Pedro's Mountain Bike Festival

Every summer, mountain bikers young and old, novice to expert converge in Massachusetts for Pedro's Mountain Bike Festival. The 2007 festival takes place from July 13-15 in Hancock, Massachusetts, near Jiminy Peak.

If you missed last year's annual cyclist carnival, here are a few highlights.

To start, it rained a couple of afternoons, just enough to keep the trails good and muddy. This only enhances the experience for mountain bikers.

Pedro's which makes top-quality bicycle lubricants and tools, had tons of demo bikes, lots of bike gear for rock-bottom prices, and guided rides every morning and afternoon for riders of all abilities. A highlight was a huge ride sponsored by Mavic to raise money for lymphoma research.

An elaborate BMX (bicycle motocross) track, bicycle obstacle courses and "big air" jumps were available for those 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 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.

Many of the riders at the Pedrofest spent their time on the network of trails used by the Brodie Cross Country ski center in the winter. Some hard-core riders complained that most of the trails were "lame." But almost everyone I talked to found exactly the degree of challenge they wanted, whether that was easy learning terrain or something more difficult.

The whole Berks

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. Most of the roads have wide shoulders for safe riding.

The best discovery Marilyn and I made in the area was the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. 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 Route 8, you see very little of the highway. The views, instead 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 warm-up for our day. Flat, fast and scenic, 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. From there they can plunge downhill at warp 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. They 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.