Linking Ringwood to Sterling in its present-day form

[SSmtbr]

After a couple of weeks of riding at Sterling for the first time I really want to head back, but this time a bit more on the ambitious side linking together my favorite place to ride for a preview of the epic potential between those two parks.

My plans:
Park at Ringwood Lot C and ride the white up to Pierson Ridge and back down as a warm-up. Back near lot C work my way to Shepherd Lake via the Shepherd Pond trail and then take the gated Shepherd Lake Rd to meet up with Long Meadow Rd/Sterling Mine Road and then on to South Gate road to hit the out-and-back trail and then reverse my route back into Ringwood/Shepherd Lake and how I'm feeling I'll either head straight back to Lot C or take the Race Trail/Skylands/R-R to Warm Puppy and then back to the car.

I see on Strava heatmap that gated Shepherd Lake road from the parking lot at Shepherd Lake is fairly heavily used, but private property/residents only access according to the signs I saw on Google street view entering from Sterling Mine Road? Will I run into any issues on that local road? NYNJTC maps don't mention any "keep out" indication along this road.

In its current form, will this be the best route, even though it's looking like 2-3 miles of road riding each way between the two parks? I've included a pdf maps scan with the highlighted route in purple between RW and Sterling for reference. A bonus option I've highlighted in Yellow, which I believe will be closer to the actual route once completed, which I could take as well. Or is there a third option recommended from those seasoned riders with backwoods riding experience in the area? Thoughts?

 

[huffster]

I've ridden that road out from Shepherd Lake to Sterling Mine Rd without any issues.

 

[SSmtbr]

Thanks! Took a shot at it today before you posted and worked out well. Passed a guy blowing leaves at the house just past the big boulders in the road and he waved so no issues!

Parked at shepherd lake lot and went down the road toward sterling mine road and then up the hill and left to Eagle Valley. About 3 miles of road but it went quickly and aside from the short stretch on sterling mine rd traffic was very light.

Overall it was a fun time exploring the current connection options between the parks and hitting the red back trail by climbing it first and then the leafy fun descent before taking the road back to the lot.

Can't wait to put some trail building effort in both parks now that my work schedule is freeing up!

Strava Link for the curious

 

[soundz]

The highlighted Yellow is still a bunch of roads. If you want to stay on dirt, head into the White at Ringwood Manor and try to make you way up North. It will link you to Meadow Road on all dirt. The quad trails up there are pretty beat up and somewhat hard to navigate, but should be doable with PDF maps.

 

[soundz]

A combination of these:

https://www.strava.com/activities/658884341
https://www.strava.com/activities/329283626

 

[pixychick]

Just seeing this now. Yes, you may be able to navigate some quad roads and power line to Blue lake. We also have a connector trail under construction from Crossover Tr (white) a few 100 ft east of Sloatsburg Rd that will connect to the power line. You can ride it from end to end now, but it is not quite done. That may get done next weekend. There are some social trails across the street that will connect into Long Meadow. We are working with Sterling on getting some approvals to connect in from White trail behind the Manor to Red Back Tr in Sterling. So, there is a chance that there could be several connectors in the future.

 

[Jmann]

I thought Shepard lake road was driveable as it shows up on google maps like any other road. Last time I was at ringwood I parked at Shepard lake then tried to drive over to South Gate rd via Shepard lake rd but realized it's not drivable. I kept doing circles around the lot thinking I missed it. I'm so used to riding from skyline to Shepard lake that I forgot how out of the way driving there is.
I've been planning an "epic" ride for a while that starts by my friends house in midland park, ride through high mountain to the bottom of cannonball trail by dupont/Barbara drive, then the entire trail to Shepard lake, then ride to and loop sterling mine, then the entire thing back. Needless to say I don't know when I'll ever do that.