Allaire State Park - Singletrack Only Minutes From The Jersey Shore

Only a few years back, a visit to Allaire State Park required an umbrella, some sun block, and a towel. It was a landlocked beach, with not a drop of water in sight. Some trails started out deceivingly fun, and quickly ended up in a sandy place we like to call Hell. Hell was everywhere. Hell was not fun. Allaire was not fun.

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Allaire State Park offers several tunnels of love for you to explore.

Miles of singletrack make up for the occasional sand-trap in this 1000+ acre park.

Some sweet jumps are lurking nearby, and they're far from local secrets.

Fast-forward to 2005, and it's one of my favorite rides in NJ. What changed? The Allaire Trail Users Group. These guys have taken a park that was sorely in need of a makeover, and produced the Julia Roberts of riding spots. Trails that were badly eroded are now closed with an erosion-resistant detour in its place. Knee-deep mud holes are filled in. Sections where the roots have shown thru too much have been smoothed over. Occupying a mostly flat landscape (think “Jersey Shore”), you might wonder how it can even be called a challenge anymore.

And therein lies the beauty of Allaire- a trail system that is fun, and still moderately challenging. I don't know of a place to ride anywhere else in New Jersey with singletrack this twisty, which puts Allaire in it’s own special category of “technical.” Not in the sense that there are rocky climbs and descents, but that it’s so twisty it can be difficult to keep forward momentum sometimes. Throw in a few mid-trail 12-inch drops that can easily sneak up on you; some short, steep climbs; maybe some logs across the trail; and the riding stays interesting. These trails alternate with others where the flow allows you to pedal almost at full speed, zipping through corners and down straight-aways, for a healthy dose of dirt diversity.

Allaire can also be considered a freeriding training ground. I know what you're thinking, "How can someplace flat be a good for freeriding?" That's the whole point. It's flat enough that you can pedal your 45-pound bike around, and huck yourself off of the 4, 6, and even 8-foot drops that are there when you know where to look. Not that you have to look hard! Dirt jumps, tree rides. It's all here. Most of it isn’t sanctioned by the maintenance group though, and therefore periodically torn down (and rebuilt elsewhere).

Getting back to the more cross-country aspect though, the trails here are mostly beginner friendly, depending on the ones you choose. And that’s where the confusion sets in. With more than 20 miles of trail covering more than 1000 acres, the maps just suck. It's very hard to orient yourself, and even harder to learn which trails will make a beginner smile and an intermediate rider cringe. Too many trails turn off in the same direction, but don't actually continue in the same direction, and if you follow one the wrong way, you can quickly find yourself in the middle of nowhere fast. Many riders let this discourage them, but I'm telling you now, don't give up. Went the wrong way the first time? Go back to the parking lot and find a local to ride with. It makes all the difference.

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