Hamburg WMA

mtn

Well-Known Member
Won’t be for a while, but i’ll still head out to check on the trails.
 

roc

Well-Known Member
Was there ever an xc loop at the top of creek? A long time ago? Or did I just imagine that. I fell like it went around some swamp.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This was discussed recently. I believe it was left to go to pot since the XC race left that venue.
 

Soundguy

#SenditGuy
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I tried to check it out one day when lift lines were out of control, like four+ years ago. I found a handful of trails but could never really make sense of them. Most were overgrown and seemed to dead end.... and this was back when Creek was actually advertising XC riding on their website.
 

phillychris498

Well-Known Member
That was a very fun loop. Some really nasty tech sections along the lake, but some straight bomber style smooth sections too. It'd be cool to build those trails back up, but I figured part of the issue was a lack of parking close to the singletrack without using the gondola at mtn creek.
 

phillychris498

Well-Known Member
This is a cool little video from the H2H race there in 2015. You can see me with my old colnago mtn bike in the stand getting worked on by John, 5 minutes before the race started, because my derailleur hanger snapped and he was fashioning it into a singlespeed.

 

mtn

Well-Known Member
That was a very fun loop. Some really nasty tech sections along the lake, but some straight bomber style smooth sections too. It'd be cool to build those trails back up, but I figured part of the issue was a lack of parking close to the singletrack without using the gondola at mtn creek.
That’s the other thing. Apparently there’s a road one can ride in on and get to the trails while staying on WMA land. I’ll set out to find it at some point. Only like 10mi of trails but still it’s a place to ride.
 

V-Dub

Well-Known Member
So we stopped maintaining the trails up there when the State cut off or limited access from the lift, that and several Sparten races make the trails pretty hard to ride. There is a lot of double track to explore though. I've heard of some people getting ticketed up there recently so be careful where you park.
 

DLB

New Member
hey folks! New to the forum here. My name's Dave and I moved to the condos at Great Gorge Village a year and a half ago. I personally refurbished most of the old race course loop. I haven't done the part around the smallest lake in the lower left of the map posted above by phillychris yet...it may all be good, but all of the singletrack up and around Granite Peak is all cleaned out and re-blazed where necessary. It was a mess. The twisty singletrack uphill between the ski runs (by GrandPrix) is all shiny and new (follow the silver cats). The techy singletrack around the upper lake (top right in the map) is all cleared out and good. The section off the backside of Granite that goes to the pipeline...good. Also the couple of places that crossed the pipeline (which were virtually impassable...had to machete through there) is all ride-able again. The bike/quad riders have cleared the old yellow and red trail portions that parallel the dirt road....all good. The doubletrack around the bottom-right lake is all good....etc. I ride up from home to do it (new trail there as well), but always see cars parked all the way in by the yellow gate (the one closer to granite peak....make a right after the first lake if you drive in from 515).

Anyway....hope to see people up there using it....it IS a great loop....and now it's my back yard...enjoy!

-dlb
 

DLB

New Member
Update. I finally got down to the "bottom left" by the little pond (again referencing phillychris' strava above). I rode the red trail counterclockwise toward that little pond...and ran into an overgrown jungle. I drove up yesterday with the hedge-trimmer and walked in clockwise...got to that point and mowed down 100 feet or so of mile high weeds and trees. It's now completely rideable. There is one small bit of singletrack after the little pond that I can't quite put my finger on, but the existing double-track that parallels it is fine. I'll get to that later. Essentially the entire old race course loop is back. The loop is on Trailforks also so you can follow it with the GPS...go ride it! The more the merrier!
-dlb
 

DLB

New Member
Whelp, my enduro bike is in the shop so I guess I'm going to try this loop on my XC tomorrow and see how it has fared in the last two years. Wish me luck!
Kaitlyn....not sure if you attempted the loop on Friday or not. If you DID, I apologize....but whatever impassable thicket(s) and blow-downs you may have run into are cleared as of yesterday morning (I really have to get out there and cut that stuff back more frequently!).
-dlb
 

kaitlyn

Well-Known Member
Kaitlyn....not sure if you attempted the loop on Friday or not. If you DID, I apologize....but whatever impassable thicket(s) and blow-downs you may have run into are cleared as of yesterday morning (I really have to get out there and cut that stuff back more frequently!).
-dlb
Hi! I wound up doing about half (1/3rd, more likely) of it. There were a couple of places of nonsense (like where the trail goes straight into a clearcut line that is completely overgrown with six foot leaves. I'll be returning, it was somewhat amusing and it's nice to have some level of flow, I'm used to chunk for days. Thanks for the work!
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