Least worst idea for newbies?

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Taking my wife and nephew to Wawayanda tomorrow. It's got swimming, bathrooms and trails. Trifecta! Only all the trails are hard, IIRC from every one of my outings there. I did a bit of looking around and came up with two options out of the lake day use parking lot:
1) up Iron Mountain, head back down at Hemlock ravine to Old Wawayanda Road and back to the lot.
wwy1.jpg


2) Down Laurel Pond, left onto Cherry Ridge Road, left to Banker Trail and finally left onto double pond and back to the lot.
wwy2.jpg


The goal is a fun day, without too much adventuring, and only some crying. (Me.)
Should we just go to the movies?
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Taking my wife and nephew to Wawayanda tomorrow. It's got swimming, bathrooms and trails. Trifecta! Only all the trails are hard, IIRC from every one of my outings there. I did a bit of looking around and came up with two options out of the lake day use parking lot:
1) up Iron Mountain, head back down at Hemlock ravine to Old Wawayanda Road and back to the lot.
View attachment 37262

2) Down Laurel Pond, left onto Cherry Ridge Road, left to Banker Trail and finally left onto double pond and back to the lot.
View attachment 37263

The goal is a fun day, without too much adventuring, and only some crying. (Me.)
Should we just go to the movies?
#2 is the more difficult of the two, but the trails are a lot nicer. It's not "down Laurel Pond", it's up. Also Banker make a left on Plymouth Lane to Doublepond.
#1 is doubletrack and road, still fun, but a lot of blacktop road.
 

chris12453

Well-Known Member
#2 is definitely the better and more fun of the two. I will say this, Iron Mountain has a couple of bears who are less than friendly. I have seen them 3 or 4 times during my rides this week. I typically come down Hofferlin to Iron Mountain before heading up to pumphouse, etc.
 

Blair

Well-Known Member
#1 is about a 3 mile loop with some decent elevation and all fire road. #2 is just as much elevation if not more and longer. Banker trail has some tough spots, rooty, rocky and probably walking. Try an out and back on double pond first or laurel. The turn from cherry ridge to banker is tough to find if you don't know where you're going.
 

Blair

Well-Known Member
Also, get there early. It is usually full by 1030 and they stop letting people in.
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Option 1) Iron Mountain Trail loop was perfect. Even the long hills were pretty mellow hike-a-bikes for the nephew, and the downhills were a blast. Thanks much y'all.
 

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