Review Date
August 8, 2009

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Reviewed by: TexK ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
Ahern Trails are a small (10-15 mi) system of trails in the Laconia area of New Hampshire. Trails have everything from easy double track and fire road to more advanced technical trails with plenty of rock, roots, tight trees, switch backs and mud. We found the trail through a local bike shop (Chain Line Cycles) and its owner Eric (Facebook-chain line cyles). Small shop with fantastic customer service. Eric provided me with a hand-drawn map of the system which I will attempt to post later. It was easy to find the park, but without a map it could have been a little challenging to navigate. In the end, its a relatively small park that is bounded by water, highways and a prison, so it won't end up in a survival situation. Anyhow, the trails were surprisingly good. Lots of variety and the layout provided plenty of balance between climbs and descents with some good tech all the way around. Bottom line is that if you are in the Lake Winnipesaukee area and want to ride somewhat locally, its worth the trip.

Recommended Route:
Hard to describe without the map. Parked about a 1/2 mile down the park entrance road in a small parking area. Jumped onto an easy 1/2 mile trail to pick up a fire road along the Lake. From there we passed up the first single track on the left and picked up the second which turned out to be pretty technical, but lots of fun. Ultimately popped out just below the first trail entrance and took that one. All of these end up back on the fire road. Once back at the parking area we took the fire road directly across and now jumped on a great variety of trails to the south. Again, hard to describe, but they all loop around and eventually end up back on the fire road. There is a set of power lines running through the place that make it easy to anchor yourself and find yourself back.

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Eric recommended Franklin Falls Dam trail area. We went, but unfortunately I broke my derailleur hanger 1/4 mile into it on some crappy branch. Its what drove us to Ahern. Looked smooth, fast and fun, and they are adding trails all the time. Tried 'Ridgepole' off of bikerage.com and found the climb to be a lot of hike a bike, and much of it somewhat extreme. The downhill portion was almost worth it. Lots of fun and very technical and fast. Heard great things about Fox Park up by Plymouth.