Pine Hill Course Preview

We’d like to thank everyone entered to ride CJCR’s 54th Pine Hill Enduro! With a new format and some reclaimed singletrack trail, we have a lot going on that we’d like to preview.

We’ve had a large influx of entries compared to what we’re used to and it has come with its set of challenges for the club. We have a few things to ask of all who are coming so that we and other clubs can continue to do this in the future.

This is not a closed course event, public traffic will not be suspended. The speed limit on State Park maintained roads is 25 MPH. Law enforcement will be present. Your responsibility will promote the sport/series/riding opportunity.

  • Do not exceed 25 MPH in transfers, ample time has been allotted for you.
  • Parking will be tight, the park office requests no more than 2 vehicles per camp site. We ask that you stay out of ribboned off areas at the Campground/Parking Field.
  • Bring a form of ID to sign up, per AMA rules.
  • Do not cut the course! This goes beyond the matter of sportsmanship. From the ECEA’s long fought battles and work we have been rewarded the opportunity to use pre-approved trail and course mileage. Any deviation from the arrowed, defined course will terminate this opportunity for all NJ clubs. You will be DQ’d at a minimum.
  • Riding trail in Brendan T Byrne State Forest is only approved for organized, permitted events. DO NOT COME BACK TO RIDE! CJCR and other clubs will aid law enforcement.
  • Do not exceed 25 MPH in transfers, ample time has been allotted for you.

Now for the fun stuff.

The start will be located near the four way intersection at the Brendan T Byrne campground, by the cabins. From there, you will ride about a mile and a half of blacktop before arriving at the first Start Control. 

The first mile will catch a lot of people off guard. You will start straight into some tight twisties, use those shoulder callouses from last weekend. After crossing the road the trail opens up and the flow takes over. Like most of the course, much of this hasn’t been ridden in over a decade. There’s a few peaky, whooped out firecut connectors thrown in. It wouldn’t be a true Pine Hill without them. There’s a few more road crossings and we have flaggers there for you. You will check out after 5.4 ground miles. Head down the firecut and out on a 7 mile road ride to the next section. 

The second section will be familiar from past years. We’ll check you right into the stickfarm, where the trail will be far less straight than in years past. We did our best to find some fast and flowy trail before putting you back into the tight stuff. Eventually the trail opens back up into more fast and flowy, with a few slammer whoops in there. Eventually you’ll check out of this 4.2 mile section through the tightest chicane we could make to keep the scoring gals happy. A quick buzz up the road leads you to the third section.

The third section has both the biggest firecut whoops as well as some of the sweetest, freshest singletrack in the forest. At 3 miles it will be over quick. It’s a short ride back to the campground. Top off with gas and head out on a 40+ mile loop 2.

Another long road ride out of the gas available takes you to the start of section 4. Stay straight at the busy intersection, take direction from Team Fogueo flaggers. The section starts and ends on the infamous “whoop roads” with some old abandoned singletrack making up the bulk of the section. This trail was so abandoned that it basically didn’t exist anymore, only on a paper map. You rode past it all in the firecut sufferfest of last year’s final section. You’ll still be burning up from the whoop roads, the biggest whoops in the forest, but the trail makes it all worth it. 6 miles of old school central jersey sand trail. Check out and head out on the road through that busy intersection. You will ride through an observation point, smile and wave at your crew on the way to section 5.

The fifth section is as wacky as it is long. Over the course of this rhythmless 9.5 miler you will experience a lot of rapid change in scenery. There’s no rhythm here, so don’t work on finding it. Flowyness, stickfarms, controlled fire areas, Agonis style lawnmower trail, whooped firecuts, flat firecuts, short woods road drag races; this section has it all. The section finally settles into some twisty turny trail for the last 4 miles and takes a trip down “Tony’s Express” along the old railroad tracks. Bob and Tony Agonis used to play some gnarly timekeeping games here. More abandoned twisty turny singletrack finally brings you to the checkout. Hop back on Tony’s Express for a short bit before a short road ride to the final section. 

The sixth section isn’t nearly as long, at a mere 3 miles. This section has seen some traffic and is a favorite among CJCR and the boys on the other side of the forest. We had to throw some firecuts in to stretch the mileage but we found some old abandoned trail too. You will ride through last year’s forest fire area before checking out. From there it’s a long road back to the campground.

Thanks again to everyone entered to ride the Pine Hill Enduro. It has been very fun and rewarding to put this event together. We hope you enjoy riding it as much as we’ve enjoyed organizing it.