Bethpage State Park

I almost called this post "The Blah Witch Project." Almost as horrifying as getting chased around the woods by supernatural nastiness, is riding around, bored, desperately trying to find the trails. That's pretty much what happened today. Bethpage had been on my radar to try out as it's one of the few local riding spots with a bike rental store close by. So I hit the trains again and made my way out to Long Island. The weather was overcast. Flat grey light but thankfully little rain. My ride ; a GT hardtail. Generic, and long stemmed, but it did the job.

Following the shop owner's descriptions, I made my way into Bethpage and found what appeared to be the trail head. Except there were lots of them. The place is very odd. There's the choice of a signed fireroad loop or a spaghetti mess of trails in the centre. A few random trail markers only add to the confusion. So I spent the afternoon trying to make sense of the tangled singletrack, desperately looking for flow. It didn't happen. Coupled with the flat terrain and constantly branching tracks, I just rode around getting frustrated. A few trail features and jumps here and there a tantalising hint that people DO ride here.... I just couldn't figure out what and how. Still, it keeps everything bubbling along. Not a killer workout but enough to stop my legs from withering. And that Norcal singletrack will be all the more sweeter once I'm done with these grey, flat New York trails.