Ramblings from Moe Mountain

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Yes, kind of wide, but still interesting with climbs and dips and rocksand streams.

Yeah, there's a bunch of cool stuff all around that area that I haven't gotten to explore yet. If it looks like the rain is going to hold off long enough tomorrow, and if I wake up early enough, I might go do something stupid tomorrow :)
 

trailhead

JORBA: Wildcat/Splitrock
JORBA.ORG
clearing larger downfall off trail........since you have the saw, find or cut a 6 foot length of 3-4in diameter log that you can use as a pry bar.

exploring, consider getting a "spot" and letting one of the local riders setup tracking on their computer.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Yeah, there's a bunch of cool stuff all around that area that I haven't gotten to explore yet. If it looks like the rain is going to hold off long enough tomorrow, and if I wake up early enough, I might go do something stupid tomorrow :)
Did you ever use Strava "heat map" it's pretty cool, you can see where others have ventured. Here is a sample of yesterdays ride with 2 map programs.
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JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Did you ever use Strava "heat map" it's pretty cool, you can see where others have ventured.

Yeah, that comes in handy sometimes for finding stuff that's not on the map, or to see if anyone has ever tried to ride something. I typically try to find an actual Strava activity, or just wing it with the map though.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Wow! It's June already!
The first of June sure didn't feel like it though, 42° ride in the early morning.
I've still been able to ride every day so far this year, it kinda starts my day out right.
I haven't been killin' it, just plugging along. 260 hours and 1650 miles this year.
Now with summer it's work time, lawn mowing, trimming, basic cleanup.
Some recent photos:
There's always tree work needed in Wawayanda.
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the beach is always fun
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more tree work
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some muddy spots
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a very small snake
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some great flowers
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and of coarse there are plenty of bear wandering around.
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That's it, it seems every day has something new to enjoy.
 
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rick81721

Lothar
Great pics! Fun fact - that tiny ringneck snake is mildly venomous - wouldn't do anything to us if bitten but strong enough to slow down their prey.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
6/14/20
I decided to ride some of the Paulinskill trail today. I am so bad on directions, even with Garmin and the park map I wasn’t sure I got it right until a few miles in. OK, I got this, I’m doing good. I know rail trails are kinda boring, but when it’s new I find it kinda fun. I headed from Lafayette towards Blairstown. Lots of interesting things to see along the way, and I was surprised to have the usual double track get down to narrow single track in places. Lots of people out, even at 8AM. Mostly walkers. There were some cool single track trails built to climb some rock hills, they are only maybe 100 feet and run right along the trail. Kinda like a challenging go around. About 8 miles in I came to what seamed like the end for me. A huge unrideable drop of about 40 feet. Loose steep dirt. I turned around and headed back, about 50 feet back there was a walker. I asked is this small trail a go around for that huge drop, he said yes. So I was back in business and took that trail. You would think there would be an arrow or marker there. The trail became more farm land like, with horses and nice scenery. I went through Stillwater town and a little further. My whole ride was just under 30 miles, but I had enough. I’ll have to do this trail in stages, and go back to where I left off and keep riding through Blairstown, someday.

ride up and around
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da drop, I know, you'd ride it, but not me
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nobody home
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mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
6/14/20
I decided to ride some of the Paulinskill trail today. I am so bad on directions, even with Garmin and the park map I wasn’t sure I got it right until a few miles in. OK, I got this, I’m doing good. I know rail trails are kinda boring, but when it’s new I find it kinda fun. I headed from Lafayette towards Blairstown. Lots of interesting things to see along the way, and I was surprised to have the usual double track get down to narrow single track in places. Lots of people out, even at 8AM. Mostly walkers. There were some cool single track trails built to climb some rock hills, they are only maybe 100 feet and run right along the trail. Kinda like a challenging go around. About 8 miles in I came to what seamed like the end for me. A huge unrideable drop of about 40 feet. Loose steep dirt. I turned around and headed back, about 50 feet back there was a walker. I asked is this small trail a go around for that huge drop, he said yes. So I was back in business and took that trail. You would think there would be an arrow or marker there. The trail became more farm land like, with horses and nice scenery. I went through Stillwater town and a little further. My whole ride was just under 30 miles, but I had enough. I’ll have to do this trail in stages, and go back to where I left off and keep riding through Blairstown, someday.

ride up and around
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da drop, I know, you'd ride it, but not me
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nobody home
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Its a great scenic trail all the way to the end. Couple of great eats along the way too.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I was out early, 6AM in the park.
An AT hiker was asleep on the bench.
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I found a large cell phone and turned it in to the office.

The Double Kill stream is all dried up, so I stood in it and took photos.
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The out of towners are in the park early with the grill going.
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Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
6/28/20 Sunday
Did my second half ride of the Paulins Kill trail. I left from Henfoot Rd. in Stillwater towards the Paulins Kill Viaduct. My last ride was from Lafayette to Henfoot Rd. which was around 28 miles round trip. Today’s ride was 30 miles. Nice country to ride through, the trail kind of skirts the Paulins Kill river the whole way. I tried to stay clean, but gave up after a while, it had some great muddy spots. In spots it reminded me of winter riding the snow with “post holes” made by horses. This was the same in some dried muddy spots. Some nice bridges to cross too.
Not many people at 7:30AM, but a lot more on the return ride at 10AM. The trail has very poor markings, I really needed my Garmin today. Sometimes the trail becomes a road for a while and then jumps back to a trail. By the airport it’s confusing too, which road is the trail. Garmin to the rescue! No places along the way to stop for coffee or beer either, it’s all kind of just rail trail. I guess you could venture off into town though. I was hoping to arrive at the Paulins Kill Viaduct and be on top of it, but that didn’t happen, I was on the road below it and I didn’t see a way up and over. Once past the Viaduct the trail became very much overgrown for the remainder of the trail, which just kind of drops you on Brugler Rd. and Garmin no longer says Paulins Kill Trail. For my return ride I picked up the pace to about 16 mph. Just to add some excitement to it. Another surprise was very little wildlife. In 30 miles I saw 2 squirrel, 1 chipmunk, 1 rabbit, no deer, or bear. Plenty of birds though. Stopped for an early lunch, 1 mushroom slice and 1 pepper & onions slice of pizza, and for dessert a dairy queen cone. So that was my Sunday Funday.

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Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
3rd of July
One of my favorite routes this morning. You start in the park and ride fire road to singletrack.
That becomes a main road and goes down the mountain into Warwick. Then some nice country roads,
back over to Iron Mt road and a nice climb and back into single track, back up into the park. Then over
to the boat launch, and furnace area and back out the main entrance. Great scenery and roads.
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the ride down
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radio station
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Smoke bush
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Back up into the park
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a local celebrety
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Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
My friend Gary mentioned a trail called Range Road in Wawayanda. I’ve never ridden it, but today was the day.
It’s out by Tombstone trail. So I left from my driveway, nice and early while it’s till cool out. The ride is singletrack
for a while and then turns into fire road. Man, these fire roads are brutal with all the loose stone, I’d much prefer dirt.
The rocks vary from half inch up to three and four inch in size. Climbs are a challenge with all this lose rock. Just before Range Rd.
I spotted a bear off to my left, it was running from my noisy bike on the loose rocks. Range road is called that because it goes
directly to Cherry Ridge Shooting Range, it too is an old fire road. Gets very little use though and is pretty overgrown with plenty
of washouts and branches down. It was a fun ride too, with only one side trail that I didn’t explore. It ends right at the range,
which is posted with danger signs and under video surveillance. On the was back I went up the power line to Tombstone trail
and rode that back to Turkey Ridge and Cherry Ridge Rd. and back home. About a twelve mile loop which had me pretty tired out.
I saw three other riders along the way and checked my “flyby on Strava” I know of this group, only met them once or twice. Great day out hitting a new trail.
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The Range
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Side trail
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Powerline to Tombstone
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JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Range road is called that because it goes
directly to Cherry Ridge Shooting Range, it too is an old fire road. Gets very little use though and is pretty overgrown with plenty
of washouts and branches down.

I snuck into Waway through there once. I was expecting to get yelled at by someone at the gun range, but nobody said anything. We may have gotten some dirty looks, or maybe people were just surprised to see two guys on fat bikes.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I mostly stayed on the roads today, with all the rain.
I did seventeen miles this morning, just to round out the week at 100 miles.
Mostly in the rain. I won't call this a rain jacket anymore, it's only a windbreaker.
The park left up the filled sign, but it was just me there this morning.
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windbreaker jacket
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