North Jersey Dirt Epics
- Thread starter JimN
- Start date
Thin Diesel
Well-Known Member
Interested. Don't have all day so may join for a portion only.
Ok, I have a plan now, but I don't think there is a good way for you to be able to join me for a portion of it. Let me know next time you're free for a 5-6 hour ride and I'll take you on my mini splitrock epic.
pinkshirtphotos
Active Member
Jim I'm home now but my iPhone flew out of my pack while ALMOST on the base of Diablo. Anyway I have finagled Janis Japlin to be playing until the battery wears down, so the strava auto saves 59 Miles. Mercedes Benz on loop... ugh well it was fun riding with Jim today. I hope I can scrape the pictures out of the phone since they ROOL!
Bummer, but thanks for coming out to meet me at Mountain Creek. That worked out really well! How'd you end up going home from where we split up after those power lines?
@JimN, check out the Westchester Trifecta sometime: https://www.strava.com/activities/613540146
Looks cool, I just saw that in my Strava feed this morning, but it was a manual entry without any GPS data so I wasn't sure what it was.
pinkshirtphotos
Active Member
Continued up the lines, crossed Clinton Rd. Went up more lines, (thinking Schoolhouse Rd) is easier... Made right onto rd which takes me to p9 and then right on Day rd. then Wound up on the trail East of Canistear Res... it let me out around the bend south from the Cherry Ridge Range, I skipped the shooting range trail and back tracked to Mt. Creek. I took the yellow trail up toward the lift and finished off on Greenhorn to the base. On Indy Cross my phone flipped out and cracked. Hoping Strava can salvage the data, waiting to hear back from technical support. Such a strange epic ride, filling up with water at the ki
Attachments
https://www.strava.com/activities/613513010
So Saturday's plan was to do version four of this epic I've been working on. It was basically a combo of the first one and the third one, with Mountain Creek added in. @pinkshirtphotos (Sean) said he would meet up with me somewhere at Mountain Creek, so I sent him my phone location and gave him an approximate time of noon at Sand Pond Rd, which is where you come out of Hamburg WMA as you start getting near Creek.
So decide to do this ride from my house, which is what I did the first time. In general, I think it's probably better to start at the Bat Cave in Wildcat, because starting from my house means five miles of road to start and finish the ride. I probably won't do it from my house again, but I figured I had plenty of daylight to do it this way one more time. I planned to leave my house at 5:30am, but struggled to get out of bed and didn't leave until 5:47am.
So it's five miles on the road to Speedwell Lake in Morristown, and then Patriot's Path out to the West Morris Greenway. I decided to take the southern spur and do more road and more of the Greenway than usual. The last time I went the normal northern route was a few weeks ago and it was already pretty overgrown in spots. I knew there would be plenty of bush whacking later on, so I decided to skip that stuff. The Greenway gets you basically to Dickerson Mine, which I just rode through. I crossed 46 to an industrial park, hit the power lines and descended into Canal Park in Wharton. From there it's a short road ride to Berkshire Valley WMA, and a rail trail that gets you to Minisink Rd near Jefferson. Another short road ride and descend into the center of Jefferson.
I cross 15 and see that Pathmark has reopened as something else, and ride the power lines down into Lake Shawnee. I save some time by just going around the lake and not riding through the WMA. Get into Mahlon and run into some friends of mine finishing up their ride. I can't seem to go to Mahlon without running into people I know. Anyway, I took the rail bed up and then into the WMA, power lines to Glen Rd in Sparta. Go up Ridge Rd which becomes a dirt road, then power lines, then dirt roads down to the Edison memorial in Sparta Mountain WMA. Keep going til I reach Rt 23. Some cool single track and moto trails back there, but I skipped most of the moto stuff to save time.
I cross 23 and take a little street to the end where I can jump on some train tracks. I go a few hundred yards and a monster black bear is just hanging out by the tracks. My I9 hub and fat tires on gravel scared the shit out of him, and he took off for the woods. Then I take the road for a bit out to Silver Lake, and the start of Hamburg WMA. I've only been here once, and I'm planning a slightly different route into Mountain Creek. It works out well, and I get to Sand Pond Rd at like 12:15 or so. I was more or less exactly on the money for my time estimate, factoring in that I left my house late. Sean had texted me that we would meet somewhere at Creek. So I ride in and get to this little private lake with rental houses and whatnot that is owned by Creek's owners I think. Last time I was there was in February and it was deserted. I'm riding around the lake and there are people everywhere. I was expecting to get yelled at by this life guard who was walking toward me, but he just waved at me. Then I'm riding past the beach area and I hear a bike bell and Sean yelling my name. He was just chilling in a beach chair as if he belonged there in his bike clothes.
So we hit some of the Mountain Creek XC trails and make our way to the top of the Vernon peak. We sit down at the Zip Line building to sit in the shade and eat some snacks. A steady stream of downhillers go past us probably looking at us like we are crazy with our silly bikes. As we start heading out, we see there is a mini pump track, so we hit that. More guys with downhill bikes look at us and probably laugh. We go down a bit of the first downhill trail and then make our way to the road down the backside of Creek. From there we hit some old dirt road/quad trail/double track type of stuff out to Stockholm Rd, then Cannistear Rd, then go up Range Rd through the Range and make our way into Waway. We hit Pines and maybe Splitrock on the way down to Old Coal.
So prior to heading down Old Coal we had pretty much run out of water. I had enough Gatorade to make it to 23 if I had to, but I was hoping to find water along the way. I didn't want to go out of the way up to the beach house or ranger station at Waway, so I was hoping Project U.S.E. would have drinking water. We get down there and there was a group of people outside the first building on the left, so I was like sweet we can ask these people for water. They were standing in a circle with a circular rope, where everyone leans back and trusts everyone else to do the same and then nobody falls. Anyway, so I ask them if they have any hose or a sink we can fill our camelbaks up with, and they have a well with an old timey hand pump. So we are able to fill up there, with ice cold water! We thank them and then head out to Clinton Rd.
We head up Stephens Rd, which starts off as more of a double track trail. We almost missed it, as I've never actually been on that side of it. From here I normally hit some awesome single track in the Watershed, but I was too beat and still had too far to go. So we just went up and over to Union Valley Rd, and then hit some power lines down to Van Orden Rd. The first section where it comes back out to cross Union Valley Rd was hilarious. There was a gate to prevent you from driving onto the power lines, and then right next to it there was a completely burned in go around that was more than wide enough for any vehicle to hop right on.
So this is where Sean and I part ways, and it's where he took the picture of me standing over my bike like I'm dying. From here it's just some old jeep roads down across 23, and some dirt roads around the reservoirs and down into Wildcat. I just went down the rail bed, across the street and across the new bridge we helped the boy scouts put in, into Jonathan's Woods, through Muriel Hepner Park to the Tourne. Then it's a five mile ride home on the road. That last five miles was rough, but I made it home around 7:45pm I think.
My wife made a bangin tortellini and veggie dinner while I got cleaned up. About thirty minutes after stuffing my face, I ordered a pizza. I ate half of it and saved the other half for breakfast the next morning. Congratulations if you read even half of this rambling. Next time I'll try and remember to take pictures. I just don't like stopping for pics because I'm lame.
So Saturday's plan was to do version four of this epic I've been working on. It was basically a combo of the first one and the third one, with Mountain Creek added in. @pinkshirtphotos (Sean) said he would meet up with me somewhere at Mountain Creek, so I sent him my phone location and gave him an approximate time of noon at Sand Pond Rd, which is where you come out of Hamburg WMA as you start getting near Creek.
So decide to do this ride from my house, which is what I did the first time. In general, I think it's probably better to start at the Bat Cave in Wildcat, because starting from my house means five miles of road to start and finish the ride. I probably won't do it from my house again, but I figured I had plenty of daylight to do it this way one more time. I planned to leave my house at 5:30am, but struggled to get out of bed and didn't leave until 5:47am.
So it's five miles on the road to Speedwell Lake in Morristown, and then Patriot's Path out to the West Morris Greenway. I decided to take the southern spur and do more road and more of the Greenway than usual. The last time I went the normal northern route was a few weeks ago and it was already pretty overgrown in spots. I knew there would be plenty of bush whacking later on, so I decided to skip that stuff. The Greenway gets you basically to Dickerson Mine, which I just rode through. I crossed 46 to an industrial park, hit the power lines and descended into Canal Park in Wharton. From there it's a short road ride to Berkshire Valley WMA, and a rail trail that gets you to Minisink Rd near Jefferson. Another short road ride and descend into the center of Jefferson.
I cross 15 and see that Pathmark has reopened as something else, and ride the power lines down into Lake Shawnee. I save some time by just going around the lake and not riding through the WMA. Get into Mahlon and run into some friends of mine finishing up their ride. I can't seem to go to Mahlon without running into people I know. Anyway, I took the rail bed up and then into the WMA, power lines to Glen Rd in Sparta. Go up Ridge Rd which becomes a dirt road, then power lines, then dirt roads down to the Edison memorial in Sparta Mountain WMA. Keep going til I reach Rt 23. Some cool single track and moto trails back there, but I skipped most of the moto stuff to save time.
I cross 23 and take a little street to the end where I can jump on some train tracks. I go a few hundred yards and a monster black bear is just hanging out by the tracks. My I9 hub and fat tires on gravel scared the shit out of him, and he took off for the woods. Then I take the road for a bit out to Silver Lake, and the start of Hamburg WMA. I've only been here once, and I'm planning a slightly different route into Mountain Creek. It works out well, and I get to Sand Pond Rd at like 12:15 or so. I was more or less exactly on the money for my time estimate, factoring in that I left my house late. Sean had texted me that we would meet somewhere at Creek. So I ride in and get to this little private lake with rental houses and whatnot that is owned by Creek's owners I think. Last time I was there was in February and it was deserted. I'm riding around the lake and there are people everywhere. I was expecting to get yelled at by this life guard who was walking toward me, but he just waved at me. Then I'm riding past the beach area and I hear a bike bell and Sean yelling my name. He was just chilling in a beach chair as if he belonged there in his bike clothes.
So we hit some of the Mountain Creek XC trails and make our way to the top of the Vernon peak. We sit down at the Zip Line building to sit in the shade and eat some snacks. A steady stream of downhillers go past us probably looking at us like we are crazy with our silly bikes. As we start heading out, we see there is a mini pump track, so we hit that. More guys with downhill bikes look at us and probably laugh. We go down a bit of the first downhill trail and then make our way to the road down the backside of Creek. From there we hit some old dirt road/quad trail/double track type of stuff out to Stockholm Rd, then Cannistear Rd, then go up Range Rd through the Range and make our way into Waway. We hit Pines and maybe Splitrock on the way down to Old Coal.
So prior to heading down Old Coal we had pretty much run out of water. I had enough Gatorade to make it to 23 if I had to, but I was hoping to find water along the way. I didn't want to go out of the way up to the beach house or ranger station at Waway, so I was hoping Project U.S.E. would have drinking water. We get down there and there was a group of people outside the first building on the left, so I was like sweet we can ask these people for water. They were standing in a circle with a circular rope, where everyone leans back and trusts everyone else to do the same and then nobody falls. Anyway, so I ask them if they have any hose or a sink we can fill our camelbaks up with, and they have a well with an old timey hand pump. So we are able to fill up there, with ice cold water! We thank them and then head out to Clinton Rd.
We head up Stephens Rd, which starts off as more of a double track trail. We almost missed it, as I've never actually been on that side of it. From here I normally hit some awesome single track in the Watershed, but I was too beat and still had too far to go. So we just went up and over to Union Valley Rd, and then hit some power lines down to Van Orden Rd. The first section where it comes back out to cross Union Valley Rd was hilarious. There was a gate to prevent you from driving onto the power lines, and then right next to it there was a completely burned in go around that was more than wide enough for any vehicle to hop right on.
So this is where Sean and I part ways, and it's where he took the picture of me standing over my bike like I'm dying. From here it's just some old jeep roads down across 23, and some dirt roads around the reservoirs and down into Wildcat. I just went down the rail bed, across the street and across the new bridge we helped the boy scouts put in, into Jonathan's Woods, through Muriel Hepner Park to the Tourne. Then it's a five mile ride home on the road. That last five miles was rough, but I made it home around 7:45pm I think.
My wife made a bangin tortellini and veggie dinner while I got cleaned up. About thirty minutes after stuffing my face, I ordered a pizza. I ate half of it and saved the other half for breakfast the next morning. Congratulations if you read even half of this rambling. Next time I'll try and remember to take pictures. I just don't like stopping for pics because I'm lame.
Last edited:
tiedye jersey = win (@pinkshirtphotos )
eyeshades = win (@pinkshirtphotos)
swimming hole = win (@pinkshirtphotos)
jims derpface = win (@JimN)
ride = win (@JimN and @pinkshirtphotos)
Sean did more winning than me on my ride 😛
Where is that swimming hole, Sean?
Thanks yo. That was my fourth time doing a version of that loop so it's become a bit played. I'm gonna start working on Ramapo, Ringwood, Jungle, Waway, Watershed, Splitrock, Wildcat next I think. Should be pretty easy to put that one together. I just need to figure out the most dirt way to connect Ramapo and Splitrock. @graveyardman67 gave me some tips on that, so I'll have to do some exploring.
Ya I mean doing any 100mi loop that includes ringwood should be no sweat 🙂
Well, figuring out the loop should be no sweat. Riding it is a different story 😛
It will also likely not be nearly 100 miles (especially not the first time I do it) but we'll see.
huffster
Well-Known Member
That is an impressive ride. I have similar intentions to string together multi-park rides, but I'm not sure I have that level of endurance. So far, my longest ride has been about 4:15 and I was pretty worn out from that. However, I did not plan for it to be that long. So, I think I would need to build up some more and plan nutrition and hydration.
Anyway, this 13 hour, 100+ mile route is very impressive. I'm sure I will "poach" some of this off of Strava. Thanks for sharing.
Anyway, this 13 hour, 100+ mile route is very impressive. I'm sure I will "poach" some of this off of Strava. Thanks for sharing.