Thanks all for your suggestions. Another ride I saw, that looks really amazing is the white mountain area, but that might be more than a day's worth.

From Waltham? No problem, as long as you leave early. 2-hours up 93 and you can be in the good stuff. Just don't forget to leave yourself 2-hours for the ride home too.

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Berkshire Adventue Ride - 5/20/2012 - ADVrider

Here ya go.

I often head past Quabbin to 116 or Green River Rd.
100,8a, etc.

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8/2/2013

Since I spend 35K a year caging the slabs of Massachusetts for work, I avoid interstate travel on my Wee in favor of exploring the surface roads of Mass, NH and Vermont. For a fun day ride, leaving early from Waltham, I'd suggest heading west on 117 out through Lincoln, Maynard, Stow and into Bolton where you can pick up 62 west and ride through Sterling and Princeton. In Barre pick up 32 (south) down to Gilbertville where you can hop on 32A north whick skirts the eastern side of the Quabbin. In Petersham, you come back to 32, again, and head north on 32 up across Route 2, through Athol and into southern NH. Eventually you intersect with 119 (which you can take east all the way back to the Route 2 rotary at the Concord prison, cut across through West Concord over to 117) or you can continue further north on 32 to 101(east) in Keene and ride that to Route 13 (south) in Milford, NH and take that south to 119 East in Townsend.

If you've never been to the Quabbin, I'd encourage you to head further south on 32 out of Gilbertville, ride a short bit west on Route 9 to enter the Quabbin Reservoir loop road which will take you up to the "Enfield Lookout" where you can look out over the great expanse of the reservoir which fills a valley where once there were towns full of people.

The best part of Route 2, IMHO, is out beyond Greenfield where it skirts the Deerfield River enroute to Mount Greylock in North Adams. Once you're west of Route 202, you can't go wrong if you get off Route 2 and head north or west. Lots of heat roads with twisties, e.g. Wendell Depot > Locks Village > North Leverett > Lake Pleasant.

I picked up some booklets of laminated map cards, called Moto-Maps, at moto market in Acton that offer suggested loop rides in Mass and NH. I tend to use them for "inspiration" and modify 'em when I'm out there riding.

Happy Trails!

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2013 Northeast V-Strom Rally!

2011 pearl white DL650A
58 y.o.
6'2", 270 pounds

This is almost exactly my favorite route. Maybe we could ride it together some day...

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K7 DL650, Silver

I'd be up for that. There's a few Massachusettseans (?) on here with home bases west of Boston. Maybe we can get it together to have some sort of dual-sport get-together or "meetup" as is the current buzzword. If the weather warms up a tad, I might be headed out thataway with a buddy who just traded his KLR for a Multistrada and is dying to ride...understandably.

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2013 Northeast V-Strom Rally!

2011 pearl white DL650A
58 y.o.
6'2", 270 pounds

I'm in Braintree, but like BabaAus, I do up to 50k miles a year in New England. About half has been on two wheels in the best years.

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-Tom (DL650AL2) (KA1TOX) (E-I-E-I-O)

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Sadly, just like too many other locales...you'll hafta ride s-l-o-w-l-y around Westford and Tyngsboro because those woodsy back roads are now being widened and adorned with more and more McMansions which means more "Slow Down Please. We Love Our Kids." signs and minivan traffic.

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2013 Northeast V-Strom Rally!

2011 pearl white DL650A
58 y.o.
6'2", 270 pounds

On a freakin' BICYCLE?!? Holy moly!!! I still can't find the map links but looking at some of the pictures and stuff....WOW! I'm exhausted just reading about it. Man oh man oh man!

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2013 Northeast V-Strom Rally!

2011 pearl white DL650A
58 y.o.
6'2", 270 pounds

There are some GPS tracks over at ADVrider:
D2r2 - ADVrider

I've only ridden the 60+ mile version on a cross bike. The 100+ milers is a long day in the saddle, with over 10,000 ft. of climbing.

Want to do it on motos, Aus?

pmk