Orange County Snowboards

Local Bike Spots! - 4/23/20

To help you stay healthy and active during the shutdown, here is a list of some local bike spots, complete with parking and access points, and even some historical factoids for your imagination on your ride! Read all the way to the end for some of our favorite resources we use to help us plan our rides!

COVID CLOSURES: From my research, New York State Parks are open, New Jersey State Parks and Forests are closed, most wildlife preserves seem to be open and county parks seem to vary, so check your town's website before heading out! All of these spots are all open!!

The Heritage Trail

Trail map: Trail Map on Traillink.com

The Heritage Trail is a 14.5 mile long paved trail from Goshen to Harriman. It is open to walkers, bikers, and rollerbladers. It is an easy going ride, with very gentle grades, letting you soak in the scenery! The trail goes through the village of Goshen, Chester and Monroe, winding through swamps, fields and woods along the way, ending in Harriman. There are a number of points of interest along the route and great food spots! The trail's western terminus is on Hartley Road in Goshen, and currently the eastern terminus is a dead-end in Harriman.

The Heritage Trail uses the land that once was home to the tracks of the Erie Railroad. The railroad’s main line once stretched from Piermont, NY, up through Goshen, over to Carbondale in PA, through western New York below the Finger Lakes, and ended in Dunkirk, NY on the shores of Lake Erie! The stretch of track from Peirmont to Goshen was opened in 1841, and the the entire length of the main line was completed in 1851. A number of offshoots were also created, including a branch from Chester to Newburgh completed in 1850.

Access Points/Parking:

Hartley Road in Goshen. Note there is only room enough for 2 or 3 cars here.
St.James Place, a large lot in Goshen, plenty of spaces and near the western terminus.
Chester Depot Museum, Village of Chester
Millpond Park Park-n-Ride in Monroe

Points of Interest along the trail:

6 ½ Station Sanctuary, a 62 acre bird sanctuary, a very serene sight!
Orange County Snowboards, Ski and Bike! We are located at the intersection of Old Chester Road! (Currently by appointment only)
Depot Museum in Chester, historical exhibits and events (Currently Closed)
Rushing Duck Brewery in Chester has a tasting room! (Currently Closed, but check these spots out in the future!)

Seven Lakes Drive, Harriman State Park

11mi From Silver Mine Parking Area to Reeves Meadow Information Center

Seven Lakes Drive is a beautiful stretch of roadway that winds through Harriman State Park. The roadway is smooth with a good shoulder, undulating hills and many picturesque lakes along the way. This is a shared roadway with cars, but is a common bike route. Keep in mind that if you choose to start at Silver Mine Lake that your ride will be mainly downhill going out, and uphill going back, but you can do it!

History Time!:
Seven Lakes Drive was completed in stages and went through a few different iterations before it became the road you use today. The earliest pieces of the road were constructed in the 1910s, connecting to Bear Mountain. The 7 mile stretch from Kanawauke Circle down to Sloatsburg was built in the 1960s. Before this was built, the Seven Lakes Drive followed Johnsontown Road, which is still in use today. At the time of its naming, the road indeed passed by seven lakes, as its name implies. But because of the changing of its route, it actually passes by nine lakes today. Woo hoo!

Although silver in those hills turned out to be just a legend, Silver Mine Lake / Parking area was once the home of a ski hill, the Silver Mine Ski Resort, operated from 1936 to 1986. Like many other small resorts in the Hudson Valley, Silver Mine was in its heyday in the 1960s. It had some variety in its terrain, what sounded like quite a comfy lodge, and even snowmaking equipment that was cutting edge for its time. However by the 70s, the resort did not have enough funding to upgrade to a chairlift, and was still using tow-ropes. The operators, with the support of patrons, made some attempts to receive funding from New York State to make upgrades, but they never came to fruition, and the resort eventually closed in 1986. It seems that many have a soft spot still in their hearts for Silver Mine, and in the winter some folks still hike it to ski or go sledding on the old ski runs.

Access Points/Parking:

Silver Mine Parking Area in Stony Point: Will come up as “Old Silver Mine” in Google maps, off of Seven Lakes Drive.
Late Tiorati: There is ample parking at Lake Tiorati if you wanted to cut this trip in half!
Reeves Meadow Information Center in Sloatsburg. Please note that Reeves Meadow is fairly limited in parking. Come early or on a weekday if you want to park here.

Points of Interest:

There are a handful of great restaurants in Sloatsburg. Just continue 1.5 mi past Reeve’s Meadow Visitor Center and hang a left. (Most are offering takeout! Whats better than a picnic mid-ride anyway?)
The now defunct Silver Mine Ski Resort, scope it out for winter use!
There are many hiking options along Seven Lakes Drive if you wanted to make a whole day out of it! Just be sure to have a good map of Harriman, the trails can be kind of confusing.

Stewart State Forest

The Stewart State Forest located in New Windsor, NY has a great variety of trails through woods, wetlands and fields. It has 18 miles of gravel roads, and many mountain bike trails, most in the intermediate category, with a few easy. Biking is allowed on trails makes as such, as well as any multiple use trail. The Ant Hill trail is a fun and twisty intermediate trail, or check out Buchanan Oil (pictured to the right) for a nice open hill top and view!

Click here to see the trail map!

Access Points/Parking:

North end of Ridge Road and at Weed Road Google Maps
Along the shoulder of South and North Barron Roads outside the gates Google Maps
East of Drury Lane (Rt. 747) along Route 207 Google Maps

Resources to help you plan your bike trips!

bikehudsonvalley.com- A great website to get started on! This site links you to maps, as well individual county and town websites to get more info.

trailforks.com - A mountain bike centered site, but is expanding into other actives as well!

traillink.com- This site is very easy to us, has great maps and is free to sign up. I like how you can search by area, and see them all laid out on a map. It's a great way to find new spots!

Gear Storage Tips for the Summertime - 4/6/20

When the season comes to an end, show your board the love it really needs and prepare it to have a good summer rest. Follow these tips for proper gear storage during the off season and your gear will treat you right for years to come!

Remove bindings. Be sure to have good form and provide good downward pressure on your screwdriver so you don’t strip the screws. Your screws shouldn’t be insanely tight to begin with, but if you were bad and haven’t taken your bindings off in a long time they could be tight. In general it’s a good idea to remove your bindings from time to time to let the inserts dry out during the season as well.

Check your binding straps. You don’t want to arrive on opening day next season just to find that you have a broken strap or ratchet! Unless your bindings are pretty current, you or your local shop might have to order replacement parts, which can take a few days or longer. Rigging something is a possibility, but night not be the best fit.

Take care of your edges. You want to make sure there is no major damage, and also smooth out some of the dents and dings you may have in your edges. The fewer nooks and crannies for moisture to get into the better! I would recommend using a diamond stone on your base edge. Just like when I tune my edges in the season, I just like to have a cup of water nearby so I can keep the stone wet, and rinse off the little particles as I go along. Keep the stone flat with the base, and gently go back and forth down the base edge. Give a little bit more time where you feel the stone catching. For the side edge, I use an edge tuning like the one pictured below, since it is easier to keep the desired angle to your edges. Run it in one direction down the length of the side edge a few times in the direction of the little arrow on the file. Last, use a soft gummy to smooth it all out.

Edge File Tool

One Ball's soft gummy.

Clean all the dirt off. It’s always a good idea to keep your board clean, but spring riding can really get it dirty! Clean that thing up before you put it to rest! If you have a lot of dirt on your topsheet, use some warm soapy water to get the bulk of it off. Follow that up with a citrus cleaner and it will be all nice and glossy! Using a citrus cleaner is best practice as it is gentle and gets the job done. Whatever you do, don't ignore cleaning the base! You will likely have crap in your base even if you can’t really see it. Old wax buildup, excessive mud from riding at Mountain Creek (jk I love you) “nucleating agents” that are used sometimes in snowmaking, and other random grime, can all settle into your base, and clog the pores. And you want wax to be able to fill into the base, not crap. Using harsh cleaners like rubbing alcohol or bleach will excessively dry out your board, so just stick to the citrus cleaners. You can buy ones specifically designed for snowboard bases, or you can buy citrus cleaners like GooGone in the grocery store, just check the label and make sure there isn’t anything like Amonia or other spooky ingredients.

One Ball's Base Cleaner

Summer wax. Once the board is dry, give it a nice THICK coat of all-temp or warm weather wax. Apply a thicker coat than you normally would, and let it cover the edges. Don’t scrape the wax, just let it cool and store it with the wax on. Just to clarify, you would use hot wax, the rub on kind isn’t going to do much in this situation. If you don’t already have a tuning iron, don’t use your clothing iron, unless you don’t want to use it on clothes again! I got my first iron at a yard sale for $5. It was a travel iron for clothing. Irons like these will work okay, but I strongly recommend getting an iron designed for tuning. They are usually broader in shape, helping you to spread the wax and have a temperature setting so you can adjust the heat exactly to the degree the wax is designed to melt at, and you run less of a risk of damaging the board.

All- temp hot wax

Store your board standing on end in a dry, warmish, and dark place. Storing your board in a boardbag is a great way for it to spend it’s summer vacation! Bag or not, lean it up against a wall with the base of the board as close to the wall as you can get it without it falling over. Storing the board flat on the ground (over time) can affect it’s camber shape. For the love of all things don’t put it in the garage!!! I know it's a SNOWboard, but prolonged exposure to cool temperatures can make materials brittle. Additionally, avoid a sunny place. Sunlight will only cause fading, and again, breaking down of the materials in the board.

Rome Roadie Bag

Don't forget about ya boots!!! Brush off dirt from snowboarding boots with a stiff plastic bristle brush, and apply leather conditioner if your boots are the real stuff. Do yourself a favor and throw some shoe deodorizers in there too to help absorb any moisture. Mold grows in boots. It's nasty. And again, same thing, store them inside, somewhere darkish, for the same reasons.

Something like these. This brand works well though, they have a pleasant smell and get the job done.

These are my tips for summer gear storage that I’ve used on my boards. There is definitely a lot of information out there, and it seems people have some different methods, but this is just what I do at home based on what I’ve learned, using tools that are easy to find and use. Do you have any other tips or thoughts on gear storage? If so, email me at ocsnowboards1778@gmail.com, or write on our facebook page!

**No compensation was received from any of the brands mentioned, but we do carry some of these products in our store!

My Experience at a Women's Park Progression Snowboard Camp - 3/31/20

This past February, I had the awesome experience of attending an all women’s snowboard camp right here in our backyard at Mountain Creek in Vernon, NJ! What could be better than a beautifully made private terrain park, badass pro snowboarders to guide and inspire you, and a bunch of like-minded riders learning and progressing together?

What is it?
Beyond the Boundaries is a women’s snowboarding camp that is open to women and girls of all ages, at an intermediate riding level or above. They offer a variety of trips, from backcountry riding in Canada and Japan, to completely park-focused clinics like the one I attended, hosted annually by Mountain Creek. For more information and the full list of pros involved check out the Beyond the Boundaries website, www.btbounds.com.

The coaches

Snowboarder Utopia!
Each day began with a gentle yoga session before heading out onto the hill. A closed off terrain park of small and medium features was set up for us, with a variety of jib and jump features. The park crew at Mountain Creek did a phenomenal job of creating a fun park that had something for everyone! While on the hill, we had some structured time in groups with our coaches, as well as time to “choose our own adventure” and work on tricks of our choosing. This structuring was really cool because we all have our own goals, and I feel like this was a great way to get some coaching on the specific things I came to learn!

Everyone gave each other space to try new things, encouraged each other and tons of cheering and good vibes were in the air. The coaches were seriously awesome and really made the experience. They lent not only their expertise, but also their positive energy and enthusiasm for the sport.

Taylor Elliot and Ari Marrone coaching at a down-box.

Why the Segregation?
So you, like I did, might be asking yourself, why do girls need their own special time to learn separately? It seems that for many, guys and girls just approach park riding differently. For a lot of girls, snowboarding is as much a mental game than anything else. For better or worse, women just THINK a lot. A lot of us need an extra moment to think through what we are doing before we do it. We seem to weigh the risks more, which leads to fear, which gets in the way of progression if you don’t own that fear and decide to love it (an adaptation of some inspirational words from pro rider and coach Taylor Elliot!). I'm not saying girls can’t or don’t have a great time with the guys out there, but coming together with others like you who have the same goals is empowering! Since women are far outnumbered by men in snowboarding, it’s important for women to continue to establish their presence in this sport and feel confident in it. If you’re a female snowboarder out there, and these sentiments resonate with you, you will be among good company at BT Bounds!

I had a blast on the cannon rail. Maybe in my next lifetime I'll look as slick as pro-rider Summer Fenton (on bottom, dur). It was so fun hitting these features together with such inspirational ladies!

As for the future:
Should we keep this rolling in the North Jersey / Orange County area? I think it would be really cool in the future to have a local group of girls who are progression-oriented to meet up and ride in the future. It wouldn’t be coaching exactly, just helping each other out at the mountain and having fun. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please email me at ocsnowboards1778@gmail.com, or hit us up on our facebook page!

OC Snowboards seriously has one of the best selections of women’s snowboarding gear that I have seen in the area. (I was a customer before I began working here!) Our boards, boots and bindings will be displayed all summer long and are available through our website. 2020 models are priced to sell, baby! I had a chance to ride some of the 2021 models we will be carrying next season, definitely some exciting stuff to look forward to! More to come on that soon!

*I did not receive any compensation from Beyond the Boundaries or Mountain Creek to write this blog post. I was just an attendee who wanted to share my experience!

Photo Credits to Mary Walsh and Chris Vanderyajt

ThirtyTwo "2032" Teaser Video

2015-2016 Good Wood Board Test from Transworld Snowboarding