Bentonville, AR/NWA

krink

Eddie Munster
No. But for someone in NJ, you can wake up here and be riding there by lunch. Sedona is amazing but the door-to-door makes it much harder to reach. If BV were 6 hours away, it would be a different conversation. Asheville is also 12 hours away. You could decide to go to KT for the weekend on a Friday at 5pm, get 2 days of great riding in, and be home Sunday night. Sedona, BV, Asheville, etc - these fall under a different "ease of use" category.

It also depends what you are looking for. If you like the town vibe with a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, then KT is not ideal. Yes it is more of a mountain town but it is also somewhat desolate, especially on a weekday.
That brings up a great question:

of all the places that are "wake up and ride there at noon" which have you done or liked? I think of all the ones Im listing, Kingdom trails are the best developed infrastructure and trail system, but others certainly are as big. Leaving out more "local" stuff like Wiss, White Clay, anything in Jersey or in PA east of Reading/Wilkes-Barre.

Thinking about
Patapsco - Ellicott City
Laurel Highlands- Ohiopyle
Rothrock/Rattlin Creek - State College
Allegrippis - BFE
Any in southern NY/CTthat I dont know?

The first three have much more than one day's worth riding nearby. I included Allegrippis cause its more than a days trails, smaller than the rest, but still a destination.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Patapsco - Ellicott City
Laurel Highlands- Ohiopyle
Rothrock/Rattlin Creek - State College
Allegrippis - BFE

I have ridden all but Ohiopyle - I have never heard of this. I would not go out of the way for Patapsco. I mean no offense to that place but it is not remotely close to the caliber we are talking in this thread.

You could probably throw Lake Placid into a list like this. Green Woodlands in NH is pretty awesome but just a hair far for a day. North Conway, NH is up & coming as well.

Good convo but you may want a new thread on it.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
That brings up a great question:

of all the places that are "wake up and ride there at noon" which have you done or liked? I think of all the ones Im listing, Kingdom trails are the best developed infrastructure and trail system, but others certainly are as big. Leaving out more "local" stuff like Wiss, White Clay, anything in Jersey or in PA east of Reading/Wilkes-Barre.

Thinking about
Patapsco - Ellicott City
Laurel Highlands- Ohiopyle
Rothrock/Rattlin Creek - State College
Allegrippis - BFE
Any in southern NY/CTthat I dont know?

The first three have much more than one day's worth riding nearby. I included Allegrippis cause its more than a days trails, smaller than the rest, but still a destination.
I've done a few miles at Rothrock, Rattlin Creek and Raystown. Hit Massanutten a 2yrs ago, but felt like all we did was climb and tech.

Agree with @Norm on Lake Placid. Trails there are under the radar and nice town area.

Trip this past Aug and hit some other locations in VT that would fit the wake up and ride at noon. Stayed at Little River S.P. in Waterbury.
On the drive up, hit Slate Valley Trails near Poultney. Missed a section that could be done on a 2nd day. https://www.strava.com/activities/5776790907
Cady Hill, Stowe and Von Trappe trails. https://www.strava.com/activities/5782492252
Mad River Valley trails and a new flow trail near Sugarbush. https://www.strava.com/activities/5787727026
Pay-to-play trails at Sleepy Hollow Ski area. https://www.strava.com/activities/5793276761
 

johnbryanpeters

Well-Known Member
I've done a few miles at Rothrock, Rattlin Creek and Raystown. Hit Massanutten a 2yrs ago, but felt like all we did was climb and tech.

Agree with @Norm on Lake Placid. Trails there are under the radar and nice town area.

Trip this past Aug and hit some other locations in VT that would fit the wake up and ride at noon. Stayed at Little River S.P. in Waterbury.
On the drive up, hit Slate Valley Trails near Poultney. Missed a section that could be done on a 2nd day. https://www.strava.com/activities/5776790907
Cady Hill, Stowe and Von Trappe trails. https://www.strava.com/activities/5782492252
Mad River Valley trails and a new flow trail near Sugarbush. https://www.strava.com/activities/5787727026
Pay-to-play trails at Sleepy Hollow Ski area. https://www.strava.com/activities/5793276761
If you join VMBA and choose the Fellowship of the Wheel as your chapter, Sleepy Hollow is free.
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
If you're thinking Bentonville and Asheville, I'd also throw in Knoxville into the mix. You can get at least 2 solid days (if not more depending on what you like) out of their Urban Wilderness area. The XC trails are very solid - if you rode everything, you can probably get ~50 miles out of it. And there's jump lines that you can go up and down endlessly if you're into that sort of thing. There's more trails on the outskirts of the city. With Smokey Mountains National Park not to far away, you can probably make a week out of it easily.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8079799795

Speaking of Asheville, there's really no trails inside the city. You kinda of to drive at least 20-30min from Asheville to get to anything worth spending a decent amount of time at. And if you want the ride forever kind of stuff, you want to stay near Brevard, not Asheville (almost 1hr drive).

The part of Appalachians where GA, NC and TN meet look kinda intriguing to me. Just based on Trailforks squiggly lines, looks pretty remote off the beaten path kinda stuff. I might try to do some bike packing in the area this winter.

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Tomorrow, I'll be riding at Vee Hollow (foot hills of Smoky Mtns), then do the drive through the park and if I have enough time, hit some of the trail at Wolf Creek.
 
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Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I’ve been looking into riding/camping northeast Georgia. A couple of shuttle parks have popped up recently with XC trails mixed in. Lemme know if you make plans.
You should totally explore those so us more northern than you have somewhere to ride when it's cold up here.
 
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