Wilmington MTB Fest (ADKs)

Heading up to LP 7/25 thru 8/1, staying on Lake Placid off of Saranac Ave. How are the Pennisula Trails? Found the BETA website and hitting the other trails in the area. Spectating the Ironman 140.6 on the 28th.
 
I wouldn’t mess with the peninsula trails, they more for hiking and people walking dogs I’ve rode back there but it’s not that great for bikes. I would ride down Saranac Ave, go down Main Street to the driving range at LPC, and connect in to the Lussi/Loggers trails from here. They also connect to the Craigwood trails via the Jackrabbit trail. All well mapped by BETA.

Def head over to Wilmington for excellent riding and some great downhills.
 
ADKmike said:
I'm very familiar with the region, family has a place in Lake Placid, so feel free to contact me with any questions about the area.
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If one were going up for a weekend, where would you get the best pound-for-pound riding up there. Say 2 days, a Saturday and Sunday. What 2 areas would you ride?
 
I would focus one day on Lake Placid and one day on Wilmington, even though you could ride trails in both areas on the same day as they are only 9 miles apart.

Pull up a BETA trail map online when you read this and it should make pretty good sense: www.betatrails.org

Lake Placid: Start out on Loggers/Lussi system from one of the trailheads surrounding the LPC golfcourse. Work your way through this system in a variety of ways as you chose, and eventually to the jackrabbit trail which connects it to the Craigwood system. Over at Craigwood is more flow trail style, while Lussi/Loggers more technical.

Wilmington: Must do All In at Hardy Road trails. 45 mins or so climb to a view of Whiteface and a sweet downhill with 2-3 route options. Several other trails are part of that Hardy system, which are also fun, but All In is the most bang for buck in terms of sustained downhill.

Quaker Mt trail is shorter, but very fun intermediate more flowy trail that connects downtown Wilmington to the Hardy Rd trails. You could actually park over near there then use Quaker to access Hardy and reverse back to town and your car.

Flume system is more of the original trail system in Wilmington, but has had some really fun new trails added. Check out Gulo Gulo which connects to PMD (see below) and then the Ridge trail is super technical, with trails of various levels mixed in throughout the system. Avoid Marble Mt. trail, unless you want to have to hike a bike or just love extra super rocky shit more than me, you may think you're on a hiking trail if you get lost and end up here. Eventually it ties into Ridge trail.

PMD - poor mans downhill...3 mile shuttleable downhill from the road that leads to the Whiteface Toll Rd. booth. Well mapped on BETA trails. You can also pedal up it if you want from the trailhead/exit behind Up a Creek restaurant in Wilmington on Rt. 86. Definitely shuttle this once at least, its super fast and fun.

Best thing is to stop in and buy BETA trail map at one of the local bike shops. Placid Planet has them and I think High Peaks Cyclery does too.

Also town of Wilmington runs a shuttle on certain Sundays for $5 all day for poor mans downhill. Not sure of dates this year you'd need to look that up or contact BETA.
 
Following up my Lake Placid area trails experience. Rode 1 day with @KenS and another rider on the Flume system. Drove to the PMD and dropped down to some of the Flume system. Trails we rode seemed to be newer and lots of recent work. First time I can recall having more descending rather than climbing on a ride. I had to take off and the other guys rode the Hardy Rd. trails in the afternoon. The 2nd day we met up at the driving range parking lot and started in the Lussi/Logger trails. Tight and twisty with lots of roots. Made our way over to Craig Woods, as mentioned mostly flow trails with some drops, jumps and berms. I bailed out and they continued riding back to Lussi/Logger, Ken can comment more on them. As mentioned, the peninsula trails were more hiking trails, and my wife found a swimming hole on her hike that we used after riding.
 
Sounds like you had a good time - was that swimming hole on the peninsula trails? I’m wondering if it’s one I’m thinking of or something new
 
ADKmike said:
Sounds like you had a good time - was that swimming hole on the peninsula trails? I’m wondering if it’s one I’m thinking of or something new
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Excellent time. Yes, swimming location was on the Peninsula Trails. We're planning to go back up in the winter.
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ADKmike said:
Sounds like you had a good time - was that swimming hole on the peninsula trails? I’m wondering if it’s one I’m thinking of or something new
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Yes, the swimming spot was where the Whiteface Club Connector trail meets the Ridge trail, near the dam. Super picturesque spot yet an easy walk from the cabin @JDurk rented.

The trails in and around this area were really great. Such an excellent mix of flow trails and oldschool northeast roots, rocks and chunder. As durks mentioned, the day that we shuttled up to the top of the PMD was a real cracker. We kept wondering when we would climb.

Here are our routes:

Flume: https://www.strava.com/activities/2565166458 This was really good, not much I would change. We seemed to ride everything in the right direction and the shuttle was just so sweet.

Hardy: https://www.strava.com/activities/2565508723 We rode this one from our camp which dictated the route and led to a road ride home as it was the second ride of the day. Super fun, but you could do better in linking stuff together. I will ride these trails again for sure, very fun.

Lussi/Craig: https://www.strava.com/activities/2568169059 Excellent day until I ripped my RD off and it took a bunch of spokes with it, including one that it shot through my rim tape. Complete s-show but the hike out wasn't too bad and it was nice to have friends to call for the medevac. If you link Craig with Lussi expect to climb a bit, but all worth it.
 
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