Round Mountain Trails

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Anyone looking for another central jersey place to ride? Try the Round mountain section of readington twp. One mountain top south of round valley. Go to www.readingtontwp.org and look for the link to the trail map. I am suprised that the mtbnj.com site map guru hasn't nailed this one yet, but he has done an awesome job.
As far as the trails, expect to see sloppy conditions the closer you get to the river (south part of map), unless its been dry. Portions are perimeter trails of farm fields, generally pretty rideable any time.
These are multi-use trails, so you may see a group of equestrians.
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Ok, I found this:
http://www.readingtontwp.org/Round-Mountain.html

So this place is a trail "system", a total of 4 trails and about 6.5 miles of trails in here. The best possibility I could see here is dumping out of the RV loop on that dirt road by the phone, and jumping on the pavement (Dreahook rd) for a bit. The most north section of this system is an independent close loop, so you could do that then hit the road again to hit the other trail and add some miles down to the south. If the trails were worth it I could see making it a pretty big ride all things considered. Figure you'd add at least 8 miles with the road, so you could do a RV loop and be in the 25 mile realm whan all was said and done.
 
Sorry to go off topic but norm what do you use to look these kind of things up? Mapquest for trails? Ben also had a cool road ride mapper thing I saw when he posted a route.do you have to have a garmin for this?
 
Combination of things. I just googled the park and found those maps. Then Google Maps for the local layout of the area.

For road rides you can use:
njbikemap.com
bikeroutetoaster.com
mapmyride.com

That should keep you busy for...well, years.
 
I'd be interested to hear what the locals have to say about these trails.
 
Ok, being a "local" rider and the originator of this thread, I will stick my neck out and give you my opinion about the round mountain trails. The northerly portion directly around round mountain has been described as "moderate" in diffuculty by whoever wrote the trail description. I would concur with that. Having recently joined the 29r SS camp, i find myself riding there a lot more then when i only owned a geared unit. Not as steep and as boney as some of the round valley stuff. The remainder is similar to maybe six mile run, farm field perimeter trails, but with a bit more elevation change. There is some single track south of Deer Path Park which can get pretty greasy.
if your one to go for the long event, i would suggest parking at the camping lot at Round Valley, going half way around to the east end of the valley and bailing out the back via Round valley rd. You have to do a little sneak around the gate, then its about 1.5 miles down round valley road and right on Dreahook to the driveway to Bouman-Stickney farm. There you can jump on the round mountain trails. Do the loop down to the river and then back via the way you came out of the valley.
Also, the trail map shows the white loop trail heading south from 629 at Stanton. I would suggest going west on 629, left on foothill to the Buell-Trail start point. Then on the return trip, use the east side of the white loop to
get back to Bouman-Stickney.
I personally would not make a commute to ride there. Its nice to hit for me because its close to home.
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I rode these trails today simply out of boredom. I was expecting a nice easy ride, but was pleasantly surprised by the climbing heading south on the orange trail, quite difficult in places. The top of the mountain actually seemed rockier than any trail in RV (but then these trails are less used and less maintained).

I started down by the YMCA. Did a lollipop loop south of the Y, then went North (orange,yellow to white), crossed over 629, did a loop up there, then down to Foothill Rd and picked up the orange trail and then back. I think it was about 8-9 miles....nice for a short ride. It's not a destination ride, but for those that live locally it's worth riding. I'll definitely try to connect these trails to the Cushetunk somehow to make a longer ride.
 
chemgirl said:
I'll definitely try to connect these trails to the Cushetunk somehow to make a longer ride.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember the way to link them is to use the camp road that you cross in RV. I believe this is what that translates as:

i would suggest parking at the camping lot at Round Valley, going half way around to the east end of the valley and bailing out the back via Round valley rd. You have to do a little sneak around the gate, then its about 1.5 miles down round valley road and right on Dreahook to the driveway to Bouman-Stickney farm.
Click to expand...
 
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