Thursday, July 21, 2011

Douthat State Park - Stony Creek

This week I visited Goshen Cub Scout camp.  A little research prior to the trip showed that Douthat State Park was just around the corner.  There has been lots of blogging about the quality of the mountain bike riding in that state park and I decided to have a look for myself.

Stony Run Trail is a 4.5 mile ascent up the mountain.  This trail is properly named as almost the entire length is riding up big and small rocks.  It's literally like a stream bed.  It's not a technical ascent, but it's long, and the switchbacks are difficult near the top of the mountain.

Stony Creek Trail
I took Stony Run up the mountain and veered off onto Tuscarora Overlook trail.  This overlook provides the best view of the Allegheny Mountains.  It's beautiful up there.  I didn't see a single person on the trail on the entire ride up and down.  Not surprising given the heat, plus who wants to walk up a 4.5 mile hill!  There is a cabin at the top that can be used as a rain shelter or overnight stay.  You can see this cabin in the video below.

Tuscarora Overlook
Here's the video from Tuscarora Overlook.


From Tuscarora Overlook I followed the Middle Mountain trail along the ridge line.  This is a long descent down the mountain.  There is a ton of overgrowth on the trail so be prepared to get a mountain laurel beat down on your legs.  Simple simple basic leg protection would have been nice, but not mandatory.  I screamed down this trail for a long time.  It's narrow but a real blast to ride.

The real descent starts on the Salt Stump Trail.  This is a hiking trail that you can bike on.  I'm not of the opinion that it's a good riding trail because it's so narrow, bumpy, slanted and a real good chance you slip on the downside of the trail and into the ravine.  I almost fell badly into a bunch of rocks and logs that were pointing up at me.  I took it a lot more cautious after that switchback.  I'm not sure what's the best way to get down from Middle Mountain.

At the bottom is a huge lake as seen below.  There are a lot of activities for kids if you go for a few days.  The cabins look nice, a good swimming area with a low board and slide into the water, and plenty of other things to do.

Douthat State Park Lake
I took a video of the surrounding area at the lake.   From here, I had a quick lunch and launched myself up Stony Run again.  This time I veered off onto the Locust Gap Trail, connected to the Laurel View Trail, and made my way back to the north side of the lake and back to the ranger station.  These trails are equestrian trails so they are a little wider and  not too hard to ride.     



Biking trail maps here: Douthat Trail Guide

Overall, it was a great ride and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to ride the trails.  At this point, I completed about 4 hours of riding and was itching to get back to camp.  I felt like I could ride another 2/3 hours and be just fine.  But even with those extra hours, I'd still have 4 more hours for what I expect the Wilderness 101 to take.

There is a mountain bike race up Stony Run Trail at some point during the year.  Not sure I want to race up that hill, but a slow steady climb is perfect training for the Wilderness 101 which is less than 2 weeks away!!!


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