Hey guys, hoping for a bit of east coast riding advice.
My wife and i are working in NYC for all of July. We signed up to race downieville classic early in the year before we booked this job, and will basically be flying home and directly heading up to downieville to “race.” Not ideal, but trying to make the most of it
Anyways we are bringing bikes with us and we are trying to get out of the city on the weekends. Im looking for some good training rides preferably within a couple/few hours of the city. Preferably a loop(s) in the 4-5k ft of elevation and 25-50ish miles range. Something with a good amount of climbing and hopefully some fun downcountry bike appropriate descents. I’ve never ridden on the east coast so really have no idea where to start looking. Thanks
Sterling Foest State Park and Ringwood State Park are both about an hour from the George Washington Bridge and offer the most contiguous singletrack in the immediate area. https://www.palisadesmtb.org/ is the local advocacy group for Sterling and just opened a fantastic new trail this month. Our hills top out at about 1200' but there is still plenty climbing and descending. If your willing to drive 3 hours for more elevation there is some great but somewhat limited riding in the Catskills. Roundtop and Elm Ridge are fun and there is some even better stuff in the western Catskills that isn't being promoted to the public quite yet. Feel free to give me a DM, these have been my home trails for 25 years.
Make a weekend trip to Vermont. Kingdom Trails might just be what you are looking for.
Port jervis is a good time.
Not down country at all. But mt creek is an absolute blast and a must stop if you are in nyc imo.
I’m also bringing my DH bike and definitely plan on getting out to mountain creek and thunder mountain. I just gotta make sure i get at least one good training weekend in so i don’t smoke myself at downieville.
In the greater NYC area there are a lot of high mileage dudes riding all over the place. Sprain Ridge. Blue Mountain. Graham Hills. Just check trail forks for the blue trails that get ridden a ton and see the popular loops.
Depends how much you want to travel. Ascutney, Waterbury, kingdom trails, and Stowe Vermont. Are all worth traveling to. As is Conway NH.
Western Massachusetts has Thunder mtn bike park in charlemont. Batchelor street and earls trails in Amherst/granby. Pittsfield state forest and Lenox. Ludlow.
I'll second Port Jervis NY, lots of mileage and variation.
Port Jervis can be exactly "downcountry"..... There are about 5 pedaly "enduro-esque" trails and if you do them all in a day you're looking at about 3500ft of climbing without linking normal connections between them. (cosmic charlie, 5 bridges, flintlock, painted aprons, and Tomahawk). Sterling is a good option with lots of ungelating terrain, gets super hot and humid, and most of it is a loop so not much getting lost. Ringwood is a bit more just trail riding but good and rocky and techy, Glen Park in East Stroudsburg, Pa has held a ton of enduros and is alot of fun for riding laps and climbing to your hearts desire, and if you can find them there are some crazy good trails in the XC zone of Mountain Creek.
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