planning a camping/riding trip

Gnick

Gnick

Active Member
A friend of mine who lives in Pittsburgh and I would like to meet up somewhere between Jersey and Pitt sometime in June. That would put us some where in the mid to eastern part of PA.

Does anyone have any experience camping/riding in that area? It would just be a weekend thing. 2-3 rides.

thanks
 
Allegrippis looks a little tame for my taste. I like flowy single track but I think I'd get bored after a couple days

I'm going to look into Raystown and Rothrock. Hopefully there are some campsites right on the trails so we don't have to drive anywhere.
 
Gnick said:
Allegrippis looks a little tame for my taste. I like flowy single track but I think I'd get bored after a couple days

I'm going to look into Raystown and Rothrock. Hopefully there are some campsites right on the trails so we don't have to drive anywhere.
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Raystown = Allegrippis, and it is tame, but really fun. The camping facilities are excellent there too, and you can ride directly from your campsite to the trails (you want to stay at the Ridge site at Seven Points Campground). Also, I think it's less than an hour from Raystown to Rothrock, so you could make a day trip out of that.

Rothrock is epic in size, and has more technical riding. I know there is camping at Rothrock too, but I'm not sure of the facilities. It might be more rustic. If you want to be lazy, you could stay in one of the cabins near Tussey Mountain and ride right to the trails (http://www.aikenscabins.com/cabins.htm). We stayed in them once as part of a wedding party and they are very nice.
 
+1 on Raystown, my wife and I have stayed here many times for vacations and have hiked the trails there. This year is the first time I'm bringing my bike, and I can't wait.
 
You can camp at Rattling Creek for super cheap, if not free...and it is an IMBA epic destination. Great trails with some good rock as well... Little north of Harrisburg
 
You can do all of Raystown in one day, but Roth Rock can easily be the other two days.
 
THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS!!!

PA has about 1000 trails so i was overwhelmed looking through them all.
 
Yeah, +1 again on the Rasytown/Rothrock double. They're not that far apart so you can hit both while maintaining one camp site -- I'd recommend that be at Raystown. The camping there is really great.

Not sure if you'd be interested in this, but if you want to make it a road trip, last fall I did a "Ride PA" road trip from my area (outside of Philly) that hit 2 sections of Rothrock (Cooper's Gap, which is a "don't miss" ride if you do go up there, and the Rothrock Trail Mix IMBA Epic, which hit the most famous areas of that area, including Tussey Ridge.) After that I headed southeast to Michaux and rode most of the Dark Hollow course and multiple sections of the Iron Cross course. After that, I headed back my way and rode French Creek. Rattling would have been another option for the last ride, and there is a lesser known par near Rothrock called Tuscarora that has some nice riding too -- not as techy as Rothrock, but some pretty challenging climbs and one or two walk-ups. You really can't go wrong with most of those options. If you do go to Rothrock, check out the outdoorexperience.org for some ride ideas -- that's basically the course location for every stage of the TS Epic.
 
1speed said:
Yeah, +1 again on the Rasytown/Rothrock double. They're not that far apart so you can hit both while maintaining one camp site -- I'd recommend that be at Raystown. The camping there is really great.

Not sure if you'd be interested in this, but if you want to make it a road trip, last fall I did a "Ride PA" road trip from my area (outside of Philly) that hit 2 sections of Rothrock (Cooper's Gap, which is a "don't miss" ride if you do go up there, and the Rothrock Trail Mix IMBA Epic, which hit the most famous areas of that area, including Tussey Ridge.) After that I headed southeast to Michaux and rode most of the Dark Hollow course and multiple sections of the Iron Cross course. After that, I headed back my way and rode French Creek. Rattling would have been another option for the last ride, and there is a lesser known par near Rothrock called Tuscarora that has some nice riding too -- not as techy as Rothrock, but some pretty challenging climbs and one or two walk-ups. You really can't go wrong with most of those options. If you do go to Rothrock, check out the outdoorexperience.org for some ride ideas -- that's basically the course location for every stage of the TS Epic.
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wow - great advice. really glad I joined this forum. I talked to my buddy last night and the plan is to stay at raystown and hit both raystown and rothrock.
 
Another area that is good is in north east part of Pa. (Scranton area)

Not as epic as R&R but some good terrain
Lackawanna, moosic, prompton and merli sarnaski (sp).
Lackawanna state camp ground is awesome and has trails right out of campground.
 
This thread reminds me I need to go to Rothrock again. This place is 215,500 acres, which is one of the bigger forests in PA. That's more than 6 times the size of Wawayanda and twice the size of Wharton which is the largest forest in NJ. I was in love and wished I could've spent several days. You could definitely spend a few days and not get bored. Plenty of trail variety, too.
 
huffster said:
This thread reminds me I need to go to Rothrock again. This place is 215,500 acres, which is one of the bigger forests in PA. That's more than 6 times the size of Wawayanda and twice the size of Wharton which is the largest forest in NJ. I was in love and wished I could've spent several days. You could definitely spend a few days and not get bored. Plenty of trail variety, too.
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Tell me about it. My daughter is a junior at Penn State, and despite many many trips to PSU, I have yet to ride Rothrock. That has to change soon.
 
You can primitive camp at any PA state park for free if u r into that sort of thing. I have done it at Rothrock and it was kinda spooky.
 
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