East Branch Trails Get BETA Boosted
The East Branch Community Trails in Keene have been BETA boosted with the opening of some brand new trails. Phil Brown has the story.
During a trip out west this summer, I often rode my mountain bike through sagebrush deserts and slickrock moonscapes. As much as as I enjoyed the change in scenery, I was eager to return to my home trails in the North Woods.
On my first day back in the Adirondacks, in late October, I headed to the East Branch Community Trails in Keene. Just three days earlier, the Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) had opened two new trails that I wanted to check out--one for climbing, the other for descending. For now they are identified only as Trail 7 Climb and Trail 7 Descent.
Earlier in the year, BETA opened two other downhill-only trails, Boulder Rush and Duzzi (named for Luke Peduzzi, the trail builder). With all these additions, the East Branch network now has about five miles of trails and more are planned. It has evolved into a superb mountain-biking destination, one of the best and most popular in BETA’s domain.
On my visit, I used a Garmin watch to measure the length of all four of the new trails. The results are as follows:
Trail 7 Climb: 0.35 miles, with 150 feet of ascent.
Trail 7 Descent: 0.5 miles, with 210 feet of descent.
Boulder Rush: 0.45 miles, with 160 feet of descent.
Duzzi: 0.30 miles, with 280 feet of descent.
The first three are rated intermediate in difficulty. As of now, Duzzi is the only black-diamond trail in the network, but BETA is seeking funds to build additional trails for experts higher on the mountain.
To reach any of the new trails you must climb well over a mile on two pre-existing routes, Leepoff Loop and Upstream. Leepoff is a double-track trail that starts at the parking area; it’s ideal for young children and novice riders. In a half-mile, you reach the start of Upstream.
Ascend Upstream for a mile to the short Vista Loop, gaining 340 feet in elevation. En route you pass first the end of Boulder Rush and then, a bit farther on, the start of Downriver. The smooth-surface Upstream just might be the best climbing trail I’ve ridden. It ascends the slope in long, lazy loops. It’s not a slog, but rather a pleasant tour through a hardwood forest.
Once you reach Vista Loop, turn right. In less than a minute, you’ll come to a four-way intersection (the middle trail is the end of Trail 7 Descent). Turn right onto Sentinel Loop and follow it a tenth of a mile to a fork. Go left to the start of Trail 7 Ascent in another 300 feet. To get here, you will have biked a little more than two miles from the parking area and gained nearly 500 feet in elevation.
Trail 7 Climb starts off on mellow terrain, crosses a utility corridor, and then ascends a series of switchbacks to the start of its companion downhill route. It shouldn’t take much more than five minutes.
Trail 7 Descent is like a shorter version of Downriver--smooth, machine-built surface, large berms, and several optional jumps. Just before reaching the utility corridor, it crosses a sturdy wooden bridge. It ends at the four-way intersection on Vista Loop.
Next up: Boulder Rush. Turn right on Vista Loop and follow it a short way to the start of this downhill-only trail. Unlike most East Branch trails, Boulder Rush has not been machined smooth (though it has some sizable berms), so be ready to ride over or around lots of rocks. It features a number of optional jumps, including one with a wooden ramp.
Boulder Rush ends on Upstream. Turning left, you soon come to the start of Downriver, a flow trail with huge berms, rollers, and jumps. You could end your circuit by bombing down this amazing trail back to Leepoff Loop. If you want to check out Duzzi, however, you need to climb back to Sentinel Loop. As before, turn left at the Sentinel Loop fork. Continue past the start of Trail 7 Climb. Shortly after this, you come to Duzzi.
I’m not the boldest mountain biker, so I had some trepidation about tackling this expert trail, but I went slow and quite enjoyed it. The trail has a number of jumps and unavoidable rock features. The coolest was a rock berm.
Duzzi ends on the lower half of Downriver, so bikers turn left to go back to Leepoff Loop. To get the full Downriver experience, you must climb Upstream once more, this time for 0.6 miles. It’s well worth the extra effort.
To my mind, Downriver remains the premier trail in the East Branch, but I can see how expert riders might prefer the enduro Duzzi. We should be thankful for both.
Next spring, BETA plans to open a skills loop near the East Branch parking area. It will feature rollers, drops, a rock garden, and various obstacles.
Despite all the work at East Branch, BETA’s focus is not on trail building, according to Glenn Glover, the nonprofit’s executive director.
“While new trails are sexy, our goal is to manage trails,” he told Bike Adirondacks. “Our focus is not in building new but maintaining what we already have and then building new on top of that.”
Toward that end, BETA crews and volunteers this year made substantial improvements to the Back Nine trail at the Craig Wood, All-In at Hardy Road, and Flobus at Three Sisters Preserve. The work included removing rocks, rebuilding berms, and some rerouting
“Our goal is not to dumb trails down, but to restore them,” Glover said.
Next year BETA will step up efforts to recruit volunteers to help with maintenance of its bike trails.
