Northampton/Amherst

[mudmucker]

Thanks for the replies.....

Looks like I'll be back in biking heaven.......bit out of fitness for big hills though !

I grew up in that area and have done a lot of road riding there over the years. Amherst and Northampton are located in the large wide valley floodplain of the Connectictut River that runs north-south, and for the most part, not excessively hilly. For road riding, there is a lot of flat level riding in that area since a good part of it is in heart of the floodplain region. Obviously with any valley there are the hills on either side. If you were to ride in the east part of Amherst and head to the east or northeast towards the hilltowns of Pelham or Shutesbury, or south towards Granby, you will start to encounter hills because you are leaving the valley (you will start to encounter hills on Main St/W Pelham Road and Belchertown Road, and definately East Leverett Road into Leverett and Shutesbury). If you are riding on a north south road in the east part of Amherst you'll have some rolling topography since it's still following the valley contours. Likewise if you are on the west side of Northampton you will be heading towards the hilltowns on the other side of the valley such as Westhampton and Chesterfield.

Don't worry about bigs hills. You can certainly find hours of level flat (0-3% grades) comfortable enjoyable riding between Amherst and Northampton, and points north. If you take a route leaving north Amherst you can find an easy level ride with mild topography if you let's say, take rt 116 into Sunderland/South Deerfield and then hook up to route 5&10 into Whately and that leads you right into Northampton with hardly a hill encountered - maybe some short gradual terrain once or twice. From South Deerfield you could even follow route 5 into Greenfield right up to Northfield and still not encounter difficult hills. Venture off onto upper or lower roads in the Deerfields and you'll see some very picturesque valley farmlands. Or, leaving north Amherst and finding your way towards River Road/route 47 from Sunderland you will also have some very enjoyable flat rides closer to the river that meander through the farmlands of Sunderland, Whately and Hadley.

Points north have safer wide-shouldered roads. Route 9 between Amherst and Northampton is also level but it is a commercial road with sometimes crazy traffic and you wouldn't see the beautiful adjacent farmlands that are typical of the region at all. However, in the vicinity of route 9, you could avoid all that traffic and mayhem if you are looking for a fast connection, by taking the Norwottuck Rail Trail that connects Amherst and Northampton routing through Hadley. (The fact that there is a rail trail should indicate how flat that area is). But then, it's a rail trail, and if you don't want a MUP and all of that associated, then stay away.

As for mt biking...I used to live in Shutesbury and primarily mt biked when I lived there because (tongue in cheek) there were more dirt roads than paved. These are lands I knew well hidden to the general public, some being privately owned ones. But for the public, the closest area might be the Mt Holyoke Range, one of the ranges that surrounds the valley towards the south (there's a trail map to look at in the hyperlink). There is also smaller and milder Mt. Toby in Sunderland/Leverett to the north. These have some mt bike trails and some fire roads.