TOS into Ringwood

[bradmcnutt]

First time riding red from parking lot on skyline into Ringwood and that is one bad ass trail. If you do park there, is the only option an out and back on red or is there something else to give you more of a loop? I noticed a yellow trail that branches off of red before going down the mountain via those crazy switchbacks.

 

[elzoller]

yellow is the one you want for a lollipop loop. yellow is more 'rugged' than red.

your best bet is to go straight on yellow then left on blue then left on red, problem is you would climb the switchbacks on red. If you do it the opposite way, blue is a tougher climb than the red switchbacks.

 

[bradmcnutt]

thanks for the info. i'll have to explore that next time. i wanted to make sure that yellow wasn't off limits before exploring down that way. so if i want to avoid the out and back on red, the red climb it is.

 

[soundz]

Another option for a loop is to take Cannonball trail on the way back, but I think out and back is the funnest. You are right that some of trails east of Red are questionable.

 

[cuda]

Once you're in Ringwood, how well are these trails marked? I'm trying to plan out a route from TOS and so far I've got Hoeferlin > left onto Blue > right onto Red.

From there, the map shows a bunch of fireroads and single track interweaving.

From Red, if I were looking for Warm Puppy > Skylands, would those trails be marked?

I've seen the TOS GPS track in the directory, but I'm not sure I'm following it correctly on the September 2008 map.

 

[Steve B]

Once you are on the Red trail it is well marked with red blazes. You will climb out of a valley...to a short section on a fireroad...then a long meandering singletrack descent, all marked well with red blazes. Then another short section on a fireroad, then right onto singletrack agin to cross the newly repaired stone bridges across a stream (very cool) and then you hit another fireroad intersection. Go straight across the fireroad to a singletrack trail, I believe is blazed red, this is the bottom of Warm Puppy. Follow this to the begining of the Skylands trail (blazed with blue triangles).

 

[soundz]

Once you're in Ringwood, how well are these trails marked? I'm trying to plan out a route from TOS and so far I've got Hoeferlin > left onto Blue > right onto Red.

From there, the map shows a bunch of fireroads and single track interweaving.

From Red, if I were looking for Warm Puppy > Skylands, would those trails be marked?

I've seen the TOS GPS track in the directory, but I'm not sure I'm following it correctly on the September 2008 map.

The trails themselves are marked pretty well now, but what can be confusing is following the fireroads. There are 3 sections that I can think of where the red trail (ringwood-ramapo) follows short stretches of fireroad and the intersections can be confusing.

I prefer to take the Red trail into Ringwood instead of the Hoeferlin to Blue, but you make like the Yellow more if rawness is more your thing.

Once you get are on Warm Puppy, following that to Blue is pretty straight forward and the blue is well marked. Once you reach the end of Blue, cross the pipeline toward Shepards Lake and don't turn right.

Here is a map that's more recent and follows GPS lines exactly: http://www.iamjimmy.com/mtbnj/other/rwmap.jpg