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Active outdoors: Pushing pedal power
By Tim Jones/ Daily News Correspondent
Thursday, August 3, 2006The rising price of fuel may not be a bad thing, especially if it encourages more overweight, under-exercised Americans to drive less and bicycle more. What have you done on your bicycle lately?
Have you tried riding your bike to do errands around town? Good exercise. Saves gas. It's fun. What's the downside? The more you bike, the more you can do on a bike.
My girlfriend Marilyn and I love to see different places. This spring, we bought a Burley combination tandem bicycle and trailer so we can bicycle more together. Ever since, we have been building our getaway plans around the idea of parking our car and traveling by bike.
We've biked inn-to-inn in Vermont and explored Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada by bike (in the pouring rain) after parking our car in Portland, Maine and taking the CAT ferry. On Cape Cod, we rode to the beaches and out to dinner, and biked the Cape Cod Rail Trail and the Shining Sea Bike Path. And, we've ridden the extensive network of mountain bike paths around the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, N.H. Biking helped make wherever we were visiting even more interesting and memorable.
Biking means you see less country, but you see it better and enjoy it more. The more energy you expend biking, the less money you spend on gas, the more you have can spend on lodging and food, and the more you can eat without gaining weight. It's a win, win, win.
This past weekend, we took both our tandem and solo mountain bikes to the 14th annual Pedro's Mountain Bike Festival (www.pedrosfest.com) in Lanesboro, and stayed at the Jiminy Peak Resort (1-800-882-8859; www.jiminypeak.com) in Hancock. Pedro's makes top-quality bicycle lubricants and tools. Their annual three-day festival is a carnival for cyclists. What fun to see so many people enjoying pedal power.
It rained a couple of afternoons, just enough to keep the trails good and muddy. They had tons of demo bikes you could ride, lots of bike gear for sale cheap, guided rides every morning and afternoon for all abilities, and a huge ride sponsored by Mavic (www.mavic.com -- they make bike wheels and accessories) to raise money for lymphoma research. They also built an elaborate BMX (Bicycle Moto Cross) track, bicycle obstacle courses and "big air" jumps (think skiing and snowboarding.) for anyone brave or foolish enough to venture out on them. Up at Jiminy Peak, bikers were taking the chairlift to the top and bouncing their bikes down.
Everyone was having a good time. Families with lots of tots and toddlers were all out pedaling together with the kids in trailers and on training wheels. A whole contingent of kids and young adults seemed to spend the entire festival on the bumps and jumps of the BMX track and the big-air kickers. You know, you hear a lot these days about overweight, inactive kids. None of these kids fit that model.
I also saw a surprising number of seniors covered with mud and grinning. Mountain biking isn't just for the young. And, it seemed to me that there were more folks than ever who look like they've been confirmed couch potatoes but were out pedaling on the roads and the easier trails.
None of these folks will ever win the Tour de France. Most will never enter a bike race. But they were all out having fun and getting a little fitter with each turn of the pedals. You could, too.
The whole corner of the Berkshires around Jiminy Peak is just made for biking. The valleys are long and sinuous, the hills are (mostly) gentle, though you can get a good workout cranking up some of them, and most of the roads have wide shoulders for safe riding.
Many of the riders at the Pedro fest spent their time on the network of trails used by the Brodie Cross Country Ski Center in the winter. While some hard-core riders complained that most of the trails were "lame," almost everyone I talked to found exactly the degree of challenge they wanted, whether that was easy learning terrain or something more difficult.
However, the best discovery Marilyn and I made in the area was the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail (www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/western/asrt.htm). This smoothly paved, mostly flat recreational path runs 11.2 miles from the Lanesborough/Pittsfield town line through Cheshire and into the center of Adams. Though the trail parallels busy Rte. 8, you see very little of the highway. The views are of Berkshire Pond, Mount Greylock and a dozen other hills, the Cheshire Reservoir and the Hoosic River.
This is one of the nicest bike paths I have ever had the pleasure to ride. The only thing it lacked was other riders. Marilyn and I got up early each morning and rode the entire trail as a warmup for our day. Flat, fast and scenic (especially early in the morning, and with very few roadcrosings, this is the perfect before-breakfast bike ride on a summer morning.
While chatting with local bikers, I heard rumors that the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail may eventually be extended from Pittsfield all the way to Williamstown, which would let it rival the Cape Cod Rail Trail as one of the truly great recreation paths in all of New England.
As it is now, it's still well worth the ride. If you're ever in the area, be sure to check it out.
Headlong downhill
On weekends, Jiminy Peak runs its high-speed quad chairlift to haul bikers and their rides swiftly to the summit where they can then plunge downhill at warps speeds, splashing through mud and bouncing over rocks. On weekdays, bikers can ride the chairlift used for the Alpine Slide.
Downhill mountain biking is a weird subset of the mountain biking world. Riders often wear motocross-style helmets and full body armor and set their bikes up with special long-travel shock absorbers so they can fly over rough ground. It's scary-fast and not to everyone's taste, but if you're an adrenaline junkie, and have comprehensive health and dental insurance, it's worth checking out.
Freelance writer Tim Jones covers travel and outdoor sports. Contact him at timjones@active-outdoors.com.
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