Willowdale State Forest With over 40 miles of marked trails, this Massachusetts state forest is a great place f or beginner to upper intermediate mountain bikers. Although most of the trails are not technical in level of difficulty, they offer outstanding scenery with wetlands, pine and hardwood forests, some modest climbs, and a good mix of glacial esker and drumlin terrain. The Pineswamp and Hood Pond areas lie on either side of Rt. 1 between Topsfield and Ipswich, north of Boston.

 

Bradley Palmer State Park :Crossing Ipswich-Topsfield Rd. from the Pineswamp area of Willowdale State Forest takes you into Bradley Parmer State Park. In addition to a 1.5 mile paved road closed to automobiles, the park features miles of trails with varying levels of difficulty, including climbs up Blueberry Hill and some great open fields.

Appleton Farms Grass Ridesis an Ipswich, MA estate donated to the Trustees of Reservations. While part of it is open only for hiking, the section known as the Grass Rides has five miles of wide carriage paths offering some modest climbs The Great Pasture Trail parallels a stone wall.bordered by forest on one side and scenic open landscape on the other. Access is from Highland St. in Hamilton, just a mile beyond the Mill Rd. bridge in Ipswich

The The Bay Circuit Trail is a permanent recreation trail and greenway corridor extending through 34 towns in Eastern Massachusetts and linking the parks and open spaces surrounding metropolitan Boston. In addition to Willowdale, Bradley Palmer and Appleton Farms, the trail passes through several North Shore area state forests, including Boxford State Forest.

Chebacco Woods Gordon College in Wenham offers miles of cycling trails with modest levels of difficulty. You may also access this large protected area from Chebacco Rd. off Rt. 22 in Wenham, or from the other end on Pine St. in Manchester by the Sea.


Georgetown-Rowley State Forest . This 1,112 acre forest offers a variety of year-round activities including horseback riding, hiking, walking, hunting (some restrictions), cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling.

Dogtown Commons, Gloucester Dogtown is a preserved area of 3600 acres between Gloucester and Rockport, MA, covered with glacial eratics. The harsh glacial landscape offers some of the most technical mountain biking in the North Shore area. Access is from Cherry St between Gloucester and Annisquam. Unless you are highly skilled, stick primarily to Common Road or Dogtown Road, which are unimproved fire trails. A pleasant closed paved road also circles Goose Cove Reservoir. Take a trail map and hike to the higher and even rockier terrain in the center near Peter's Pulpit and Whale's jaw.

Harold Parker State Forest Over 30 miles of old woods roads and great singletracks are to be found in this wooded area near Middleton. The trails tend to be more technical than those found in nearby Willowdale State Forest, but there is plenty of cycling for everyone. The state provides mountain bike trail maps for the East and West sides of Harold Parker State Forest .

Other mountain bike rides in Massachusetts from NEMBA

View NEMBA Trail Listings in a larger map

Abington Ames Nowell State Park Agawam Robinson State Park Amherst Mount Holyoke State Park Andover Charles Ward Reservation Barnstable Trail of Tears Berkley Dighton Rock State Park Gloucester Dogtown Bourne Crane WMA Carver Myles Standish State Forest Carlisle Great Brook Farm State Park Chelmsford Russell MIll Town Forest Cohasset Whitney Thayer Woods Colrain Catamount State Forest Dartmouth Destruction Brook Woods Dracut Dracut State Forest Dunstable Fletcher Pond Douglas Douglas State Forest Dover Noanet Woods Duxbury Lansing Bennett Forest Erving Erving State Forest Fall River Fall River State Forest

Franklin Franklin State Forest Foxboro Foxboro State Forest Greenfield Greenfield, MA to Green River, VT Greenfield Rocky Mountain Park Hawley Kenneth Dubuque State Forest Hingham Wompatuck State Park Ipswich The Reservoir Ipswich Willowdale State Forest, Ipswich Groton Groton Town Forest Lee October Mountain State Forest Leominster Leominster State Forest Lowell Lowell Dracut Tyngsboro State Forest Lynn Lynn Woods Medfield Rocky Woods & Fork Factory Brook Melrose Middlesex Fells Reservation Middleborough Pratt Farm Middleborough Rocky Gutter Milford Vietnam Milton Blue Hills Reservation Montague Montague Plains Needham Cutler Park

Needham Needham Town Forest Newburyport Maudslay State Park North Andover Harold Parker State Forest Otis Bourne/Falmouth Oxford Hodges Village Dam Pittsfield Pittsfield State Forest Sandwich Shawme Crowell State Forest Sharon Borderland State Park Stow Stow Town Taunton Rocky Woods Taunton Massasoit State Park, Topsfield Bradley Palmer State Park Walpole Adams Farm Wendell Wendell State Forest Wenham Chebacco Woods Wenham Gordon College, Wenham West Bridgewater West Bridgewater State Forest West Bridgewater West Meadows Pond Whitinsville Whitinsville Trails Wrentham Wrentham State Forest

Other New England mountain bike rides: Connecticut Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont