Plattekill MTB Summer 2016

Mountain biking is off to a good start this season at Plattekill Bike Park. After one of the warmest winters on record combined with a severe lack of snow, Plattekill opened for mountain biking in March.

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In fact, on the last weekend of the ski season — March 19-20th — the mountain was open for mountain biking on the triple side, and skiing on the double side. Naturally, I opted for skiing.

This year, Plattekill was the first lift-served mountain biking area to open in the East which brought out many riders. Currently, biking is taking place on the double chair side, as the triple chair is undergoing maintenance.

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What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Everything changes and from what I can see summer vacation is no different. In the old days, we’d use our time off to explore the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and the south central Adirondacks.

water-sports

We’d push our week or ten days of time off as late in the season as possible. That time right after Labor Day is possibly the best time of the year in the mountains, outside of ski season.

Now we take it when we can get it. When our daughter entered kindergarten, like many families, we moved our vacation into late August, after camp and before school. Sometimes, our schedule of activities shortens that long week in the mountains into a long weekend.

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North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Two winters ago, on a bit of an impulse, I asked my friend and professional trail designer Steve Ovitt to evaluate the potential of our property for dual purpose nordic/mountain biking trails.

North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Steve’s evaluation was enthusiastic and now, two summers later, we are all in, doing trail maintenance and riding on our land. I never imagined biking out the back door could be almost as much fun as skiing. Indeed it is.

After two days of blowing, raking, trimming and riding our trails, I ventured down to North Creek Ski Bowl to check out the relatively new trails that Steve designed and built for the town of Johnsburg.

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