Fort Rock Exeter, New Hampshire – Mountain Bike Trail Review

Brief:

Bring you’re A-game, no ifs, ands or buts. This is advanced intermediate – expert riding only. When you roll out to Exeter, you’re going to experience first hand all that stuff they taught you in grade school such as: Why is New Hampshire called the granite state? Why are there so many rock walls in the forests in New England? Can we ride on top of them? And you’ll understand why farmers fled New England for the great frontier known as the Midwest for farming – because they weren’t mountain bikers. Let Iowa grow the corn, and leave us with the most mouth-watering, technical, flowing singletrack completely enshrouded in dense New Hampshire old-growth forest. This trail system is at least 14 miles of flowing singletrack up, over, around, through and screaming down some highly technical rock gardens, some flowing dirt track, and features natural rock drops ranging from 2’ to 4’+, amazing man-made free ride obstacles (gapped ramps, planks…) sponsored by local riders and NEMBA – www.nemba.org and www.snemba.org , some dirt jumps with step-ups… (Side note: we still farm here in New Hampshire, and Exeter is home to fantastic local seacoast farms, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and cornfields, so bring the family, let them do the apple picking/petting zoo dance, and get your ass to the rodeo at Fort Rock.)

Getting There:

From Route 101, take Exit 10 to Rte 85 south, park at the trestle parking lot, about .25 – .5 mile south from the exit – when you see the giant granite trestle, turn right up the hill. Begin your ride by heading up the dirt road past the auto entrance that is blocked off to autos. Continue up the hill a couple hundred yards, and prepare to duck in to either the first or second trail head on the right. It doesn’t matter because you’ll end up riding a loop that is equally fun both ways, and I think it’s best if you discover the loops on the South side both ways to see the drops and down hills available to you. One thing becomes apparent within seconds: this trail network is going to make you work. There are long sections of large stones and boulders on the entrance to the trails, requiring you to muscle through and around the rocks. You’ll hit a little of everything on this side of the network. As you push through the trails – and consult the trail map at www.snemba.org , you’ll find that you can cross under Route 101 and into another section of trails. This section, the North Side offers more of the same, and really helps stretch out the ride. Read more