- May 31, 2002
- 1,233
- 2
**For the condenced version, check the second post**
lost trails web site
OK, as I posted the other Day, Lost Trails officially opened thier new park yesterday, and I got a chance to go and check it out today.(Wish I had gone yesterday since Nate and his wife were there, but I'm sure I will meet up with them some time this summer.)
First off, The park is very easy to find, and less than a mile off the highway. It is just a little outside of Scranton, near the intersectiosn of Rtes 380/84 and 81. I was extremely pleased to see a paved parking lot for us, no more dust in our lunch, although that also means no dirt to drive stakes into for tents/canopys/E-Z ups.
The parking is actually the upper parking lot above North American Warhorse , which means we have a motorcycle shop/service center right next to the parking lot for those flat tires/broken levers/forgotten oils, or whatever we may need. Although as of now, the service center and showroom are not open on Sundays. The Checkin for Lost Trails is actually inside of Warhorse' building, and they do have vending machines available for the quick snack. As of right now, there is not yet any lunch available on site, but it is in the works.
OK, now that we checked in, its off to explore, and there is a lot of exploring to do with 2000 acres of property in front of us. The current maps, which are only temporary until better maps are finished give a general idea of the park, and show most of the trails that are open so far. The trails are not named as they were in the old park, I'm not sure if it is planned to name them all in the future or not, and with the current *temporary* map, I would advise checking the map frequently, or at every intersection on the trails to keep your bearing of where you are. If you drive out to the middle of the park, and then decide to look at the map to find your way back, it may be hard to determine exactly where you are in respect to the map. There are signs around the park directing you back towards the parking lot if you do have trouble following the map. And of course, new maps are in the works.
Most of the trails are 1 way, with a few 2 way trails, and again, they have 3 difficulty levels, green/blue and red, green being the easiest, and red the hardest. There are also landmarks around the park which are marked on the map, such as *bridge*, which crosses the river, for those who dont want to take the chance of drowning thier bikes in the river, but you can cross through the water if you want. *Burnt out bus*, which is just what it says, the shell of a burnt out bus. How the hell it got there, I have no idea. *Top of the World*, which is an amazing lookout point where you can see for miles in almost any direction, as well as other landmarks.
OK, back to the riding. First off, I cant really compare much in the new park to the old Lost Trails. They dont have the power lines as a main thruway, and the 2 way main trail is a little narrow. But I'm sure that will naturally widen itself through normal use of the trails. At the start of the trails is of course the easiest trails, which are marked as the "Beginner Friendly Area" on the map, which is all easy green trails.
After the beginner friendly area, is where the fun begins, and since I cant really compare this to the old park, how about I try and compare it to something else... Does anybody remember a place called Paragon? Now of course there will never be another Paragon, but terrain wise, I dont think you can get much closer. As I was heading down the first trail, after I crossed the bridge, the trail reminded me a lot of doe run, and further into the park, as I was heading up a hill, the first thing that came to mind was a mini turtle trail, minus the steep drop on the side of the trail, and not as long of a hill. Of course I am just talking about the terrain in these areas, and much of the terrain at Lost trails is similar to what Paragon had. There are also some old rail beds which give a chance for recovering after a rough section. Of course through out the park are also the easy trails, but what fun is it to ride them. As I said before, the maps are temporary and not completed, as many of the trails are still a work in progress. I followed one green trail, not on the map, which was an amazingly smooth trail at the start, but did get a little slick and wet and then run to water crossing, before bringing me out on the back side of the mud pit.
I didnt have a chance to cover the entire park with only 1 day of riding, but I did see enough to know that I am going to have a lot of fun riding this summer. Of course the park is a work in progress, and will be changing pretty quickly. There is no single track *YET*, but I hope to start working on changing that in the next few weeks, I just want to do some more exploring of what they already have before starting on that. All in all, it was an awesome first ride for the year, and its great to see that Tony, Leslie and thier family didnt give up after the old park was closed.
For those who dont like trail riding, and prefer to see how fast they can go, or how high they can jump before gravity kicks in, the owners of Lost Trails also own and run Headquarters motocross which is about 15 minutes away from Lost Trails.
Now we just need to get started on planning a Damn Yankees Spring ride at Lost Trails, who is in?
lost trails web site
OK, as I posted the other Day, Lost Trails officially opened thier new park yesterday, and I got a chance to go and check it out today.(Wish I had gone yesterday since Nate and his wife were there, but I'm sure I will meet up with them some time this summer.)
First off, The park is very easy to find, and less than a mile off the highway. It is just a little outside of Scranton, near the intersectiosn of Rtes 380/84 and 81. I was extremely pleased to see a paved parking lot for us, no more dust in our lunch, although that also means no dirt to drive stakes into for tents/canopys/E-Z ups.
The parking is actually the upper parking lot above North American Warhorse , which means we have a motorcycle shop/service center right next to the parking lot for those flat tires/broken levers/forgotten oils, or whatever we may need. Although as of now, the service center and showroom are not open on Sundays. The Checkin for Lost Trails is actually inside of Warhorse' building, and they do have vending machines available for the quick snack. As of right now, there is not yet any lunch available on site, but it is in the works.
OK, now that we checked in, its off to explore, and there is a lot of exploring to do with 2000 acres of property in front of us. The current maps, which are only temporary until better maps are finished give a general idea of the park, and show most of the trails that are open so far. The trails are not named as they were in the old park, I'm not sure if it is planned to name them all in the future or not, and with the current *temporary* map, I would advise checking the map frequently, or at every intersection on the trails to keep your bearing of where you are. If you drive out to the middle of the park, and then decide to look at the map to find your way back, it may be hard to determine exactly where you are in respect to the map. There are signs around the park directing you back towards the parking lot if you do have trouble following the map. And of course, new maps are in the works.
Most of the trails are 1 way, with a few 2 way trails, and again, they have 3 difficulty levels, green/blue and red, green being the easiest, and red the hardest. There are also landmarks around the park which are marked on the map, such as *bridge*, which crosses the river, for those who dont want to take the chance of drowning thier bikes in the river, but you can cross through the water if you want. *Burnt out bus*, which is just what it says, the shell of a burnt out bus. How the hell it got there, I have no idea. *Top of the World*, which is an amazing lookout point where you can see for miles in almost any direction, as well as other landmarks.
OK, back to the riding. First off, I cant really compare much in the new park to the old Lost Trails. They dont have the power lines as a main thruway, and the 2 way main trail is a little narrow. But I'm sure that will naturally widen itself through normal use of the trails. At the start of the trails is of course the easiest trails, which are marked as the "Beginner Friendly Area" on the map, which is all easy green trails.
After the beginner friendly area, is where the fun begins, and since I cant really compare this to the old park, how about I try and compare it to something else... Does anybody remember a place called Paragon? Now of course there will never be another Paragon, but terrain wise, I dont think you can get much closer. As I was heading down the first trail, after I crossed the bridge, the trail reminded me a lot of doe run, and further into the park, as I was heading up a hill, the first thing that came to mind was a mini turtle trail, minus the steep drop on the side of the trail, and not as long of a hill. Of course I am just talking about the terrain in these areas, and much of the terrain at Lost trails is similar to what Paragon had. There are also some old rail beds which give a chance for recovering after a rough section. Of course through out the park are also the easy trails, but what fun is it to ride them. As I said before, the maps are temporary and not completed, as many of the trails are still a work in progress. I followed one green trail, not on the map, which was an amazingly smooth trail at the start, but did get a little slick and wet and then run to water crossing, before bringing me out on the back side of the mud pit.
I didnt have a chance to cover the entire park with only 1 day of riding, but I did see enough to know that I am going to have a lot of fun riding this summer. Of course the park is a work in progress, and will be changing pretty quickly. There is no single track *YET*, but I hope to start working on changing that in the next few weeks, I just want to do some more exploring of what they already have before starting on that. All in all, it was an awesome first ride for the year, and its great to see that Tony, Leslie and thier family didnt give up after the old park was closed.
For those who dont like trail riding, and prefer to see how fast they can go, or how high they can jump before gravity kicks in, the owners of Lost Trails also own and run Headquarters motocross which is about 15 minutes away from Lost Trails.
Now we just need to get started on planning a Damn Yankees Spring ride at Lost Trails, who is in?
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