First Time at Luther...

Luther Forest STEP Trails - Malta NY 

April 20th, 2012

After my Disaster Relief work in Prattsville NY, I went "home" for a quick visit with my parents. I went up that afternoon to Luther Forest in Malta to check out the trails.

Sadly, I first made the mistake of riding the 100 Acres Park—it totally sucked for mountain biking: all double track with squishy woodchip-laden tread. Turns out, as I found out later, mountain biking wasn't even allowed there!

Finally I found the good trails over off of Hermes Road and rode the trails around the gully, etc. by taking the north entrance out of the parking lot.

These were great trails—tight single-track with lots of flow! Much of the trail loop ran along the edge of a 20-40 ft gully and include lots of well-banked curves and even a short half pipe section. There is little stone in the terrain so there were zero rock gardens but there were occasional roots and lots of variety with the way the trail closely followed the contour of the terrain. Not too techincal but lots of fun - super flow!

Obviously these trails were built by smart mountain bikers and look very sustainable. A great ride if you are in the area. I plan on going back and hit the trails from the south side parking lot entrance whenever I am back in the area. There are apparently a lot more trails I missed...

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