Rockland Preserve

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Rockland Preserve

It pains me to say this, but I can no longer recommend this trail system.

A few years ago, I picked this park to hit on my way to MA, as my work HQ is up in Hopkinton. I knew nothing of it at the time, and was frankly blown away at how much fun it was. The park is/was a challenging mix of fun, mid-level features, and enough tech to keep you interested. But nothing so big that you can't do by yourself. In a way, it felt like this park was built by people with exactly my skill level. I loved it.

Fast forward a few years and this place is falling apart. In the summer of 2023 I found this to be the case but assumed it was a bad year. One year later, it seems this remains the case. I don't think I will stop going here because I will hold out hope that it's going to get better. But I can no longer recommend people make it a point to stop here if they're in the area.

rockland.jpg

Getting There/Parking

The park is 2.5-3 hours from NJ, more or less. While it's not close enough for a day trip, it's close enough to easily drive to. It's also mostly on the way to Boston so it works out that way.

There are 3 parking areas:
  1. North - this is the best spot as you can hit the Northern Exposure loop, plus a few of the other trails, easily
  2. East - I have parked here once, and while it was ok this is more of a main/family parking area
  3. South - I have never parked in the south area so I cannot speak to it
General Ride/Trail Notes

These notes are based on starting from the north lot.

Trail notes:
  1. Northern Exposure - this is the black loop at the top/north end of the park. This is intended to be ridden CCW as best I can tell
  2. Goatboy - this is a mostly unremarkable trail but it gets you where you want to be. While you can ride the gravel road to other areas, you've come here to ride trail, not gravel, no?
  3. Bambi - this brings you to the next trail
  4. Erratica - this used to be a really fun, fast & flowy, feature-heavy trail. Over time any of the wooden features have rotted, and the last time I rode it the trail was fairly overgrown. Still 1 of the top trails in the system
  5. Mag 5 - this is the other legit fun trail here, in league (ish) with Northern Exposure but not quite as technical.
  6. Aside from the above I have ridden Thunderdome, Beyond Thunderdome, The Darkside, Rishy, and East Loop. These are all perfectly fine trails, but I do not remember them well enough to comment on them. If you park on the east side these are the trails you would predominantly ride.

Routes
  • August 2021 here - this is a 2 hour ride that captures the good trails listed above
  • October 2021 here - Northern Exposure
  • August 2022 here - same as the first ride
  • April 2023 here - Northern Exposure again
  • August 2023 here - the east/other side of the park
  • August 2024 here - latest Norther Exposure loop
Obviously I like both the location of this park and the terrain.

Media



Trip Planner

For now I'm going to hold off on a trip plan but I could see a case to be made for this park, Miller's Pond, and Case Mountain if you wanted to stay in the Hartford area. I question the wisdom of anyone willingly staying in Hartford. But people choose to live in Detroit so there you go.

Food & Drink

The closest place to eat is a pizza place 1-2 miles down the road:
  • Carmine's - I have eaten here 2-3 times and it is an excellent pizza shop
If you are heading towards Boston I would consider these options:
And if you're going into Hartford:
  • Story & Soil Coffee - 1 of the best pour-over cups I have ever had. But it costs $8. When work is paying, send it! Otherwise it's hard to justify.
Links
 
This is a park that @rottin' - you may want to add to the list to hit on the next travel up north. Ride here, then hit the ramen place, then keep driving.

Hit it last week and was sad to see it falling into disrepair but I do hold out hope that it might get better one day.
 
Have you ridden Nepaug yet?

I have not. Tell me more!

I have ridden Norbrook, Cowles, and Nassahegon which all surround it. But not there. And Giv coffee is like right there. So there's that.
 
You need to check it out. It wasn’t on trailforks until recently as it was sort of fight club, but they got approval from DEEP for legal trails. I rode it a few times last year and it was awesome, felt like Vermont.

I haven’t ridden it yet this year, but they opened a bunch of new trails called satans ridge that’s pretty spicy, supposedly no go arounds. The other trails are pretty flowy with some decent elevation. The Farmington River is right there too, makes for a good place to cool off post ride.
 
You need to check it out. It wasn’t on trailforks until recently as it was sort of fight club, but they got approval from DEEP for legal trails. I rode it a few times last year and it was awesome, felt like Vermont.

I haven’t ridden it yet this year, but they opened a bunch of new trails called satans ridge that’s pretty spicy, supposedly no go arounds. The other trails are pretty flowy with some decent elevation. The Farmington River is right there too, makes for a good place to cool off post ride.

Ok I’m in!
 
It’s a shame that this trail system has fallen off as @Norm indicates. Northern exposure was always my go-to ride on my travels between NJ and Boston. 4.4 miles, awesome tech and features throughout, and unique tech too - not sure what the geology is over there but it’s super different from both NJ and greater Boston. Not sure about the current status of Miller State Park, but that was another awesome tech trail system pretty close to northern exposure that I really enjoyed as well.

I first learned about northern exposure and rockland from a Jeff Lenosky video, one of my favorite videos to watch from him:

 
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