And since breaking a couple of bones in my left hand. Didn't take too many pictures though because of threatening weather.
First a little back ground of the place I started the ride at.(Don't let the park name fool you, the trailsystem there is killer.
The trail actually starts off of the park entranceway, which is uphill, made the right and started to climb on slick and rooty and rocky trail(a trade mark of mtbing in Central NJ and up into New England is that the trails are really rooty and rocky.) The climb takes up about the first third of the ride, get to the end of the climb, you hit a short DH section that takes you into a section of trail that links two trail systems together. For the next 7 miles it was smooth flowy singletrack and low lying bridgework then back across same linking trail to get the second have of the trail and to start on more climbing. At the end of the climb have to pedal across a clearing which is the picnic area of the place. After the clearing there is fast tight and loose singletrack, followed by a short creek crossing and another climb. Did I mention that after 4 days of rain, things were a bit muddy? After this climb, you have the end of the trail which is all downhill.
After some road miles, came trail system number three, which is short and rather uneventful. a little more road miles this time climbing for about 2 miles at about a 14 degree pitch, legs are a bit tired, and finally get to the final trail system, which until last year was illegal to mountain bikes, but is now legal, more creek crossings and more climbs, but the pay off here is on the way back it's all downhill, natural berms and really smooth for the area, it was around now that it started to pour. Head back to echo hill where my car's waiting hit the one section there again, finally get to the parking lot, and before packing up it stopped raining, and here is something you guys rarely see on the bike, dirt.
Note pics were taken before the other two trail systems were hit.
Total Miles: 30
Trail Miles: 20
Time: 3 hours and 20 minutes.