Review Date
May 10, 2007

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 4 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Every few months

Reviewed by: Randyman ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
First of all, let me say how thrilled I was to find a write up about this trail. That “someone’s backyard” is my uncle Ken Query’s house. The mountainous part of this trail (state park / rail bed / dam / road excluded) is about 50% on his property. He designed the trail for all to ride. I ride it every time I make a summer visit to the property and have found it to be some of the finest single track in Southern Vermont. I’ve coined it the “Query Iron Man Loop” and posted it on www.dirtworld.com. The description of the trail above, which includes the rail bed trail along the West River and Ball Mountain Dam, is quite clear. However, the upper portion of the trail can be accessed for a shorter loop if desired and you can avoid the Jamaica State Park fee. (see "Recommended Route")

Recommended Route:
On the way to Jamaica State Park, there is an elementary school on the left. If you start by biking up the dirt road to the left of the school, ride all the way up to the end of the road. The end will be on someone’s property with an abandoned house and there are “no trespassing” signs, but it’s rare that you will run into the property manager. In the rare event that you do, just claim you wanted to see where the road would take you. Climb over the gate on the right and soon you’ll come to a huge clearing that was supposed to be an airstrip at one point in time. Bike all the way to the other far end of the airfield and the trail will continue into the woods on the left. It will meet up with the sharp right as described above, but with this alternate approach, you will bare left instead to continue on the first woodsy climb. Here, the fun technical stuff starts and you can catch quite a groove as the trail snakes through the woods with mostly short climbs for the first half and rewarding downhills the second half, complete with a few bridges and a few switchbacks (one of which I still have yet to not biff on)

Comments

Randyman (05/10/2007)

Currently (as of this posting 5/10/07), there has just recently been some extensive logging done on the property, which cuts across the trail in a few spots so it’s difficult to find where the trail was and continues across the new logging road. You may end up descending to early and ending up in the pasture rather than the proprietor’s house and driveway. Hopefully, some trail rebuilding/maintenance on that section will be done this season. (which I hope to take part in) If you do see Uncle Ken and/or Auntie Suzannie at the house on your way out of the woods, say hi and tell them Cousin Randy sent you !

Disappointment to my (05/24/2007)

Nice - thanks for the shortcut! Durka Durka!

Randyman (06/01/2007)

Problem areas due to logging have been cleared with new paths cut through ! As of 5/28/07, maintainence has been done and the trail is totally ridable. A few new technical spots have been added to get through the damaged areas, including "Bassman's Bend", a cool plank bridge with a berm on the approach and slight uphill bending exit behind a huge uprooted tree. RIDERS WANTED.... NO BABIES !

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Review Date
August 26, 2005

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Every few months

Reviewed by: menachite ,  Downhiller

Summary:
The description above is spot on. The trail AKA "Farmer John" and "The Farmer John's Cousin" all leave from the Ball Mountain Dam area. Ususally most riders will park and pay the day use fee at Jamaica State Park and ride in up the railbed, up the dam, and into the forest. You can get into the trails from the dam entrance too.