Ramblings from Moe Mountain

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Ramblings from Moe Mountain.
I thought I’d start this up to have a place to express some rides and photos of interesting places and things without cluttering up other threads on the forum. It’s called Ramblings from Moe Mountain, because that’s where I live. This area is within two miles of Wawayanda Park.

My wife's friend called to take her out to lunch today, so I figured I'd go off exploring and out to lunch.
I headed down Clinton road to P1 parking at Van Orden street. I'v been in this section before, but a while ago and from a different parking area. There used to be a big old castle in here years ago. As I rode along the trail was an easy pleasant ride. There are some side trails too that I'll leave for further explorations. It was a great day for a ride and I always like heading out to new areas. The lake on the right is huge and pretty with no houses or buildings on it. The trail is medium to poorly maintained which is just fine by me. The further I go the rougher it gets. More hidden rocks in the high grass and branches down. Now I'm working to ride, fun! Dodging and planing my next move. Working up a sweat. I came to a small odd rock building right along the trail only 15 feet from the lakes edge. This trail does follow the lakes edge closely. More trees down blocking the trail, so I climb over. Still farther on I came to a massive blow down area and decided to head back for lunch. This trip was a measly 1.6 miles in, but it was great. Not a soul around. The ride back was just as challenging for me and great fun. I knew the easier stuff was coming. This is so remote it's like their ain't nothin' around, really cool.
I got back to my parking place and blew by it heading down Clinton road another 1.6 miles to Grasshopper restaurant. I've never been here and I wanted to try their Guinness beer, never had it.
Ordered Nachos supreme and a sample of Guinness. No on the Guinness, ordered a Fat Tire pint. Ate and drank my fill and headed out to do the ride of pain 1.6 miles back up hill to my parking spot. I really struggled getting back and I was thinking I gotta get some lower gears on this bike! Damn, just as I reached my car I realized I was riding on the big sprocket up front. F#*@, that's what beer will do for ya.

The building
Hanks Pond West02.jpg


Big Blowdowns
Hanks Pond West06.jpg


Hanks Pond
Hanks Pond West07.jpg


Coolin off the Fatty
Hanks Pond West09.jpg


HanksW.jpg


Food & Fat Tire Beer
Grasshopper.jpg
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Love riding in that area, don't think I've checked out blue/white yet though. I actually ran into a guy out there hiking on Sunday. He was like "Wow I never see anyone back here!," and I was like, "Yeah isn't it awesome?" That was over on the other side coming down yellow from the fire tower though.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Love riding in that area, don't think I've checked out blue/white yet though. I actually ran into a guy out there hiking on Sunday. He was like "Wow I never see anyone back here!," and I was like, "Yeah isn't it awesome?" That was over on the other side coming down yellow from the fire tower though.
Yeah, it's a great area. Now if I had your stamina I'd do more, but I know my limitations! Still havin' fun.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I didn’t know where I was going to ride today at 7AM. I decided to head out the Double Pond trail. Good choice! This is quite overgrown this time of year. So I go across the swamp bridge and up the trail to the Cedar Swamp trail, that is hiking only, but I ride it in a little ways because it’s beautiful. I know where they don’t want you to go and I don’t go there, I turn around and head out. I continued out Double Pond to Plymouth Trail. This is one of the best trails in the park. Very remote and well done. It skirts the great Cedar swamp and you have to duck down so as not to hit the Laurel tunnels. This section of the park as history tells it formed around 15,000 years ago and sections of the swamp have remained unchanged since the last ice age. I turned back after reaching the bridges because I wanted the ride the William Hoeferlin trail back to parking. Now here is a trail to challenge the skills of any rider! Rocks, roots, hills, it throws everything at you and never gives up. That was my 6 mile ride today and it wasn’t easy!

Double Pond swamp bridge
Doublepond bridge.jpg


Plymouth Trail
Plymouths04.jpg


Plymouths01.jpg


Plymouths02.jpg


Plymouths03.jpg


the Map
cedar plymouth.jpg
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Awesome to see this, I enjoy your adventures.
Bike rides, nachos and beer for lunch? You're doing it right.

Subscribed
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Pete is my hero. Fairly newbie on the bike and he's already done races! Maybe I'll do one of these blogs when I retire and try to finish out hitting all the parks on this site.
Done is the operative word here. I enjoyed giving the races a try just to see what I could do. Now I know and I'm "Done".
I think I'll still do events, like Poker runs and non competitive events though.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Had a nice 9 mile ride today. I rode the Hunters Trail as I call it. No bikes ever ride it and it’s poorly maintained. The trail is actually a stream bed in one section, I guess from run off. Not much water, but it has high sides about 3 feet tall and rocks and roots. A real fun ride when it’s dry, which is most of the time.
It’s a simple loop from the main road into the woods and then comes out on Iron Mountain Trail, which goes right back to the main road where you started. If you took a side trail half way in it comes out at a housing development. I found this trail in the winter when the homeowners access the park with snowmobiles. The loop only 1.25 miles long but I love riding these obscure trails.

Here is an odd tree along the trail.
Hunters trail.jpg


This is how muddy it was back in April.
Muddy me07.jpg

Yuck
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Today I was going to take it easy, a nice slow easy ride, muggy as hell. I rode up the Double Pond to Wingdam and out to the dam. Then I decided to tale the Little Bear trail back, it’s a great short trail that skirts the lake and is only slightly challenging with it’s heavily rooted section and quick little ups and downs and turns. Coming up ahead I have to make a choice, right around the tree and ride over rocks and roots, or left around the tree with better ground but a troublesome small wispy branch to deal with. I go left through the branch, but the small wispy branch is growing out of a 3/4 round by 16 inch long cut off branch that I didn’t see and it put the bite on me! Damn, I now have the Little Bear raspberry. At least it had enough give and didn’t throw me down. I finished the ride with a relaxing ride past the beach and back down the Iron Mountain trail and over to the William Hoeferlin, which crosses the Appellation Trail. Here I walked up to the shelter on the AT and checked on my old battery lantern I put at the shelter as a joke for hikers. They seem to enjoy it by the comments they write in the log book. I usually only have to change the battery once a year.

Raspberry
Little Bear Rasbury.jpg


Little Bear trail
Little Bear91.jpg


The Lantern
AT ShelterLamp02.jpg


Shelter
AT Shelter03.jpg
 
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Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I made a short ride back to the Little Bear trail to introduce my Silkey saw to the offending branch that left me with a large raspberry on my arm. Someone had previously trimmed the branch leaving it about 16 inches long with a pointed end and hidden by wispy branches. I trimmed it close to the base of the tree, thus removing the danger permanently.

offender.jpg

About to be removed

Removed
offender trim.jpg
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
It looks like you photoshop'ed the saw into the tree. I'm starting to question if any of your photos are real :D
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Doctors appointment this morning, so I rode out after lunch.
I did some local trails that I’ve used for the last 48 years that lead into Wawayanda park at the far South Eastern section.
I had lunch the other day and met and old acquaintance that I haven’t seen in 20 years. I know he was / is an avid biker. Turns out he did a LOT of trail building in my area and he did a great job! He worked with others over the years and by himself a lot lately. Mojo trail, along Cherry Ridge Road is named after his dog. Tombstone trail was built in one (Long) day. He worked on The Wall and many more trails in this section. Had some great stories. He grew up as friends with my son and other neighbor hood kids. We reminisced about the old sand pit and old park trails. So today I rode some of the old trails back to the sand pit and out Banker Trail. So many unmarked trails it’s amazing. He also built that special bridge last year that crosses the Saw Mill Pond Brook, which has been a problem since I’ve lived here.

The Bridge
Gary's bridge03.jpg


Gary's bridge02.jpg
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
8/13/16
Well I wasn’t going to write anything today because I only did my easy Hike N Ride today, nothing special. BUT, this afternoon I decided to go for a little ride in my local woods. Pretty simple, just a 2 mile ride around. I came down the trail to the stream and the water looked really low, so I went to the right and headed for the stream. Just before the stream was a 2 foot drop off into a small water hole about 6 feet across and I figured that would be fun. Nah! I dropped off the edge like a ton of bricks and hit the 8 inch deep water, not figuring in the other 10 inches of mud below the 8 inches of water. OTB and belly whopper! Boy that 100 year old woods mud stinks, but it was surprisingly warm. So much for a nice easy afternoon ride. Now I gotta remember to stash my wallet & stuff in a plastic bag for future adventures. I knew to do this, but never did. Took a long shower, but damn, I still smell that mud!

Muddy OTB02.jpg


Muddy OTB03.jpg
 

huffster

Well-Known Member
Subscribing. Good stuff so far. As you know, you live very near my favorite place to ride.

Diving into a mud-pit sucks. - been there. So, did you "ride on" covered in mud?
 
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