Nassau for real beginner

[ilnadi]

My son is 9 and on a 20" bike. We did about 1.5mi in from the Canal parking lot at 6MR Saturday and it went fine. Is there a comparable part of Nassau (much closer to home) and where is the best place to start? He does not like challenging beginnings to anything.

 

[Patrick]

the south parking lot at nassau - go into the trails, stay left or straight. the ones there are nice and buff - limited small hills. heading north, don't cross the stream - there are a few more rocks
and climbing up there, same with crossing nassau rd

 

[I Ride Bikes]

Is it a 20" bmx? If he doesn't have gears I think the amount of trails a 9 year old can ride there is limited IMO. But since it's close to home, take @fidodie suggestion and see how it works out.

 

[phillychris498]

The first trail off of the lower lot, called flatlands, is a fun non technical trail. not too many roots and rocks and close to nothing in terms of climbing

 

[ilnadi]

from the south parking lot, the leftmost trail was full of rocks that did not work well with the small wheels (ok, large gravel but rocks to his tires). we took it down to the skinnies and then came up the middle trail. Thr righmost from the parking lot had a lot of hairpins but being on a short bike and low to the ground, the turns were less of a problem than rocks. we took that down to where it gets steep then turned back. all in all we only got 1 mi with a lot of back-n-forth.

he is actually on a 6-speed 20" and refused to use the 1st gear until I made him. I on the other hand was on a single speed geared to ride greenways with him. I about blew out my knees trying to go slow on the uphills. Time to break out the FS for those rides so we can keep pace with each other.

we'll try the lower lot next, up/down seems to be less of a problem than rocks, even small ones.

thanks all

 

[ktmrider]

You can park at the top of the field , the upper field . I am working in HB for the next 3 months ... Message me and I will show you around or at least where to park and what to hit

 

[ilnadi]

You can park at the top of the field , the upper field . I am working in HB for the next 3 months ... Message me and I will show you around or at least where to park and what to hit

thanks, I'll take you up on it hopefully next week.
this weekend he wanted to go back to 6MR, letting him build up.

 

[ilnadi]

mystery solved, I guess I mixed up the parking lots. we tried the other parking lot today and left, middle, right now matched.
we went down flatlands (which was great), then came back up thru "Chips??"; the rock garden ate him up.
We looked at the other side of the road but after chips he gave up on the first steep up/down.
to his credit, he let me talk him into another loop down flatland and back on nassau so we could get an hour.
here is the track (yes, he likes being color coordinated, we also have blue :^)