connection to Snow Bowl

blast_off

Member
anyone ever do a ride from the back of Mahlon to the Snow Bowl? By the "back" I mean up near Four Birds DH, the yellow trail single track before Stone Gate and all that. I've ridden that white trail for a little bit until it hits the fire road, but not attempted to ride all the way to the Snow Bowl.

I hiked the Snow Bowl a few weekends ago and was impressed with the trails around there. There are some fun rolling single tracks and some big climbs. Some of the trails have been bermed and buffed from dirt bikes too (in a good way).

It would make a nice connection starting near Cascade by the school and crossing Weldon... heading up and over the Snow Bowl, and then ??, and then down in to Stone Gate / south Mahlon.

There is also a good amount of possibility on the Mt St. Paul side of things... while the Highlands Trail is off limits, there are a good bit of unmarked trails back there. Enough for a possible loop. As far as I know, the land is now NJ State Parkland.
 

SpartaBard

Well-Known Member
Yes, I have ridden to Snow Bowl from the back of Mahlon using both the 4 Birds trail and the fire road near the end of Stone Gate. It has been a few years though, but I imagine I could figure it out again. The last time I was back there I ripped my derailleur off with a stray stick. It is doable, once you get to Snow Bowl you can go down the old ski trails and reach the RC parking area, hop across the road and take a gravel climb up to the end of Cascade. I don't think I have a gps file as it was pre-gps days.

Mt. St. Paul - I have not explored over there at all, but I have thought about it just haven't found the time.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
theres a mount paul trail map somewhere online. its not the best..but its a start.

there is also TONS of unmarked singletrack from dirtbikes in all of the WMA land east and south of MD. its all from dirt bikers...so some sections are totally unrideable (at least by me) because of the lines they take.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I've been meaning to check out the WMA area south of Mahlon for quite a while. I never really thought to connect it to Snowbowl, but I ended up doing it today (thanks for the idea). I headed out with a hard copy of the NY/NJ trail conference map and a GPX file from 2010 of the Beaver Brook trail from Mahlon to Berkshire Valley Rd. I did some exploring so my GPS track is a bit messy, but you get the idea:

https://www.strava.com/activities/419508100

Beaver Brook is the white blazed trail heading south from four birds. It's blazed well and was pretty easy to follow without looking at my Garmin, but there were lots of leaves and trees down. I wouldn't really advise anyone to ride it all the way to the end as there was major hike a bike. You can definitely take it down past Lost Lake to the water crossing. Then either stay on white a bit more or take a fireroad and make a left on the main woods rd, Compton-Gobel Rd (I think this road had blue spray paint but am not positive). You eventually veer off that road and then get to the fire road that goes to Milton Tower and the communications tower at the top of the Snowbowl.

Unfortunately, I've never been up at the Snowbowl before and didn't realize I was already there and at the top. I ended up taking the steep gravel road down and ended up at the RC track. I assume you are at the "top" of Snowbowl when you are at the comms tower and I should have explored around at the top there for a more fun way down?
 

trailhead

JORBA: Wildcat/Splitrock
JORBA.ORG
There is a fire tower up there too. My TDN route starts in rockaway and uses that link. As for MSP, i dont see that as making sense. Across ridge road is the Audubon property, not for bikes, nor is the highlands trail. I suggest taking the Ogden RR to Edison rd and Sparta Mtn WMA if you want to go big.
 

mntal

Active Member
If you do more exploring, please let me know - would like to go along as I have wanted to ride all of this "other" Mahlon stuff for years and haven't gotten around to the exploring part.
 

hardtale70

She's Gone From Suck to Blow
Shop Keep
There's more there than we could ever handle. Next time Grady's home, he, I and Bard need to have a sit down before the knowledge of the mighty Alaskan is lost forever
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Cool pics! I was up there again today, but I didn't really have time to look around. Took the same gravel road down to the rc track.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So I noticed Saturday that on either side of the white blazed beaver brook trail, there were no trespassing signs once you were really far south. I also noticed them today on the old woods road heading up from Taylor Rd for quite a ways. Something about a Sportsman club. There was also a sign on (I think) Compton-Gobel Rd about "no trespassing, trail cams in use, we'll confiscate your ATV." Is this not WMA land? The trail conference map doesn't say anything about it being private.
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So I noticed Saturday that on either side of the white blazed beaver brook trail, there were no trespassing signs once you were really far south. I also noticed them today on the old woods road heading up from Taylor Rd for quite a ways. Something about a Sportsman club. There was also a sign on (I think) Compton-Gobel Rd about "no trespassing, trail cams in use, we'll confiscate your ATV." Is this not WMA land? The trail conference map doesn't say anything about it being private.

Be careful a drone might drop a bomb on you.
 

trailhead

JORBA: Wildcat/Splitrock
JORBA.ORG
Yes, there is private property off Taylor road and up the mountainside.
they are probably very serious about trespassing during hunting season, other times maybe not so much.
I did not see anyone during my summer trips.

For everyone's benefit, you can find out what is public land using this NJDEP web based tool.
It works best with MS Explorer.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/geowebsplash.htm

Turn on a base map under imagery: 2012 Natural
Turn on Planning Area: Open Space State

From this you can approximate the the property lines.


upload_2015-10-26_7-33-11.png
 

Smokey

Member
So I noticed Saturday that on either side of the white blazed beaver brook trail, there were no trespassing signs once you were really far south. I also noticed them today on the old woods road heading up from Taylor Rd for quite a ways. Something about a Sportsman club. There was also a sign on (I think) Compton-Gobel Rd about "no trespassing, trail cams in use, we'll confiscate your ATV." Is this not WMA land? The trail conference map doesn't say anything about it being private.
There is some sweet singletrack not far from that sign , the entrance is hidden as its a dirtbike loop, you could probably pedal 50% of it and hike a bike the rest. Some real steep loose hill climbs, gnarly rock gardens etc. I think the Sportsman Club closed a while back, the gate on Rt 15 is always open now and Compton Goebal rd is legal to ride or drive on, if you got a plated dirt bike or 4x4.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
There is some sweet singletrack not far from that sign , the entrance is hidden as its a dirtbike loop, you could probably pedal 50% of it and hike a bike the rest. Some real steep loose hill climbs, gnarly rock gardens etc.

I think I found and rode some of the dirt bike loop you are talking about today. I did a small loop at Mahlon and then headed down to the WMA to explore some since the slick rocks were kind of annoying me at Mahlon. Looks like about 3-4 miles of it according to Strava, and it was pretty much all rideable.
 

blast_off

Member
I finally made it out to this today. Earlier in the year I made a weak attempt at getting to it from Stone Gate but ended up doing a large ride down "white" to the power lines, and then power line to the iron mines near Weldon rd.

Today I climbed up the fire road to the cell tower, and up to the fire tower. Nice fast double track on the ridge. It continues on down to somewhere near near Milton I would assume. The small power line that feeds the fire tower has no trail. For the Strava folks, I created a new segment for the hill climb. Be sure to go past the cell tower to the next little clearing. Brutal climb. Steeeeeeeep.

I came down some ski runs, which were all pretty loose. A day or two with a rake would make a nice trail in there ;)
 

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