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Kingdom Trails VT vs. Raystown PA

Nov 16, 2007
33
0
A buddy of mine and I are planning a riding trip for the end of June and are trying to figure out where to go. We both like faster flow, berms and jumps vs climbing. We're both riding 5" trail bikes and used to ride a lot of DH. We're more about having fun while we ride than keeping track of cadence, etc.

So, leaving from NY for a 3 day trip, where do we go?
Kingdom or Raystown?
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,188
19,155
Canaderp
Can't comment on Kingdom as I have not been there, yet.

But Raystown was a lot of fun. They have a skills area with some jumps and stuff, but not much of that out on the actual trails unless you are absolutely sending some of the rollers. Really easy trails in general, but extremely fast rolling. If you ride a lot each day, you'll end up doing some trails twice...not that that's a bad thing. You can probably ride everything in one day if you give'r. The lake wasn't too cold a few weeks ago either.

@johnbryanpeters
 

Casey-Ryan

Monkey
Jan 2, 2012
142
1
Gloucester, MA
Have not road PA but have plenty of miles at KT. Definitely a place you can put some serious miles at and there is plenty of different flavors for everyone there.
 

Electric_City

Torture wrench
Apr 14, 2007
1,993
716
They're both smooth trail systems that I'd love to ride a hardtail on. KT has more variables though for sure. Raystown is super fun and has a lot more flow than K.

Raystown has the green circle, blue square and black diamond markings, but don't be fooled. If you can ride a mountain bike, you can ride any of them. The only difference is at the end of the day you'll find out that the blacks are a little steeper to pedal out of than the greens like Doe and Buck. But not hard by any means. You can cover 12 miles in about an hour easily. Break your days up. Ride one side in the am and do, say 16 miles. In the afternoon/night do 12. You'll get in a lot of miles here. There's 2 rock gardens about 100' long and not far apart. The thing about Raystown is that you'll love it... Then you'll kinda fell like it's the same thing over and over... Then you'll miss it in a week and start planning your next trip back. There's also Rothrock very close by. Stop at Rothrock outfitters in Huntingdon and get the purple lizard map. Rothrock is polar opposite of Raystown so you'll get in a good mix. You can camp at 7 points ($25 night) which has mostly campers/rv's, but it also has a power and maintained showers/bathrooms. The Susquehannock campground is a primitive camping area. No water/showers/power. The toilets are holes into the ground. The campsites aren't leveled either. They're cheaper than 7 points, but I forgot how much.

KT- it's kinda like 4-5 small hills in a row on one side and Burke on the other. You pedal up a small hill and get to enjoy a cool down hill section. You can reclimb the same hill to enjoy 2-3 down hill sections and then pedal up another hill to some new stuff. Sidewinder is a "signature" run. Hit it, it's fun. Moose ally is worth it. That's on the Burke side. There's Burke itself which you can DH if you want by buying a lift ticket. The camping on Burke ($45-60 per night!) has no power but they do have showers. The town of Burke has showers also (like $1). At K, everybody is a rider and the riders are kinda catered to. There's only about 20 buildings/homes in Burke,so I guess they kinda have to like you. Lol.

Each is fun and has its pros and cons. Ride one this year and one next if you can.
 
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