Bike trip recommendations

Rockbottom

Active Member
Would like to do a weekend bike trip around May up north (NY, Vermont, or New Hampshire area). Looking for recommendations on trails in these areas that have a decent amount of tech and rocks. Something similar to Northern Jersey riding like Ringwood and Jungle. Most of what I’m finding are generally smooth, flowy trails so far.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
Rode spots in NY and VT last summer.

Lake Placid/Wilmington NY has a bit of everything. Wilmington being more techy than the Lake Placid trails. Craig Woods in LP has some trail features and DH stuff.

Slate Valley Trail system in Poultney, VT is an under the radar spot, but a must do. Good spot to hit on the way to Killington or Stowe areas. Kingdom Trails if you've never been.

I'm sure others will have their recommendations.
 

1speeder

Well-Known Member
Slate Valley Trail system in Poultney, VT is an under the radar spot, but a must do. Good spot to hit on the way to Killington or Stowe areas. Kingdom Trails if you've never been.
We were at Slate Valley last Saturday after stopping at Gurney Lane to ride. The temp was 38°F (and rising) and the snow was too soft to ride on without rutting it up. Gurney Lane has signs posted that say no riding above 35°. So, no riding that day, which was a bummer.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
We were at Slate Valley last Saturday after stopping at Gurney Lane to ride. The temp was 38°F (and rising) and the snow was too soft to ride on without rutting it up. Gurney Lane has signs posted that say no riding above 35°. So, no riding that day, which was a bummer.
OP is looking to ride in May
 

Rockbottom

Active Member
OP is looking to ride in May
We were at Slate Valley last Saturday after stopping at Gurney Lane to ride. The temp was 38°F (and rising) and the snow was too soft to ride on without rutting it up. Gurney Lane has signs posted that say no riding above 35°. So, no riding that day, which was a bummer.
Looking around mid May to go. Thinking around that time plus the mild winter we’re having, temps and conditions should be good.

Are there enough trails there to keep you busy for 3 days of riding?
 

Rockbottom

Active Member
Nothing has rocks similar NJ other than CT, MA and PA.
Agreed. Seeing alot of the trails up north are fast and flowy. Limited tech. We rode Kindom Trails last year. Aside from some berms, no other features at all to be found. We also didn’t get a chance though to explore a lot of the trails there.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
Looking around mid May to go. Thinking around that time plus the mild winter we’re having, temps and conditions should be good.

Are there enough trails there to keep you busy for 3 days of riding?
SVT? I think so. I did 3 different rides over 3 days and didn't hit all of it. Here is a thread going back to Sept. '20 with some good discussion about the place.

 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Agreed. Seeing alot of the trails up north are fast and flowy. Limited tech. We rode Kindom Trails last year. Aside from some berms, no other features at all to be found. We also didn’t get a chance though to explore a lot of the trails there.
There are places in NC, GA, TN, KY, VA, WC, MD that have rocks similar to NJ. But the difference is that in NJ you have Ringwood, Wildcat, Waway, Blue Mtn, Stokes, etc that are all within 1 hour of each other and mostly built specifically for mountain bike tech challenge without being overly hike-a-bikey. You could argue that they were hiking trails that morphed into fully ridable trails over time. And you have miles and miles and miles of it. You don’t get that anywhere else. You might have a few parks here and there that have its moments but pound for pound it’s not the same.

A lot of the new trail building techniques I find try to go around the rocks for some reason. So while some of these other states can totally have similar trails as NJ, and there’s more mtb trail building going on more than ever in history of the USA, they’re just not focused on building challenging rock garden’ish trails. And since they are so focused in cutting new trails, the challenging hiking trails that could become more mtb ridable don’t get any love.

The rocks out West can be challenging but it’s a different kind of challenge. Think big rocks, drops, step ups, steep as hell, exposure, sandy rocks, etc.

I’ve ridden in almost every state now. Only ones remaining are NE, IN, IL, KS, SD, IO and HI.

If you head up North, check out Daniels Rd in Saratoga Springs.
 
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soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Agreed. Seeing alot of the trails up north are fast and flowy. Limited tech. We rode Kindom Trails last year. Aside from some berms, no other features at all to be found. We also didn’t get a chance though to explore a lot of the trails there.
KT is not a great comparison when comparing NJ to VT. KT is the opposite of NJ. There are some trails in VT with some amount of trails that were built into rocks. One or two trails at Perry Hill come to mind. But again, it’s not quite like NJ.
 

johnbryanpeters

Well-Known Member
KT is not a great comparison when comparing NJ to VT. KT is the opposite of NJ. There are some trails in VT with some amount of trails that were built into rocks. One or two trails at Perry Hill come to mind. But again, it’s not quite like NJ.
And there are some in Vermont that we ain't about to talk about.
 

Jmann

Never gonna let you down.
Personally my favorite rocky tech is in Massachusetts. Unfortunately none of its in an area I’d pick for a vacation. Vermont is definitely flow country, but victory hill near kingdom does have tech. Also unfortunately, Vermont in may is usually muddy.

NH has more tech than VT but I don’t have any experience. North Conway looks cool. I’ve seen some videos recently of riding the slabs in the white mountains.

Rothrock near State College PA is really cool. Every May I used to do a Raystown/Rothrock trip.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
Personally my favorite rocky tech is in Massachusetts. Unfortunately none of its in an area I’d pick for a vacation. Vermont is definitely flow country, but victory hill near kingdom does have tech. Also unfortunately, Vermont in may is usually muddy.

NH has more tech than VT but I don’t have any experience. North Conway looks cool. I’ve seen some videos recently of riding the slabs in the white mountains.

Rothrock near State College PA is really cool. Every May I used to do a Raystown/Rothrock trip.
Transylvania MTB Epic is held last week of May in the Rothrock area. Plenty of #eastcoastrocks.
 

kidzach

Well-Known Member
Mid May is most likely going to be peak Mud Season up there.
This could be very true in a good ski season. Not this year though. But keep an eye on future snowfall in Vermont. I would highly recommend hitting Gurney Lane on your way up to the Killington,VT area. Lots of trail systems in the area. Including Sherburne Trails in Killington connecting to Base Camp trails-connecting to Gifford Woods. Slate Valley is a great trail system 30 minutes away. Green Mountain Trails just up rt.100/next town over in Pittsfield. A little further up rt.100 you also have the ever expanding Rochester/Randolph trail systems. These trails are also part of the Ridgeline Outdoor Collective which the Green Mountain Trails fall under. Have your cardio ready for the climb up Boulder Dash/Tunnel Ridge trails. Enjoy.
 
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