Some of my favorite bike rides in the Amherst-Northampton area

Apr 25, 10:18 AM

The Pioneer Valley is great for cycling. On this page I intend to post some of my favorite area rides. Though I usually leave from my house, I’ve set these rides up so that they start and end somewhere with a reasonable amount of parking.

40-mile loop from Northampton to Conway, Deerfield, and Sunderland.

This loop begins and ends at the parking lot at the western end of the Norwottuck Rail Trail, off Damon Road in Northampton. It begins by following the Northampton Bike Path to Look Park, then heads up through Williamsburg and Whately, past a couple of Northampton’s reservoirs, to the hill town of Conway. Then it’s downhill all the way to the Connecticut River. On the eastern side of the river, the route heads through Sunderland and Hadley along the flood plain of the Connecticut, past fields and tobacco barns, finally picking up the Norwottuck Trail for the short trip back across the river to the starting point. There’s a restroom at Look Park and a couple of small groceries in Sunderland. Around mile 30.5, Smiarowski’s farm stand has soft serve ice cream and sandwiches in season (roughly May through September).

Map on MapMyRide.com

More to come!

Brian W. Ogilvie

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