Climbing Greylock (in MA)

[MattTuck]

I'm going out to a wedding reception in Western, MA tomorrow, and was thinking of riding up Greylock while I was out there.

Anyone ridden it lately? I heard there was construction but don't know if that is still going on, and if so, if it affects both the North and South approach. Also, not sure how the traffic will respond to a cyclist.

Any info would be helpful!

[Lincoln]

Sorry, I don't have any current construction info since I don't live around there anymore. Love the ride though. One of my favorite climbs. I like to go up the south side and down the north side but I would let any construction dictate the route.

Try calling The Spoke in Williamstown, they might have the 411.

Where will you be staying?

[Steve D]

It's open again, and awesome. Or so I'm told. A good friend rode it last weekend on his motorcycle. Definately plan to bring your bike. Two summer's ago the family and I vacationed in the Berkshires. There's some great, great riding out there. My only disapointment was that Greylock was closed for cyclists that year because of the road construction. It took two years to complete and I can't wait to go out there again.

[MattTuck]

Where will you be staying?

Thanks for the info. It's just a day trip, the reception is 12-3, so I'll probably try to do the ride after that, then cool down and drive back East.

Although now I am worried about the 60% chance of thundershowers. usually I just ignore that type of forecast, but it might be dangerous to get caught up there in a t-storm.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . as part of a century and the roads up both the north and south sides have been completely rebuilt during the closure of the past two years.

The north side out of Williamstown is the shorter horizontally, but steeper vertically by far. I had not been up that before and it was a quad-buster. There are many switchbacks and the grade pitches up sharply in each one. It is a very challenging climb.

When you get almost to the top you come around a left hand turn and you can see the length of the last ridge you will be riding up and the spire of the war memorial on top--good for telling you you're almost there and the suffering is almost over! :eek:

On top there is the memorial itself, which you can walk up into to get you even higher. There is also a visitor center with small outdoors equipment store and lunch counter, but when we were up there it was closed for renovation. There was a vendor in the building selling basic food stuff--bottled water, coffee, popsicles and the like--but he was almost out of water. We got the last couple of bottles. So take extra water with you!

Also make sure you take a vest or windbreaker for on top and during the descent. Like Mount Washington over in NH, Greylock is tall enough that it makes its own weather, and even if it's 85 down below it may be 60 or below up on the summit. And yes, you're right: it would most definitely NOT be fun to get caught in a thunderstorm up there!

On the run down the south side to Lanesborough we had to take it gingerly because it had just rained and the pavement was wet. The trees that overhang the road are still there most of the way, creating a green tunnel that's great to ride through, but they were also a pain on the old road because the sun-dappled shade made it impossible to see the potholes, frost heaves, ridges, etc. coming at you. It was impossible to just let it go and enjoy the speed--by the time you'd get to the bottom your hands would be aching from 9 miles of sitting on the brake levers.

Now the pavement is fresh BUT there is a new hazard. There are numerous hiking trail crossings on the road. On either side of each one rumble strips have been cut in the pavement to warn approaching cars. There is about a two foot gap of smooth pavement right by the shoulder on each one, so it is possible to avoid them. But the warning signs are not very far in advance of the actual strips and if you pop around a corner and see the sign you really have to react fast to miss the strip. They won't bounce your bottles out if you hit them, but it's still distinctly uncomfortable and on our trip when the pavement was wet it was hard to steer quickly to avoid them.

I had plenty of pics of all this, but unfortunately we got hit by a t-storm just as we crested Brodie Mountain Road and as I flew down the other side in the pouring rain my Olympus Stylus 820 camera bounced out of the Bento Box I had on my top tube. I didn't notice for about a mile and when I did I circled back around while cursing at the top of my lungs and found it--in the gutter, underwater, with the battery cover popped open, the battery flopped out, and the image card gone . . . #$%&^*#!!

Amazingly, after I got it dried out it still worked fine! But all my pics from that day were gone. :crap:

BBD

[Steve D]

Here are two shots from July 11 (taken by my buddy on his motorcylce trip)

[Bruce K]

It's too bad you're going up there so late in the day.

A group from around here is leaving Greenfield, MA around 10 and heading up to Greylock. They would have given you excellent company.

BK