rolls, impossible ups and downs, there is an increasing sense that some of the finest technical trails in the world are right in our back yard (if, say, your backyard is 20 miles north of Boston). After years traveling West to ride, I’m continually startled by the sheer quality and ingenuity of the technical trails around Boston’s north shore.
Take that Moab
Imagine the world’s receding glaciers scraping the rocks clean and sweeping away debris. Gouging out lines destined to become great MTB trails. The water from the east coast glaciers would eventually run mix with the Pacific and, just imagine this, the North Shore water would meet up with the water that engulfed Moab during the same epoch.
North Shore Mass water would have to endure Moab’s water gushing about its role in building the Sistine Chapel of Mountain biking. If that Moab water only knew…
It’s not the mileage
These are trails where you could easily get hurt if you ride beyond your means, but where the thrill of conquering most or all of one of these trails is hard to match in other aspects of life. Thinking about these trails is akin to thinking about the best rock songs of all time – you get a little excited with that tune ringing in your head – and it’s no different with these bad-boy trails. Measuring distance on these trails is like entering some SciFi space-time warp – on a recent weekend 6 strong riders went out and rode hard for 6 hours. Distance covered: 11 miles.
Helmets off to those who built these – I know not who you are – but I revel in your mastery and skill.
Over the course of 2021 and beyond, we’ll create an in-depth feature on each trail. These are rated in order – but frankly, the order could change on a given day after a given ride. They’re all that good.
- Passing Gas (West Gloucester)
- Surf City/Wicked Hard (Lynn Woods)
- Fishbone Caveman (Essex)
- Hooter (Beverly)
- Awesome Sauce (Lynn Woods)
- All of Bruce and Toms (West Gloucester)
- Gspot/Stoneman/Rez (Essex)