1. NASSAU-SUFFOLK GREENBELT
TRAIL
In real estate and retailing, location is practically
everything. It's what brings up the value and popularity.
In some ways, the same can be said about this moderately
challenging, 16-mile (8 miles one way), out-and-back
tour. It makes a straight course through a wooded,
protected wilderness corridor in the middle of Long
Island, making it quite accessible for most of the
local mountain biker enthusiasts.
This special designated mountain bike path is part
of the larger 22-mile Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt trail
that practically spans the width of Long Island
from Massapequa Preserve on the South Shore to Cold
Spring Harbor on the North Shore. The trail offers
a refreshing diversity and a welcome contrast to
the heavily populated areas it traverses. It parallels
the Nassau Suffolk hiking trail and shares the same
rich plant and animal habitat. The trail is in great
shape, is generally not too crowded, and provides
a great opportunity to sample a variety of terrain.
The ride doesn't offer the twists and turns of the
Stillwell Woods spaghetti track, but it allows the
confident novice to try something more challenging.
The length of the ride and the occasional rocks
and conspiring roots supply enough gnarls for the
average dirthead.
The type of riding and the variety of terrain found
on Long Island is closely tied to the region's recent
glacial past and the titanic forces associated with
the Ice Age. The ride begins in the hilly, wooded
northern shore of Long Island at an elevation close
to 200 feet. It continues southward, traversing
a glacial plain that slopes gently to the broader,
flatter, sea-level farmland plains that are characteristic
of the southern shore of Long Island. The plain
consists mainly of outwash sediments mixed with
till and clay that were deposited after the last
major glacial period, about 10,000 years ago.
The wilderness corridor you will be traveling remains
the home to many types of animals, plants, and trees.
As you silently glide through this forested land,
try to catch a glimpse of the local wildlife, and
I don't mean the helmeted type. The habitat is home
to hawks and the elusive fox. If you are lucky,
you may spot them along the way. As you travel from
north to south, notice the hardwood stands of oak,
red maple, and beech. These are typically found
on the North Shore and differ from the softer conifers
of pines found in the pine-barren sections typical
of the South Shore. The hardwoods can survive in
rockier terrain with less water. The pines grow
better in the sandy, moist soils of the South Shore.
The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference, which
has helped establish and protect these wilderness
corridors, is committed to working with mountain
bikers. They work with C.L.I.M.B. (Concerned Long
Island Mountain Bicyclists) in a coalition that
has created and continues to maintain a system of
parallel trails that allows hikers and bikers to
enjoy these protected wilderness corridors. Thanks
to the success of these organizations, we have the
opportunity to share the rich forest and animal
habitat, a rare commodity in highly populated communities.
General location:
On the Nassau-Suffolk border on Long Island. The
trail begins on Jericho Turnpike on the North Shore
of Long Island and reaches south into Bethpage State
Park.
Elevation change:
The trail traverses the typically hilly terrain
of Long Island's North Shore area, so expect some
minor ascents and descents. Farther south, the trail
levels out as it passes through some old overgrown
farmlands.
Season:
Year-round usage is available, but keep the trails
from eroding too fast by staying off them during
wet conditions.
Services:
The parking area where you will launch your adventure
has a tailgate bike repair stand, and if you wear
out your tread they even sell tires. A mall located
on Jericho Turnpike just before you reach the parking
area provides food services. Often on weekends a
refreshment truck parks and dispenses the valuable
food stuffs. The Bike junkie at 323 Broadway in
Bethpage offers service and equipment to mountain
bikers.
Hazards:
This trail tends to be more congested on weekends.
Since the usage on the trail is bi-directional (riders
travel in both directions), one ought to pay special
attention when coming around a blind turn. Erosion
and good wholesome use have exposed some roots and
rocks, and a few sections of the trail will require
minor technical skills. The best times to go are
early in the morning or for a sunset ride after
dinner.
Rescue index:
The trails for hikers and mountain bikers are heavily
used and sometimes help may be only arm's-length
away.
Land status:
The Long Island Greenbelt was opened in 1978 as
a National Recreational Trail and connects state,
county, and town parkland.
Maps:
The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference provides
a membership for hikers that includes a full set
of maps and a quarterly newspaper.
Finding the trail: Take the Long Island Expressway
or Northern State Parkway to the Seaford Oyster
Bay Expressway (North) NY 135 to Exit 14 East. You
will exit onto Jericho Turnpike. Proceed about half
a mile east on Jericho Turnpike, past a shopping
mall on your left and past a condominium complex
known as Woodbury Village. Begin looking for a parking
area on your left. There are usually other cars
unloading riders and bikes, so it is hard to miss.
Turn into the parking lot. The trail begins directly
across from the parking area, which faces south
across Jericho Turnpike, and can be recognized as
a dirt path through some trees.
Sources of additional
information:
Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference
23 Deer Path Road
Central Islip, New York 11722
(516) 360-0753
The Bike junkie
323 Broadway
Bethpage, New York 11714
(516) 932-7271
C.L.I.M.B.
P.O. Box 203
Woodbury, New York 11797
(516) 262-0909
Notes on the trail:
The trail is well maintained and the hardpack surface
of this single-track makes for a challenging but
not too technically difficult trail experience.
The path is practically straight and passes through
a variety of forest habitats, from hardwoods to
pines. You will pass a hillside covered in young
oak and go through a dark fern-covered forest floor,
and as you go farther south you will pass through
the overgrown meadows of abandoned farms.
From the parking area, cross Jericho Turnpike and
head south on the single-track that leads through
a small clearing. Whoever is leading the ride should
pay attention to what may lie ahead, since this
is a bidirectional trail. Shout or use a bell when
going around blind turns.
Continue onto the trail through a mixed hardwood
forest over moderately hilly terrain. After about
.6 mile you will approach a large, steep hill with
tracks leading directly up it. Bear left at the
trail that crosses the paved Woodbury Road. The
trail picks up on the other side of the road. On
the top of the hill, which is actually a high ledge,
is an old cemetery of early Dutch and English settlers,
and some limestone headstones date back to 1803.
After some riding you will arrive at a wider dirt
road coming from the left. Bear right onto this
road. You will come out on the right side of a bridge
onto a 2-lane roadway. Turn left, cross the bridge,
and turn left back into the forest cover as the
ubiquitous white-painted blazed trail picks up farther
ahead. This is the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail.
White plastic rectangular blazes on the trees mark
the trail after this point. The trail heads into
this forest for a short stretch, crosses another
paved highway ramp, and leads back into the woods
on a small descent over some small, wooden erosion-prevention
logs.
After 3.8 miles, bear to your right and proceed
through an underpass beneath the Long Island Expressway.
This barren area resembles the deserted, abandoned-car
landscape from the set of Road Warrior, from which
civilization had disappeared. I kept expecting to
see some riders wearing steel armor, riding black
mountain bikes with gun turrets. As you emerge from
the underpass, continue straight on the main wide
path. You will see many tire tracks leading toward
the familiar white trail blazes. At the intersection
with a paved road, cross and pick up the trail beyond
the Interstate 495 sign. Soon you will cross another
roadway where the trail picks up across the road,
beyond a sparsely treed grassy knoll alongside an
overgrown farm meadow. You will soon emerge into
a cul-de-sac where the trail wraps back into wooded
farm meadow. Proceed along this meadow for a short
way and then cross another roadway. By now the terrain
has changed from the rolling hilly terrain that
is characteristically North Shore to the flatter
farmland of the South Shore. At about 6.9 miles
you will come into a large, 4-way trail clearing.
Bear to the right in a southwesterly direction where
the triangular white plastic blazes mark the trail's
continuation. You will now be entering Bethpage
State Park and can hook up with the Bethpage State
Park mountain bike network. The trail is fairly
straightforward as you must return the way you came. |
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2. STILLWELL SPAGHETTI
The little-known Stillwell Woods County Park contains
a prime, grade-A mountain bike path and provides
many a weekend workout for Long Island's hammerheads
and recent converts. Ranked as one of the best single-tracks
in the East, this custom, well-maintained five-mile
work of art was built by the Long Island mountain
bike club C.L.I.M.B., or Concerned Long Island Mountain
Bikers. The one-way single-track loop traverses
a hilly wooded landscape on the North Shore of Long
Island, which owes its challenging riding to retreating
glaciers 10,000 years ago. The park resides on top
of an ancient glacial ridge built up from the deposits
left behind when the glacier stalled and melted.
The result is one gnarly, rocky landscape with many
small depressions, gullies, and small hills. As
you zip along this trail, climbing in and out of
the many gullies, take a moment to look back and
ponder the climb and how all this came to be.
From the beginning, the trail unravels through an
abandoned, regrown farm field and soon takes you
through a deep forest of many twists, turns, and
miniature loops. The trail has been developed to
take full advantage of the hilly terrain and varied
woodland that characterizes the North Shore of Long
Island. To ride it, you need to nurse the front
wheel around the tight corners. Shift back and float
over roots and branches. Then spin hard down a gully
with enough power to ramp up the opposite side.
Here's the typical pattern of the trail: Go up 30
feet, down 20, stay flat for 50, and get ready for
the next roll. The trails consist mostly of hard-packed
single-track instead of the softer, sandier soils
that make up many of the trails in the pine-barren
sections of Long Island's southern and eastern woodlands.
Serious off-road riding opportunities exist and
good bike-handling skills are required throughout
the loop. Quick descents and climbs through the
many gullies and sections of tight turning constitute
hammerhead heaven and demand some adroit handling.
The Stillwell Woods County Park trail system also
completes the northern end of the Nassau-Suffolk
hiking trail and mountain bike path. Sharing the
same rich forest and animal habitat, the rider is
immersed in the type of primitive wilderness that
is a rare sight on the highly populated Long Island.
General location:
Near the towns of Woodbury and Syosset, Long Island.
Elevation change:
The trail was designed to take full advantage of
the moderately hilly terrain. It traverses many
gullies and ascends many small hills. There are
very few elevations exceeding 200', but the amount
of vertical feet gained during the ride accumulates
rapidly.
Season: Year-round
except during wet weather periods. There are signs
at the beginning of the ride that advise bikers
not to ride if the trail is wet.
Services: The Bike
junkie at 323 Broadway in Bethpage offers service
and equipment to mountain bikers. Their phone number
is (516) 932-7271.
Hazards: Remember
that the trail is a one-way loop. These popular
trails are heavily used during the weekends, and
the one-way direction prevents many of the hammerheads
from hammering their heads together. With collisions
out of the way, the next item to pay attention to
is the tight twists and turns through trees that
are sometimes little more than one handlebar wide.
There are some steep sections which you might wish
to blast through and ride like a roller coaster.
Overall, the main hazard is not having the sufficient
skills to handle this great track.
Rescue index: You
are never more than half a mile from major civilization
and there is usually some mountain biker passing
by every fifteen minutes on the weekends.
My appreciation and respect go out to the members
and volunteers of the Concerned Long Island Mountain
Bicyclists Club (C.L.I.M.B.) for building and maintaining
many of the trails on Long Island. Their work parties
clean up, repair, and improve the conditions of
the trails and develop methods to fight erosion
on special sections along the routes. They and all
the work party teams that build and maintain the
myriad of trails described in this book deserve
special acknowledgment for the work they are doing
to accommodate and minimize the ecological impact
of the growing number of mountain bikers. These
organizations interface and open up channels of
communication between trail users and land management
agencies, and they need our support and deserve
our cooperation.
Land status: Nassau
County Park.
Maps: The Long
Island Greenbelt Trail Conference provides a membership
for hikers that includes a full set of maps and
a quarterly newspaper. Unfortunately these maps
do not provide the fine detail you might expect
on a USGS topo series map, but the trail is so well
marked that it is virtually impossible to get lost
if you follow the white triangular markers.
Finding the trail:
Take the Southern State Parkway east and take Route
135, Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway, north to Exit
14 East. You will exit onto Jericho Turnpike. Continue
about half a mile and turn left (north) on South
Woods Road. Look for the entrance to the Stillwell
Woods County Park, approximately 1.2 miles on your
right. Turn into the parking lot. The trail begins
past a wooden sign detailing the rules of the mountain
bike trail. By train, take the Long Island Railroad
to Cold Spring Harbor and proceed north on Route
108 and west on Stillwell Lane.
Sources of additional information:
Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference
23 Deer Path Road
Central Islip, New York 11722
(516) 360-0753
The Bike Junkie
323 Broadway
Bethpage, New York 11714
(516) 932-7271
20 1 NEW YORK
C.L.I.M.B.
P.O. Box 203
Woodbury, New York 11797
(516) 262-0909
Notes on the trail:
The trail is blazed by white plastic triangular
markers that are serially numbered based on your
progress into the trail and will guide you quite
easily through the loop. I will detail the ride
below, but it is much easier to just follow the
numbered white triangular markers than to keep glancing
at this set of instructions for every turn.
Pedal to the south end of the parking area, past
the baseball diamonds, and onto a gated gravelly
utility road. You will soon see a brown wooden sign
marking the Stillwell Woods Mountain Bike Trail.
The trail has been created and is currently maintained
by C.L.I.M.B. A list of courtesy rules includes
always wear a helmet, yield to horses and hikers,
stay on the trail, follow white markers, and don't
ride when trail is wet.
The hard-packed single-track begins through an old
grown-in abandoned farm field traversing about half
a mile and soon enters a wooded area, where it zigzags
around some mature white pine trees. You will soon
pass a trail leading in from your left. Ignore this
trail and continue straight on the wellworn single-track.
When in doubt, as a rule, you are in good hands
if you stay on the more worn trails. Bear left at
the next fork and soon you will come to another
fork with a large white pine bearing the trail's
white triangular markers. Bear right at this tree
and enter into a denser wooded forest. As you come
into a clearing, make a left at the T intersection
and take the first right into another wooded area,
picking up the number 7 marker. You will know you
are on the right trail when the white triangular
markers attached to the trails appear soon after
a questionable intersection.
Ride through a large forest of oak trees and exit
into another open field, remaining on the well-worn
track. At a wooden post with an arrow pointing to
the right, turn right into the woods and follow
the single-track. The trail spirals downhill to
another T intersection where you must turn right.
Notice the number 12 marker. Bear left at the next
fork, which is tagged with the number 13. The trail
then climbs steeply through a dry stream gully;
bear left at the top where the trail snakes for
another half a mile. Bear left at the next 2 forks.
At marker number 27, bear right. You soon will descend
into a deep gully; if you are good, let it rip and
channel that momentum to get back up the other side.
Before you have time to catch your breath, you will
start another descent to a 5-way intersection with
a clearing in the middle. Look for marker number
35 in a westerly direction; it should lead you straight
ahead and up the trail. You should encounter marker
number 36. If you do not, pedal back to the intersection
and try again.
At marker number 45, you T-intersect with another
trail. Turn right here and continue straight through
the next intersection up a small, steep hill, where
you will encounter marker 47. After riding on the
plateau for 10 minutes or so, you go down and up
another gully and smile at marker number 53. Another
gully follows and then the trail levels out and
empties into another clearing. Take the leftmost
fork, which is tagged with marker number 58, and
hug the left trail that takes you back into the
woods. Ascend a short hill and come into another
clearing. Take the middle fork that is labeled number
61 down and up another gully, and continue straight,
ignoring the white painted marker to your right
and continuing on the trail marked by white triangles.
Even though it may feel like more, at this point
you have only gone 3.5 miles.
The trail ends at a wide utility road. Turn left
and make a quick right, proceeding through an old
abandoned farm field in a westerly direction. At
the end of the field bear left and then turn right
at the first right turnoff. Descend for about 500',
bearing left at an abandoned car, and turn right
at the next intersection onto the single-track and
up a small hill. You will soon encounter trail marker
84. You will travel through a mature cypress grove
that is quite dark and then descend to another intersection
and turn right, following the white triangles. You
cannot become lost on these well-marked trails.
At 5 miles you exit where you began, by the wooden
sign.
Above trails and descriptions
form the book, Mountain Biking, New York by Michael
Margulis. |
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3. BLUE MOUNTAIN TRAIL
Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill, NY contains
a total of seven miles of trails geared toward 3
skill levels. Follow the color markings along the
trail which best suits your riding ability: yellow
for beginners, orange for intermediate and red for
advanced.
The trails wind through many diverse habitats of
this beautiful 1,600 acre park. Along the route
you can view rock outcroppings, or rest and enjoy
a picnic near a secluded freshwater pond.
Parking fee:
$4 for Westchester County Park Pass holders / $8
without Park Pass
Directions:
From South: Route 9A to 9 North. Exit at Welcher
Ave.; turn right and follow to park entrance
From North: Route 9 South. Exit at Welcher Ave.;
turn left and follow to park entrance.
Blue Mountain Reservation
is open 7 Days a Week from Dawn to Dusk.
For more information call: (914) 862-5275 |
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