Edgewood Preserve 11-22-15

This past Sunday Kelli and I went mountain biking for the first time at Edgewood Preserve in the Oak Brush Plains Nature Preserve.

Take 495 to exit 52 Commack Rd south. The entrance is located off Commack Road in Deer Park, about 2 miles south of the Long Island Expressway.   Here is the map of the park and our ride as seen on Strava.

NOTE:  Edgewood is managed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  A NY State DEC Permit is required to use this park.  Permits are free and can be gotten online instantly.  Please keep your permit visible in the windshield of your car when parked.

We heard that the Mtn Bike trails at Edgewood were geared more towards the beginner to intermediate skill level.  So, for our first time riding we followed the white markers to experience the basic, easiest trails.

Most of the trails were fun and wide that took us through pine trees.  Terrain was mostly flat and  easy to ride without struggling or walking bikes up hills.  The good part about trails like this is that you can get some fun speed going and sweep down trails without much effort or worry.  The loop of trails is about 5.5 miles.

Edgewood consists of 843 acres mostly in Deer Park and Dix Hills.  Plenty of tree tunnels to ride under.  Most seemed to be Pine which is nice because they don’t lose their leaves this time of year.  Fallen pine needles lining the trails gave us a nice riding surface.

Edgewood was a good choice for us on Sunday.  It seems like one of the safest parks for mountain biking we have come across thus far.  I understand the park now has more advanced trails and I accidentally turned down one for a while.  It was very twisty and bumpy, weaving through some tight trees.  Cool but quite technical.  In the future, we will explore the advanced trails but for this Sunday we just wanted some exercise without going over the handlebars. So I turned around and got back on the easiest trails.  Follow the white disc mountain bike trail markers.  If you come across two white discs stacked one above the other the top disc indicates which way to turn at the next intersection.

The trails we took were scenic and safe and as we had a fun ride though single track and double track trails.  Our total ride time (per Strava) was 49 minutes, and it only took us about 15 minutes to get to the park from Huntington, so it is easy to fit it into a busy Sunday.   We both agreed that Edgewood seemed like a perfect place to take our less experienced nieces and nephews with us next time as it is a good, safe place to mountain bike for families.

I took two GoPro cams with us, one of the rear and one on the chest mounted steadycam rig.   I will post videos soon.

There is a Facebook page for the park.  You can visit the EdgeWood Facebook page here.