Renegades bike club was founded to create a venue for riders in southern Ulster county, NY. With fuel prices rising and the "go green" revolution in full stride a group of us felt that we should try to ride closer to home.
There are great trails throughout the area but most are a minimum 40 minute drive. We get to a number of these trails during the riding season but for our everyday workouts closer is better. Hence the collaboration with the Town of Wawarsing (Ellenville).
Ideas had been floated over the years on what to do with the park. The town even had a master plan drawn up by an environmental planning company in Schenectady, NY. The plan had included soccer fields, equestrian access, hiking trails and an amphitheater for outdoor concerts. But with the tough economic times none of these things have come about.
Back in the summer of 2009 a group of us approached the Town of Wawarsing with the concept of creating a network of trails in Lippman park. Since last year Renegades has garnered a great bunch of very-involved individuals. The first year we put in over 800 man hours into trail creation. And in the last two 1100 and 1500 hours.
As of January of 2012 we have been in negotiations with the Town of Liberty, NY to create and maintain trails at Walnut Mountain park. We are very excited about this new stewardship. Walnut Mountain's 265 acres has great potential and the town is willing to work with us to make Walnut another mountain biking mecca in the lower Hudson Valley.
After a few meetings with town officials and many hours of scouting potential areas for trail creation we finally broke ground in September 2009. As of December 2011 we have constructed over 13 miles of single track. The trails are purposely built, judicially using the 175 acres of town land. Banked turns, raised boardwalks, skinnies and other features are and will be included throughout the trail system-making Lippman park one of the only areas in the Hudson Valley to allow such construction.
With Minnewaska State Park and Mohonk Preserve less than 10 miles from Lippman park we feel that the single track here should provide riders with a great alternative to carriage roads.
If you are in the area and would like a little help getting around the trails for your first time-drop us a note and we would be happy to take you on a tour.