Ascutney Basin?

[Talisman]

Any one here ever ridden the Ascutney Basin? I saw the ad in this month's NEMBA Single Tracks. The website seems to be for insiders only. Someone posted on the NEMBA website that they subscribed to the Ascutney Basin group and the directions didn't include maps only ten pages of discriptions.

 

[djspookman]

Any one here ever ridden the Ascutney Basin? I saw the ad in this month's NEMBA Single Tracks. The website seems to be for insiders only. Someone posted on the NEMBA website that they subscribed to the Ascutney Basin group and the directions didn't include maps only ten pages of discriptions.

This is as far as I've gotten... http://www.stabvt.org/

I know they've been working on a ton of stuff over there, some of the trailwork by them is used in the VT 50 course that I used to race in (http://vermont50.com/) sweet single track......

dave

 

[bherder]

I posted that on the NEMBA site.

I went up there last Friday just for the day and tried to use the written trail descriptions to find trails. I found some off Roe Hill and Blood Hill, but trails do not have signs, there is no map, you just have to poke along on dirt roads till you see singletrack and try it.

Up on Blood Hill, I kept loosing the single track and was riding all kinds of wider trails. I don't want to ride where you're not allowed and jeapoadize the Vermont 50 so I did my best to get off those quickly and back onto singletrack. If someone bitched at me, I was going to show them the 10 pages of trail descriptions and say - I'm trying to find this trail.

I have done the Vermont 50 every year they've ever had it so I know where a lot of the singletrack is from the race but couldn't follow it. There's some singletrack that's in the race that you can ride, but should enter from a different spot. There's some singletrack in the race that you definitely should not ride. The only way to know is to pay to join their site and get the trail descriptions.

Also, I was told Garvin Hill was okay if you're alone or in a small group, but don't ride it with a lot of people, but that's not written in the trail description.

I sort of complained about all of this and they wrote me back and said they couldn't publish a map of the trails because most are on private land and they only have informal permission on some of it or the land owner didn't want their trails on a map. They told me to come to one of their Tuesday rides to learn the trails. All well and good if I didn't live so far away.

Anyway... I'd say they're making an effort to start something, but they've got a long long way to go before it's anything close to the Kingdom Trails.

Good trails, probably tons of them, but lousy trying to find them this way.

Oh - and lastly... I got kicked out of the Mt. Ascutney Resort Parking lot where the Vermont 50 starts. I was unloading my bike and some security guy asked if I was staying there, if I was going to ride the trails there, if I'd purchased a day membership to the fitness center and my answer to all was NO and he made me leave. So I went and parked over at the school. I've parked on Ascutney property every time I've ever ridden up there (which has been at least once or twice a year - all on just the dirt roads) for the past 10 years and never been told I couldn't park there. So - I don't know where they expect you to park. Seems like Ascutney resort must be hurting for money or something... No camping there for the 50 this year (probably forcing people to rent condos) and now no parking there. Ridiculous.

 

[bvibert]

Thanks for the info bherder and welcome to the forums.

 

[Talisman]

I posted that on the NEMBA site.

Thanks for positng such a detailed reply on the STAB trails. It is strange that on one hand the trails aren't mapped or marked, yet someone is advertising in Single Tracks. I was hoping that STAB would be well marked trails like the Kingdom Tarils only much closer.