*** The Plan ***
1. Meet at Pittston Park N Ride, just off i81 / 476, to arrange car-pooling for caravan, sign AMP waivers, etc. Roll-out 9am “sharp” – plan accordingly.
2. Meet at the trailhead off Brarley Hill Road (just west of Bald Hill School Rd), feet-in-pedals at 11am.
3. Enjoy the trails for a 3-4 hours in the company of friends. The planned ride is only 15 miles but plenty of time scheduled for sessioning / social pace.
4. Relax and/or relocate to Water Street brew-pub in Binghamton for burgers and beverages, unless someone has a better idea.
5. Return to Pittson Park N Ride between 5pm and 6pm
*** Rain Policy ***
Rain over 1″ total within 24 hours preceeding cancels the ride. That would be rain in the north Ithaca, NY area not Wilkes-Barre!
Rain with over .25″ cumulative forecast for the planned time cancels the ride, checked at 7:00 AM.
Thunder predicted with “Likely” or higher chance cancels the ride, checked at 7:00 AM.
See below for details on forecast used and how to look up rainfall totals.
*** about Shindagin Hollow ***
trail map reference: http://shindagin.com/ccnymap.pdf
The trails are pleasant XC singletrack, with barely a doubletrack stretch used. Some rocks and roots but not that many. There are a few optional skinny features to ride, from felled trees, along with some more significant man-made features.
I would consider a few of the trails sections as directional, downward only, for safety – Y1, B1, and B7. These are built very much as flow style trails and feature nicely built and bermed turns along with drops or jumps which may be traversed. All jumps/drops are either easily roll-able at a slower pace or have a go-around.
The intended ~15 mile route is something along the lines of B1 -> B3 -> B5 -> B4 -> B6 -> right on road -> B7 -> right on road -> J Trail -> left onto Y4 -> R1 -> R2 -> R3 -> R2 -> R6 -> R5 -> R2 > R3 -> R1 -> Y3 -> Y6 -> Y1 -> stop.
There are few sections of steep climbing, and essentially zero rock gardens.
There are no “facilities” in the trail area, nor water supply, plan accordingly.
Options to shorten the ride or make a ride lower impact include:
– instead of going down into the blue section at all just roll down Brearley Hill Rd to the J Trail entrance and go up. Stay high on that side of the network until returning to the start.
– trade traversal of B5/B4/B6 combination for going straight up and over the hill from B3 to B6/B7 intersection, reducing mileage and total ascent.
– trading the R6/R5 loop for just R2/R3 would make for a shorter ride with less elevation change
Options to lengthen the ride:
– explore more of the yellow area trails
– “ping pong” sections of the yellow and red trails, riding them in both directions
– reverse traversal and go down B6/B4/B5, taking the fire road up and back over to Brearley Hill Rd before moving on to the red/yellow trails
Riders wanting the light intro to flow trail style riding could loop section B7 a few times very easily as a warm-up to the concept, it is short enough to do so and lacks the larger jumps available on Y1 and B1.
*** More trail info ***
info : http://shindagin.com/
maintainers : http://www.cycle-cny.com/ / http://flcycling.org/off-road/cycle-cny-mountain-bike-club/
There are a few maps linked on shindagin.com
MTB Project info : http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/7000687
*** Directions ***
trailhead : 228 Braley Hill Rd, Brooktondale, NY 14817
To Shindagon Hollow from Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area (approximately 2 hour drive from Pittston Park N Ride)
– Take I-81 north towards Binghamton
– Continue on I-81 north towards Syracuse
– Exit I-81 at Whitney Point, get onto NY 79 heading West
– Go approximately 10 miles
– Just after the Slaterville Fire Station turn LEFT onto Creamery Rd
– At T intersection turn LEFT onto NY 115 / Valley Rd
– At Y intersection turn RIGHT onto Braley Hill Rd
– Trailhead will be just a short ways past the crest of the hill on the left
*** Weather and Rainfall ***
US NOAA “weather.gov” is used as the reference for weather forecast and history.
forecast: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.4406&lon=-76.4966#.V2rrYfkrL4Y
hint: scroll down the page and click on the Hourly Weather Forecast graph for by-hour details.
rainfall: http://water.weather.gov/precip/
You may need to set the tabs to Water, Precipitation, and QPE: Quantitative Precipitation Estimates to get the cumulative rainfall map.
Switch Location to State/New York and set “View Yesterday’s Analysis” to “Last 7 Days” for most simple view.
You can then use the mouse to pan (click and drag) and zoom (scroll wheel in/out) the map display to focus on Ithaca.
The 1″ rainfall accumulation is shown in “medium green” on the map with the Precipitation Overlay on (the defaut).