Stewart State Forest is such a fun place to ride. We decided to ride Stewart this weekend and ended up calling it the “Soggy Rabbit Ride”, since its Easter weekend. Most of the trails were in very nice shape but a few wrong turns put us on trails that only super swampers could handle… lots of hike a bike as not to mess up the trails that were under water. Rain caught us off guard, but that didn’t matter much, because there were still so many fast sections that made up for the hike a bike. Wet leaves on turns made for some very exciting slips.

For the 2009 scheduled events at Stewart State Forest check out Dark Horse Cycles’ Race Rumblings

This ride was posted on MotionBased.com

We decided to hit Wawayanda State Park trails, located on the border of New York and New Jersey (Hewitt, NJ), this past weekend. Its been awhile since I’ve been on these trails (about a year). Never really paid attention to the names of trails and often only refer to trails by the color blazed on the trees. So if you ask me for directions, get ready for a color coded adventure. Of course this time of year you find most trails, especially the trails less traveled, are covered with leaves, branches and even a few trees that gave out over the windy winter days making for a much tougher ride than expected…

But if you ask me what is my favorite spot in Wawayanda, I’ll tell you: Nature Jim’s Bridge. The only trail section I know the name of in the park that isn’t color coded. If you get to ride Nature Jim’s Bridge, you’ll know why I would remember the name… rock bridge!

Nature Jim’s rock bridge is not for the timid riders… water on both sides is deep, so make sure you don’t fall in.

Wawayanda is loaded with rock obstacles in single tracks and jeep trails that cover about 60 miles of trails that cris-cross small lakes, swamps, and even some fun pipe line trails. The place is fun, you just need to be ready for a workout. We kept our ride short, but check out the loop we did on MotionBased.com

Finally one of us built up our new bikes (mine is soon to follow). The Niner Rip9 painted in what I call “smurf blue” is finally doing the rounds on the trails and its seasoned 29er owner claims, “Its a creme puff”… I guess that is a good thing. The short time I was on the Rip9, even on a short climb, it felt like it wanted to just go with every pedal stroke. The suspension sucked up everything and the big wheels made the gaps between rocks feel like small cracks on a sidewalk. We chose Ringwood State Park as the RIP9’s maiden ride as Ringwood gave us a variety of terrain and provides the rock gardens to make sure the suspension is perfectly dialed.

It’s Smurfy!

If you want a “smurfy” adventure, check out the GPS at MotionBased.com. Yeah I know the average speed was slow… plenty of time spent adjusting and waiting for me to catch up, especially when I started a hike mid-ride due to a bashed knee, broken chain, and no front brake… eh, excuses!… who cares. We all have our days.

OK, now we have Valentine’s Day out of the way we can start focusing on, finally, buying the parts for my new bike (Turner Sultan)… A few folks did a pre-Valentine ride at Hartshorne… here is the GPS map, in case you missed it.

Tony’s adventure through Allaire State Park with a group MTBNJ group ride captured on his GPS and posted on MotionBased.com… Allaire offers fast singletrack, tight turns and a few technical sections if you know where to find them… Tiger Woods section is a fun spot and a must ride if your in NJ.