New Mountain Bike Trails Planned for Keene
Network to include 6-7 miles of new singletrack and multi-use trail.
The Barkeater Trails Alliance has built (and continues to build) mountain-bike trails in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Wilmington, and Elizabethtown, but this year the nonprofit group is turning its attention to the town of Keene.
BETA is working with the town and Peduzzi Trail Contracting to build six or seven miles of trails off Route 9N on 113 acres owned by Essex County. The land is located between the hamlets of Keene and Upper Jay, a bit north of Styles Brook Road.
Although the trails will be designed for biking, they also will be open to hikers. Some also will be suitable for cross-country skiing. In addition, old logging tracks and glades on steeper terrain will offer opportunities for more adventurous skiing.
“This community trail system is not just about mountain biking,” said Josh Wilson, BETA’s executive director, in an interview with BikeADK.
Wilson said the project grew out of the Keene Youth Commission’s desire to create a pump track. After scouting the county property, Wilson and others felt it would be ideal for a trail network. The parcel boasts a variety of terrain, scenic vistas, and 850 feet of elevation gain. (For comparison, the All In Trail off Hardy Road in Wilmington has about 800 feet of elevation gain.)
The pump track is still in the plans, but the first priority is to build two trails that Wilson characterizes as the backbone of the network. The first is a 1.1-mile loop on the lower terrain. With only 100 feet of elevation gain, this trail will offer easy hiking and biking. The second is a 1.3-mile trail that will switchback uphill before forming a loop below a power-line corridor. This trail will be intermediate in difficulty.
“The goal is to start as early as possible in the spring and get these two trails built by early summer,” Wilson said.
Next year, Peduzzi and BETA will work on (and possibly finish) downhill flow trails, providing options for both intermediate and expert riders. Once these are built, the aforementioned switchback trail will be marked for uphill use. Meantime, bikers will be allowed to use that trail for both uphill and downhill.
In the third phase of the project, two-directional trails will be built above the power-line corridor, in terrain that is steeper and rockier. These will be rated intermediate and expert.
In its current design, the network would give riders a variety of loop and descent options. Cyclists would be able to do full laps or else partial laps on either the lower or upper terrain. The conceptual trail layout could change, depending on what trail builders find on the ground.
Most the trails will be built by machine, creating a smooth tread. The downhill flow trails will include berms and optional jumps. The climbing trail will not have these features.
“Anybody will be able to get down them, but experts can still have fun,” Wilson said of the flow trails.
The first phase of the project, including the construction of the two backbone trails, is expected to cost $75,000. BETA is contributing $50,000, and Stewart’s Shops is is donating $25,000.
For its initial contribution, BETA is drawing on a $250,000 gift from an anonymous donor. “With that big donation, we created a trail fund,” Wilson said. “The purpose is to kickstart transformational projects in the communities where BETA is active.”
Wilson hopes to obtain outside monies for the second and third phases. The cost of these phases remains uncertain. Preliminary estimates for the entire project range from $250,000 to $420,000.
Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson (a distant relation of Josh) said local officials are enthusiastic about the project. “It was an easy decision for members of the town board to get behind the idea,” he said. “Mountain biking is popular in the region, and Keene wants to be a part of the growing network of riding opportunities.”
Since Peduzzi Trail Contracting (owned by a Keene native) will be doing most of the construction, BETA’s work crew will be free to pursue other projects this year. These include expanding the bike trails on Cobble Hill in Elizabethtown and improving the bike trails near the Flume in Wilmington.
BETA also will work on plans to build new bike trails on state Forest Preserve lands in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Actual construction, however, must wait until the state Department of Environmental Conservation lifts a moratorium on trail building. DEC is still grappling with the ramifications of a 2021 court decision banning the construction of certain snowmobile trails.
“It seems like we’re losing another year of trail construction on state land,” BETA’s Wilson said.
Many of BETA’s trails have built on municipal or private lands unencumbered by the legal restrictions placed on the forever-wild Forest Preserve. Josh Wilson hopes the Keene project will inspire other towns to partner with counties to build trails that benefit locals and attract tourists. “In some ways this is a model for what other towns might do on county properties,” he said.