Indian Summer in the mountains: Mountain Biking in the Adirondacks

I was 5 seconds from posting this TR when my dumbass clicked a link and lost the entire thing.  I’m done swearing, so here is a new TR.

In the past month or two Jess and I have both purchased new mountain bikes.  She got Giant's Trance X1, and I'm riding a Specialized XC Pro.  

We have been riding every chance we get, hitting Luther’s Forest, Crandall Park, Pine Hill Park in Rutland, among other less noteworthy trails in the area.

On Monday we decided to spend the $35 and buy the BETA (Barkeater Trails Alliance) trail maps.



The $35 is well worth it.  Before this I wasn't convinced there was any good riding in New York.  We arrived at the Loggers/Lussi trails yesterday around 10am.



We hopped into the woods and were greeted by some killer flowy single track thru nicely spaced pines.  Berms, bridges, and great soil.  This was Cinderella Story.  After popping out onto the Golf Course you quickly head back into the woods and are surprised by an awesome long, windy bridge.



The trails in here are well balanced with some smooth soil and plenty technical, but very doable sections with lots of roots and rocks. There aren't any major climbs, which can also be nice.  The most impressive part was how CLEAN the trails were, 95% raked and clear of leaves.  Huge stoke.

After lunch at the car we decided to find a place in town with a hot tub, and have a date night.  (aww).  We stayed at the Golden Arrow with a room facing the water.  You can get some great rates this time of the season.



After the hot tub, pool, steam room and sauna we walked down to the brewery.  Pork nachos followed by Jalapeño Cheddar soup and salad, followed by a number of Adirondack STrEAM's  (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1888/40419) and Ubu's...  We headed out upon watching the Sabres win in OT.

Today we woke up and decided to look for Henry's Woods.  I don't ask questions- so we poked around for an hour before finding them.  This area offers less mileage than Loggers/Lussi but the quality of the trails overcomes its lack of size.  Very smooth, flowy and fast single track, with some double track mixed in.



There are a couple great climbs with major rewards of views.  We spent about 2 hours in Henry's woods and wanted to stay longer.  





These trails too, were free of leaves- Thank you BETA for all the hard work.

Today was my first day playing with my ContourHD. The mounting is whacky- I mounted the hardness with the 3M tape and seconds later realized how stupid of a place it was due to cables in the way.  Oh well, we had fun.  I'm very pleased with the camera though.

Disclaimer:  I had ZERO experience with editing anything before today, so bare with me..  



A HUGE thanks to the efforts of BETA, I'm pleased to be able to brag about these trails.  I encourage anyone with interested to DONATE to this group, they're doing extraordinary things in a place that needs it.

nice TR! Next summer's big purchase is definitely going to be a bike.

MC2, Radam and I rode the Skidmore stables Sunday. I think Radam and I are headed to Pine hill on Friday, depending on how the weather holds up.

Nice report!!

Wow! Those trails look sick!!!

Note to self: purchase Barkeater maps next year.

Nice TR.  Trails look great.  And raked... that's pretty sweet.  Especially after I lost the trail where it was buried in a foot of leaves more than once on my last ride - and that's on trails I know well.

Leaves on a trail can be an issue, especially on two wheels. Rode the quads yesterday, leaves everywhere. Flying around on two wheels would have been somewhat of a challenge.

Hey guys- didn't realize i the video wasn't in the origonal TR.  Just threw it in there..

Like I said, Matt the $35 was/is well worth it!

Fuj, if you're still going tomorrow have fun, those trails are great- we were there last week and everything is raked our there as well.

Nice report...I have the same bike as you, I really like it. I have not been on the LP trails yet. I have been on the Flume trails and Hardy Rd. trails and like them alot.

I really enjoyed the TR Chris.  I'm looking forward to spending more time up in the Adirondacks biking next summer.  Our kids are getting really interested in it.  We took them to Garnett hill last year and they had a blast.  

I'm wondering what people think of the lift serviced biking at Gore.  It seems like it would be a good intro into mountain biking.  

Thanks for the props on the trails and BETA Chris.  Our marketing department is under-funded, so we need all the help we can get on the web... ok, so maybe we don't have a marketing department, just a trail-building one... alright, actually we don't have any departments... all i can say is we'll keep diggin' as long as you're ridin'
Be kind, respect the trails, thanks
cheers
www.barkeatertrails.org