French Creek
- Thread starter dmc123
- Start date
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
You can pick up a trail map at the park office (drive into the park off of 345 South to get there.) There are definitely some rocky trails out there, but overall the trails flow really nicely at FC. Some the more challenging terrain is across 345 near the Shed Road parking lot (the Hopewell Furnace area of the park), but they can be tricky to navigate without someone who knows the area. In the main park area, if you use the trail map, linking the yellow, green and blue trails would give you a really nice ride.
It's odd, because I've done the On the Rocks race there a number of time, but when I looked through my old rides, I can't find too many of those and most of the Garmin files I have are when I was doing a longer ride and included the SRT into Reading and on to Blue Marsh 25 miles away. Other than that, I have a few rides where I got lost in the Hopewell Furnace area so you wouldn't want those. The best example I have overall is probably this file from when I did a ride with a group of folks who live out there and gave my buddy and I a guided tour, but it's from about 5 years ago. You would probably do better just picking up a map at the office and putting together your own ride.
Good luck!
Thanks for the info. I am heading here tomorrow morning, I will let you know how it goes. Between some paper maps, Maprika, Strava and your file I think I have a good route planned. Looks like the climbs and rocks at this place are going to kick my ass but thats why I do it.
Had a great ride 17.5 mile ride here today. Used Maprika to make our way around. We started out on the west side and did a counter clockwise loop. The trails were pretty rocky in many places but surprisingly smooth in others. Some of the climbs were pretty brutal going up to the fire tower area and were loaded with rocks to boot. Then we headed to the east side and did a clockwise loop. This side was definitely rockier but technically doable. The last few climbs nearly killed me (need to work on cardio). One review I read said this place is like Jungle Habitat. I only partially agree. It had a lot of sections like Warthog and Otter slide, but nothing like Boon. Its like Allamuchy north minus rolly polly or lumpy bumpy. We got lucky and missed the storms by 5 minutes. Overall its worth a try but 1 hr and 45 min drive from north Jersey. Here is my ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/626778946
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rick81721
Lothar
Planning on stopping here sunday on the way home from a reunion. Is that a state park lot you parked in?
Ian F
Well-Known Member
Rick - the main lot is near the larger lake towards the SE of his map off Park Rd. The lot he parked at is one of the secondary lots on Shed Rd. There are some facilities near the lake as well as the park office for a map. Nothing at the Shed Rd lot. Both lots are fairly easy to see and get to using Googlemaps.
That's a nice loop, dmc - I've ridden FC for ages, but we tend to do the same loop. All. The. Time... Might be nice to mix it up and look at the trails from a different route. You can definitely get your climbing and descending on at this park.
That's a nice loop, dmc - I've ridden FC for ages, but we tend to do the same loop. All. The. Time... Might be nice to mix it up and look at the trails from a different route. You can definitely get your climbing and descending on at this park.
rick81721
Lothar
Thanks Ian. Does it drain well? Think after Friday rain it will be ok Sunday afternoon?
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
It'll be rideable - there may be a few wet areas, especially in areas on the Mill Creek side of Shed Road. That's the side of the park that you access by crossing Shed Road and it can be a ball buster - no matter which way you go, there is a monster climb to get back because the whole section sits on a hill. If you ride the loop CCW, the climb I'm referring to is the one @dmc123 went down around mile 11 or 12 of his ride. I've ridden here a thousand times but I still get turned around in that area all the time. If you don't stick to the Mill Creek Trail, the offshoot trails (e.g., Buzzards Trail) can make you feel like you're in the Blair Witch Project - you just go around and around and the "right" direction to head back toward Shed Road starts to look wrong.
The other side of the park is where they do the race every year - Boone, Ridge, Turtle and Lenape are all fun and well-marked. With lots of rocks. If you don't mind a bit of a slog back up 345 on the road and want something a little different, I recommend going down the Six Penny Trail. It's a blast to ride down, but definitely take the road back - climbing back up Six Penny is actually really hard because it has some step ups and some very steep sections.
BCurry
Well-Known Member
Rode there last week and agree it's really easy to get turned around there. I went down six penny twice thinking I was going in the other direction, I probably would have gone down it again if I wasn't really paying attention. It was like ground hog day there. I used the Trailforks app to navigate back to the main lot.
rick81721
Lothar
Thanks guys - I downloaded @1speed 's garmin connect file and followed it as a course - good thing too as I was surely doomed to getting lost without it. Took a wrong turn several times but found my way back. Conditions seemed iffy when I got there but a local guy had just finished and said it drains well and wasn't bad. Most of it was ok but 1speed's course took me to horseshoe trail along the lake and that was a muddy disaster. Fortunately the slopfest didn't last long. Overall a fun place with some good climbs and occasional rock gardens - reminded me of a north jersey park like High Point state park. Will hit it again when hopefully it's dry. Took a pic near the furnace area, this looked familiar:
