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If you park up near Trillium/ Candy Bar Hill it sets you up to make a smaller loop out of the Moose Alley/Deuce/Butter Tubs world.
I highly recommend Shonter Shuffle>BFR>Swamp Donkey>Black Bear, you can Flower Brook your way back to where you parked hitting a Moose again. If you want to make a big loop back to town jump on 114 in East Haven bear off on Marshall Newland Rd and that will bring you to Good N you/Farm Junk zone
And what was already said, ride it all!
Depending on what you're into, if you want just a fun classic singletrack loop the trails I did a few weeks back were solid (have not done any of the stuff out at black bear).
Park at trailside village sport shop - Newt to webs to river run, then either climb back up fox run and cross over to the Heaven's Bench/Ridge stuff or you can continue down violet's outback to old webs and sidewinder. Bonus of this area is if you have extra time you can spin some extra laps of the O'Reilly's trails, which are just stupid bermy fun.
Good n' you to nosedive to skydive is good as well, but not any good places to park there
Thunder Mountain Bike Park is the schnizz. And I rode veeeeery little of it today. Frickin' gorgeous valley too. No pics- I did nothing exciting on those trails, just wanted to be captain obvious here and report how stoked I was to finally get there.
RIP Biz. Nobody beats the Biz.
Yep! Love that place!Quote:
Originally Posted by biggins
If you want trails look on trail forks but head to trail of tears and Otis. Otis better but far.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ottime
Not much out by Chatham. Road riding is good there.
Did you zip line there? Haven't ridden there only the trails across the street but did the zip line a couple summers ago was cool. About 45 minutes from my haus and definitely pretty spot. Rafting there is good too!Quote:
Originally Posted by biggins
Totally would have hit you up to ride trail this week, but was with family and there isn't a single MTB rental outside of Thunder in all of the Berkshires (just e-MTB :/). So we decided on a day of lift served and some big squish bike rentals.Quote:
Originally Posted by snowday
Thunder is pretty special- TOOONS of terrain and totally decent vert. Definitely among the premier triad of east coast lift-served along with HMBP and Killi. Let's connect there some time before the end of the season and take some laps.
That’s awesome! I’ve been wanting to get out there. Looks like a ton of fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by biggins
Made it up to Green Woodlands for the first time in a few years—such a fun place to ride. Did a couple of laps of Norris and had a dip in the river.Attachment 379755Attachment 379756
Dude guy, give a shout when you go there- nice ride for me and I love it there.Quote:
Originally Posted by CantDog
Rainy gravel ride today. Meh. Flowers are poppin' though. Off to Otis AFB, or whatever they call it now (where I learned to mtb in the 80s) Tue, Wed, Thu. Pretty stoked.
I can’t believe I’m actually considering this, the big ride is 12,000 feet of climbing!
https://www.bikereg.com/50022
Damn. That is big. Good luck.
The family and I are burnt out on Idaho and we need a change of scenery. Things are getting way to expensive and it is now to the point where we can’t make a comfortable living and create a proper future for our son. We’ve been doing our research and it looks like Maine is the best destination for us to land in (affordable with mountain biking/skiing/outdoors stuff). I know the conditions out East are different to say the least. Could anyone elaborate just how different things are? The skiing looks rad and skiing less pow won’t be that big of a deal. The real kicker for me would be the mountain biking and I haven’t been able to find much info about it. Currently looking to relocate to the Farmington area, but I do HVAC work and the better half is finishing up school to be a teacher so we could really live anywhere. Is there somewhere better to live with better biking and/or skiing?
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I don’t know much about the mtb in Maine, but the state is rad. Winter would be tough for me with short days but I assume Idaho has you prepped for that. What little I do know about the mtb is it tends to be rocky and techy. Most of the trails I used to ride were coastal with maybe 400’ vertical gain. Inland for sure has more mountains. Good luck in your research. Maine is the one place we’ve considered if we were to return east.
Been living in Portland for about 20 years and now have the benefit of working at Sugarloaf so splitting the year in half between living on the coast and in the Western Mountains.
Like many places the MTB riding has benefitted greatly in the past five years from bikers getting more organized, seeking land access and building trails. There's a handful of NEMBA chapters and area clubs that really stand out when it comes to trail expansion. We've got plenty of the old school tech trails combined with an injection of machine built trails. Some areas like Carrabassett Valley are home to really rocky terrain that makes smooth flow trails harder to come by.
If you landed in Farmington you'd have really good options within an hour in several directions. And if you expand that out to 2-3 hours you'll have access to the best New England has to offer.
In no particular order of preference or greatness.
https://cemenemba.org/places-to-ride/
Carrabassett Valley
Freeman Ridge Bike Park; Kingfield
Bethel
Gorham, NH
No Conway
Kingdom Trails - VT
Stowe/Waterbury VT
The mountain biking here in Maine/NE is pretty great, very different feel to riding out West same as the skiing. Lots of riding zones are networks that are wound in tight into small places so lack the feeling of 'going somewhere' that Western riding has. Same as the skiing.
North Conway, Carrabassett and Vtah have more opportunities for big day rides but that's what road trips are for.
But virtually all paved, except one small section.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
Great info. The challenge for MTB is that, for me, I don't want to drive more than 20 minutes for an after work ride. Maybe an hour if it's a weekend, but what do you do in the meantime.Quote:
Originally Posted by ticketchecker
That being said, I think I'd have to drive several hours this evening to find a dry trail to ride!
^^if he's going to land in Farmington that would be Titcomb and some of the other networks in that CENEMBA link I put in there.
Sounds like I have a much higher tolerance for driving than you do!
I was going to post but ^^ is spot on. Well said.Quote:
Originally Posted by ticketchecker
Nah - it’s more like I can’t get out the door until around 5pm and with a 20 minute drive that only gives me an hour or of riding before sunset in the spring and fall.Quote:
Originally Posted by ticketchecker
Attachment 380087
I forget some people have jobs like that ;)
It looks like you have the “after/before sunset” part figured out with those lights.
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I feel like everything is a 40 minute drive in central Maine. Titcomb is cool, but is relatively small, great for a quick burn or two during the work week. Beyond it’s pretty easy (and you’ll probably be shopping there anyways) to expand out to the trails in Lewiston/Auburn and Augusta. Not huge areas but if you are already traveling for errands they are fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by ticketchecker
I like Farmington, if I was to move back to Maine it would probably be to Farmington or the Brunswick/Bath area.
Now Bath is holding a major hand of old skool singletrack, roots, rocks, reggae all day there!Quote:
Originally Posted by Boreas
Haven’t been on them in a decade plus. Rode around a bit in 2003/4ish, but I was mostly a roadie, climbing, and surfing during that time. Some of the guys I rode with were making trails in the area to offset what they disliked how “portland” Bradbury was becoming. Crazy to think 15 years ago Brunswick/Bath was outside of Portland influence.Quote:
Originally Posted by ticketchecker
Sounds like the riding will be great, but I’m worried I am over-biked at this point in time. I have a 170/155 29er and will likely have to find something with less oompf. What travel is most commonly used? I come from a DH racing background so the rougher the trail the better. I’d rather ride something more stout that is harder to get up the hill over light and nimble.
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Sounds like the riding will be great, but I’m worried I am over-biked at this point in time. I have a 170/155 29er and will likely have to find something with less oompf. What travel is most commonly used? I come from a DH racing background so the rougher the trail the better. I’d rather ride something more stout that is harder to get up the hill over light and nimble.
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I live in new England and spend as much time as I can in Colorado Idaho and Wyoming. If you like skiing and biking you are moving the wrong way. I am in CO now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dhiler17
New England is expensive so make sure you are even saving money. But I understand how Californians are making everything crazy out there.
Biking in Maine and new Hampshire is usually a little piece of public land with squiggles of trails. Intersection every mile. No dispersed camping in national forests. The trails are fun but nothing like Idaho.
Skiing? Keep in mind it RAINS about once a month in the winter here, then freezes. We call it the reset. All ice in the woods and then groomers or xc only for a while.
For outdoors stuff Northern new England is fun, but really no comparison to the expanses of open public land and trails in Wyoming.
That said, I grew up in new England and am raising my kids here. Generally speaking, the public education is better and is more "worldly". And no forest fires.
But if you still have family in Idaho you will be back often to enjoy the outdoors.
Also if someone who is not into outdoor recreation and more into cultural activities like the arts, food, etc then new England is great.
Yeah, nothing for you back east, stay west y’all.
Heading to KT in a couple weekends, anyone been to Victory lately? Website says trails reopened in July but minimal maintenance has been done since the shitshow began.
FWIW, New England in general is majorly on the come-up re: mountain biking. Right now I'd say the Stowe/Waterbury/Burlington area has trails that hold up against any major destination out West. That place is all time right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by jhyatt
NH is a bit behind Vermont, although coming along, and Maine a bit further behind than them both -- the outdoor trends tend to sweep west to east across the region (good trails, # of sprinter vans, # of Tacomas with rooftop tents, backcountry skiing, etc.). But the one cool thing about Farmington area is that Adam Craig is doing a ton of work to build some serious enduro trails at Sugarloaf for the EWS stop next year. Beforehand that area was mostly machine-smoothed beginner XC (cool in its own right) but this work should really improve things I hope for gravity-inclined folks. Ticketchecker would know more (who I also need to harrass for a condo rental for the EWS stop lol).
Moved here (Portland) from SLC, having lived in Jackson, Tahoe, and Colorado previously. There is a really incredible outdoor community here that I have fallen in love with and super motivated folks getting after it in every discipline. Just starting to build some good bike trails locally here in the past few years. The White mountains in NH especially. Skiing is very up and down, and mostly about waiting for spring conditions IMO. This winter was probably the worst I've experienced, six weeks maybe with no snow and just bulletproof refrozen hardpack. Got enough stellar days in February, late March, early April to make up for it but it was a loooong wait for good conditions. I'd usually gone west for most of January which really helped sate the pow fix before scratching out whatever good skiing could be had back East. Different picture up in No. Vermont though where they tend to get twice the snow, at least.
I would expect Maine will continue to become a better bike hub, very slowly, but it's happening.
Strange. I heard from a couple different people months ago that VH trails were “invite only” and not open to the public but the VH website clearly says otherwise.Quote:
Originally Posted by snowday
Definitely would like some info as I’ll be up that way next week.
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Anyone have a read on how wet green woodlands might be tomorrow? Planning to take some friends visiting from CO there tomorrow and we had a wicked downpour at Sunapee this afternoon.
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Spent yesterday at Highlands. We are not typically bike park folks, but enjoyed the day. Trails in great shape. A bit of a wait for the lift. Fun to get out on a MTB after three weeks of tarmac and gravel riding. Even with the recent rain, very little mud encountered. Some of their machine built flow trails were super fun. Also a blast to get into some of that New England tech I hear so much about. Felt like a bike trail from the east 90s.
PSA To any BTV area mags who have woman riders in their life. Terry bicycles tent sale continues through today. The Mrs. went down yesterday and got shorts, capris, saddles, socks, gloves and more. Crazy low prices.
https://community.terrybicycles.com/...sale-july-2021
It really needs to stop raining here in NH. I know this is why I have a gravel bike but a foot of rain in a month is just stupid.
Agreed. VT is currently soggier than a beach towel left out in the rain. Even the Class IV roads have deep mud ruts like it’s April.Quote:
Originally Posted by geomorph
Rooted is gonna be messy, glad I’m heading to Western Mass for the Greylock Vert Challenge, tomorrow. 105 miles w/ 12,000’ of climbing. Woof
Well built single track seems fine. Just got back from Hardwick and the singletrack is nt soft at all. The doubletrack on other hand is about as wet as I have seen it.Quote:
Originally Posted by scharny
So VT got pummeled.
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Holy fuckballz
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