Keith Vail wrote:
I was planning on hitting Crabtree on Sunday in the morning. I have no clue what hubcab and the sludge are though which probably just shows my noobness.
Let me know where you are going and a time and I will see if I can make it work with my schedule.
I'm out of town this weekend, but just as an FYI, the only trails officially posted on the TriangleMTB site in the Umstead area are Umstead and Crabtree. Those are the only ones in that area you're even allowed to talk about on the TriangleMTB forum, because none of the rest of the trails are "legal." That said, the various land owners are looking the other way on those trails these days, and they are very good.
There's 286, Rocky Road, Hubcap, Sludge, Trenton Road, and Delta Ridge, all within a reasonable ride from the Umstead area (there's a small amount of road required to link them up, but not a ton). Best way to learn them is to get someone to show them to you. It helps if you already know Umstead, Crabtree, and the few roads around those. Our own Mr. McGrain probably knows them the best of the folks I know here on Tarheel that ride often, anyway. Only problem is keeping up with him!
If you want to explore for yourself, the best way to start is off Old Reedy Creek. Turn off Weston Parkway on to ORC and follow it in to the bridge over I-40. Before the bridge, you'll see a gate on your left you can use to enter the Black Creek Greenway and to the right off of it takes you into Crabtree. Cross on over I-40 and almost immediately on your left is 286 and on your right is Rocky Road (crap, I probably have those backwards, I can never remember which is called what). Go straight up the gravel road and you go into Umstead (you gotta park on the side of the road and start riding, though). If you want to ride the bridal trail, see any of the kiosk maps inside Umstead. It's easy to follow. That's the only "legal" stuff in Umstead. To get to Trenton Road, follow the Old Reedy Creek road THROUGH Umstead. There are turns off of that, but stay straight EVERYWHERE until you get to a gate and a paved road. Turn right on that paved road and just before the bridge over I-40 there's a piece of singletrack that heads into the woods on your LEFT. Follow that to a red gate with NO TRESPASSING signs for Schenk Forest. Throw your bike over that gate and climb it.
Then follow that trail. It's a set of lollipop configurations, so if you stay "all left" in there, you'll ride it all. You can't get "lost" per se as there's only about 5 miles of trail back there and everything either leads into someone's back yard or keeps going around and comes back to where you started. Come back out and go straight across the paved road to a singletrack trail on the other side. That's hubcap. Follow it and you can't get lost...it goes straight up the side of I-40 and comes out at Harrison Avenue. Turn left on Harrison and cross I-40 (on the right side of the road...there's sidewalk) and make your first right after you pass the exit ramp from 40 and stay on the sidewalk. Look for trail on your right and take it. That's Sludge. It's a little confusing, but basically you want to try to stay right on it and it'll follow I-40 back down and you go between I-40 and the sewage plant that's off ORC. It'll come out between the treatment plant and the one lane bridge on ORC that you crossed to get up to the bridge over I-40 again.
Boom, that's all of it but Delta Ridge, which I've never ridden but Matt can probably inform folks about. If you find ALL that singlegrack and you ride a complete lap of Umstead and include the meager amount of road to link it all up, you can ride around 50 total miles without doubling up hardly anything. It's quite stellar.
--Donnie
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