Has anyone ever ridden in the Jericho State Park in New Hampshire? It's a new park, set up specifically for off road riding. There are 90 miles in the park,with access to almost 1,000 miles (so they claim). We stopped in there this weekend on the way home from camping, it looked pretty decent. I'm gonna have to go over there to check it out soon.
The Mrs and I did a few years ago. The trails are wide and well marked, no single track and the only hard trail is Rennay's Maze. Don't fall on any Quad parts LOL. Most of the system allows the use of a bike, but not all so watch the markers. If you have a light you can ride through town on a marked section of road. From what i have read the system now links out to another trail system out by Cedar Pond Campgrounds. Have a Link http://www.cedarpondcamping.com/ Most of this is for four wheeled quads so watch it they are big and take up the whole trail. We went up for a week in late September and had a real good time. It is well suited for the family and the Mrs on any play bike, the whole thing could be done on a XR100 !
Will be heading there this weekend to check it out. Group of 4 of us, so should be able to really see what the deal is. Will report back!
OK, so back from Jericho. Had a great time. Sorry no pictures. Just 4 guys riding their faces off! Got there in the afternoon on Saturday and there seemed to be a good amount of people around both in the campground and our and about. Rode for about 2.5 hours before dark. The riding was very fun. There is a bunch of wide open dirt road type trails interspersed with smaller more twisty trails. Not super technical, which meant riding super fast. Not knowing our way around we ate up more than 40 miles worth in that short time. The weather was cold and a bit wet a chunk of the time we were there (in the 40's), but tolerable. We decided on Sunday to explore the new Ride the Wilds trail network. This is a large network that leaves the park and heads further north, all the way up into Pittsburgh and Colebrook. We did not get anywhere near that far, but did end up with a 135 mile day. Would have done more with a little earlier start, more daylight (sunset around 5:30), and a little dryer conditions, but it was fun to cover lots of ground at fast speeds. Day 3 was Monday. Got camp broken down first thing, and then rode just in the park for the day. Spent most of the day pushing each other to do things faster and faster. At this point, we had the trails all to ourselves and could be hooligans. We ended up riding 80 miles worth of fast pace twisties and left with huge smiles on our faces. So it seems that the park is set up more for the 4 wheelers rather than us on the 2 wheels, but it was fun riding nonetheless. I would say 2 days in the park would be a good amount to walk away feeling like you had your fill. And with the Ride the Wilds trail it looks like the State is making a good attempt to diversify the outdoor recreation activities available to us. The North Country sees the need to increase the tourism traffic in order to drive the business in the area, and I am very glad that they are taking the steps. I am more than willing to come up from the southern part of the state to spend my money. We were there for 3 days, went out to eat for breakfasts and dinners every day. They have tied a bunch of trail networks and trail clubs together to make this link up happen. From what I can tell, some of the clubs still have a bunch of the loop trails that would be great to ride kept as off limits to trail bikes, which is disappointing. 4 wheels make more of a mess on the trails, and the ATV clubs are pulling their dollars from the fees we all pay to register with the state. I would be very willing to spend more to get more. I don't want to be greedy, but a OHRV sticker should get everyone who purchases one EQUAL access. Overall, came away having a great time riding with my friends, excited about the future of riding development in the area, and hopeful that more things will be opened up to us who are on 2 wheels.
