Cunningham Park, Queens, NY

When I think mountain biking, I think Queens, right?  Um, no. For me, Queens elicits images of endless blocks of houses filled with Bunkers and Meatheads.

Little did I know.

I spent last week in Garden City, NY, on business and brought my mountain bike with me with the hope of locating something akin to mountain biking in Long Island.  The way I figured it, mountain bikers are the best people in the world, so it stands to reason Long Island mountain bikers are the best people in Long Island.  I should get with them. 

With almost no searching, I came across the Concerned Long Island Mountain Bikers (CLIMB) website.  And before I knew it, I had SO MANY mountain bike trails at my disposal. 

Having arrived on the Island Monday and worked the afternoon and still not checked in to the hotel, I decided to ride the closest place I could find. And that was Cunningham Park in Queens.

I was, as I think I may have already expressed, a little circumspect.  Queens?  Mountain biking?  No!  I left the office, fought traffic for 40 minutes to get 10 miles and found myself at Cunningham Park.  I was parked along the street with ball fields all around.  Hmm?  I recall the website mentioned black diamonds.  Did they mean baseball diamonds?  Crazy Long Islanders!

So I stripped in my Element, as is my wont.  Less good idea in Queens than in Sutton.  Seems to be more pedestrian traffic trying to sneak a peek.  Having successfully maintained my privacy, I pulled my Gary Fisher Hi-Fi from my car and started riding up the sidewalk with a map tucked in my spandex.

I looked here.  I looked there.  Everywhere.  But was having a hell of a time finding a trail.  The park was bisected in on direction by 73rd Ave and the other way by the Clearview Expressway.  Poking around was not working, so against my better man-stincts, I swallowed my pride and pulled out the map.  After consulting some feller who had no idea about any mountain biking trails, I hit him up for basic directions to get a handle on the map.  Knowing the direction of the LIE, I now had enough reference points to figure out the map and was off. 

If you go, the answer is to park as close to the intersection of 210th St and 67th Ave.  That is the trailhead.

The Promised Land

I met up with a guy from Philly as I was about to head in. He had just finished up riding, but explained the layout.  Go in and take the first left.  It's a directional trail, so that was really the only option.  He told me the trail would be blue, but wherever I saw a black diamond, I should take it and it would go through some cool terrain before dropping me right back on the blue.  So easy even Bryan Quach could ride it without getting lost.

And I was off.  The trail was firm, hard-packed dirt.  Super firm, super grippy.  It was immediately obvious countless tires had been over it. And that it might be the best maintained trail system I've ever ridden.  It kind of felt like going to the zoo.  Or Disney.  Where everything looks real.  But you know it's man-made.  Lots of obstacles.  All rideable.

 

The course twisted and turned, making great use of limited space.  And the black diamond offshoots were tons of fun.  They were challenging without being impossible.  Flowy and fast with some log piles -- some of which were optional, others which weren't.  About halfway through the east side loop, I came across a wide open area with a whole mess of dirt jumps and a nice skinny up the middle.

After this the trail headed on along the Clearview, often coming within 10 - 20 yards of the nutzo traffic.  While you wouldn't think it relaxing riding almost in rush hour traffic, it was somehow very peaceful, knowing it was right there and I was right where I was.  I passed by a pedestrian overpass arching the Clearview as the trail seemed to keep going on the east side.  A lot more great stuff.  Strategically placed logs and obstacles that made you want to go back and hit them again.  Not bony.  Not too rooty.  Just some solid mountain biking.  

The trail, after about three miles, came back to the beginning.  I still had some daylight to burn so I hit it again with an eye on crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Clearview.  I cruised through the first half of the east side, this time making much better time and enjoying hitting it at speed. 

I crossed over the Clearview, stopping to gaze down at the traffic and quickly moving on to regain my hidden utopia.  The west side was immediately climbier.  And there were finally some rocks.  Ah, more my style.  Less than a mile in, I saw my car through the woods.  I can't believe I had no idea the trails were right in front of me when I was in my car.  Amazing! 

I was getting through some pretty techy stuff.  Roots, rocks and trees forcing my line as I went, but getting through it all.  After a particularly hilly section, I cruised down a hill and by a tree which reminded me I was in Long Island.

There were a few more cool obstacles along the west side, including this piece of awesomeness. 

And before I knew what happened, I came out at the craziest looking dirt jump area I've ever seen.

I looked at it.  I thought about me.  Then I moved on to continue on the singletrack.  Within a mile or two I was back to the car with almost zero daylight to spare.

9.90 miles on the Garmin.  I would have gone in and ridden it all over again.  It was that fun!

Bottom line, if you are ever in the area, you NEED to go to Cunningham Park in Queens, yes Queens, NY.  

Here's the Garmin track.

Woo hoo!