[edit] Description

There are many different ability levels of riding here. The Park officially claims that they have 25 miles of trails. Alot of these are actually old fire roads. The good news is that there are many other options for MTB riders that stray out of the Park for some nice loops. It is possible to hook up Grafton's trail system with the Pittstown State Forest trails, using two old town right-of-ways (ca.1800's fire roads) called Kautz Hollow and Ward Hollow. See map of trails below for suggestions of loops to do.

[edit] Directions

From Troy, NY- Take Route 7 East (Hoosick Street) through Troy. Stay on Route 7 through the town of Brunswick, past Route 142, until you reach Route 278 (Brick Church Road). Make a right onto Route 278. At next signal light, make a left onto Route 2 (do not take a hard left onto Tamarac Road). Drive approximately 6 miles, passing the Main Entrance for the State Park. Go another mile and make a left at the Grafton Store onto Long Pond Road (Winter Entrance Grafton Lakes), go another 1/4 mile and park in the lot for Mill Pond.

[edit] Map

Google Map

• Map of Trails

[edit] Suggested Loops

Beginners/Novices- Try your hand at the various carriage roads around the Park to get oriented. From Mill Pond lot, take a right onto North Long Pond Road and follow it to Fire Tower trail, a doubletrack climb off to the right. Feeling adventurous? Try making your next left onto Chet Bell and return on North Long Pond Road (left turn off end of Chet Bell). You can access the main park area from Mill Pond by going across the road to the State Maintenance garage area, then take the paved road up to Grafton Lakes Way (paved). Go right and down to the beach area. There are many unimproved gravel paths through the woods near the beach to explore. You may also wish to check out the trails from Deerfield Pavilion area, which is your first left turn off of Grafton Lakes Way as you head down to the beach area. At the back of the parking lot at Deerfield there is access to the Shaver Pond Trail system. For beginners, take a right at the first tee, which will bring you out to the beach area after a smooth path through hemlock forests. From there, you may go to the far left end of the beach area lot and take Hicks trail to climb up to the remainder of the Shaver Pond trails. Take your third left hand turn onto Granville Hicks trail to avoid most of the mud and slop during rainy periods, then make a right at the tee. Make sure that when you see the right hand turn for Scout Trail, take this turn, as Shaver Pond trail is rather rocky on this last leg. Scout trail brings you to Grafton Lakes Way, and making the left turn, brings you back to the State Maintenance garage and Park office.

Intermediates- Grafton is mostly an intermediate riders park. Several trails are more on the advanced side, which may require some walking in the more treacherous technical terrain. My favorite loop is Mill Pond trail to North Long Pond Road to XC Trail to Spruce Bog. Make a left on Fire Tower trail, then right on Chet Bell, right on Kautz Hollow (briefly) immediately left onto Little Johnny's (RPI). There is a short connector trail on the left side before you reach the stream crossing. If you take this trail it will climb to the top of Water Tower trail. If not, then finish Little Johnny's, make a left on Hicks Trail, then go left again on the unpaved road to get to the top of Water Tower. Take a right on Long Pond Trail and back to the beach area. You can substitute or add various trails into this basic loop of do it backwards. It will generally take you between 1.5 hours and 2.5 hours, depending on your pace and technical ability level, and of course how many extra trails you add in.

Dunham Reservoir. To get to this loop you must cross Route 2 at the Main Park Entrance. From that point, ride directly across Route 2 and go right into the fields. There are trail markers to Gartler trail on your left side. Follow Gartler (doubletrack) trail all the way to Johnson Road (unpaved). Make a right onto Johnson Road and ride for about 200 yards. Look for a singeltrack trail to your left (crossing a ditch). Stay on this trail, it will make a sharp hairpin turn to the left after a muddy spot, take the left turn. At the Y, take a right, and follow this to the dam spillway. Use caution at crossing the spillway. Continue on to Dunham Road trailhead. Go left on Dunham Road for about a 1/4 mile, then make a left again into the end of the Dunham Trail. Follow this trail which ends in a steep downhill washout at the shore of the reservoir. From here go left on Johnson Road. You can do a fun technical section of Double Bit trail which begins at the canoe launch on your left, then bear right at the Y from earlier, right at the hairpin turn and back out to Johnson Road. From there, go right on Johnson Road and then left on Gartler to return the way you came in. Figure on about 2 to 2.5 hours for this loop depending on which direction you do it, forward or backward.

Advanced- The only really advanced/expert terrain at Grafton involves parts of Water Tower (the rock garden), and all of Long Pond trail, which follows the shore of the largest lake in the Park, Long Pond. Long Pond has lots of rocks and roots, and is mostly a hiking trail. However bikes are allowed on this trail, and so we do ride it.

There are other trails which split off and lead you out of the Park and on to other areas such as Pittstown State Forest. To get to these trails and back again involves significant amounts of climbing, as you are descending off the Rensselaer Plateau to the Valley below and then back again. The trails that access Pittstown SF are Kautz Hollow and Ward Hollow. See the listing for Pittstown State Forest Trails for descriptions of these trails and maps. To be added later.

Other loops are available here at Grafton, however, you will need a tour guide for these, as the trails are not marked. Check the ride calendar for the schedule of the next Grafton ride to check them out.

Disclaimer: The Capital MTB, ride leaders, and organizers of all rides and events listed on the www.CapitalMTB.org website are not liable for personal injuries or any other damages incurred while participating in the ride or event. Mountain Biking is an inherently dangerous activity. Any individual, by deciding to participate in this activity, takes on the responsibility for their own actions and safety while participating.