Ski resorts during the Spring/Summer season...

Does anyone know of any East Coast ski resorts that cater to mountain bikers during the Spring/Summer season (I assume there would be a decent chance that they would allow uni’s if they allow mountain bikes)?

Has anyone ridden their Coker down the trails at a ski resort? Are all the trails that skiers have access to also available to cyclists, or just a portion of them? What difficulty level trails (ie: green circle, blue square, black diamond, double diamond) have been ridden on a uni (and on a Coker, specifically)?

i’m gunna answer for west-coasters, although i HAVE heard of a ski resort outside of new york in a mountain biking mag, lemme get the name and put it in later
anyways, whistler (according to nathan hoover) took a lot of convincing a few years ago to let them MUni it, but it prbly is fine now
and tahoe (northstar) has had conventions there , so it’s fine
i’ve done black diamonds at northstar on my bike, and they’d be doable on a 24" MUni, but hard, and cokering would be almost out of the question unless u can jump like hell on rocks and stuff
blacks at whistler (where i’m bikin this summer) sound like the double blacks at tahoe (8-foot drops n e one) so yeah
i think blues at whistler could possibly cokerable if they’re just steep but smooth

EDIT: The park in new york is called Plattekill and is 2.5 hrs outside of NYC
go to www.plattekill.com/bike for more info

Wow… this forum never ceases to amaze me! Thanks a lot, ColDawG… I’m psyched to check that place out - and it’s not a very far drive for me at all! You totally hooked me up (assuming they allow uni’s, which I’ll confirm ASAP)! Any other riders who want to ride there should let me know…

For those who have never biked or unicycled on a ski mountain:

All the ski mountains I’ve ridden on had mountain bike trails on them. Nobody wants to ride straight down the hill (okay, most people don’t). Northstar, for example, has a huge network of trails of all levels. Everything from easy (and relatively flat) fireroads to ultra-gnarly rock piles where I have to walk a lot.

Let me see if I can remember all the ones where I’ve “officially” ridden. Northstar-at-Tahoe, The Summit at the Snoqualmie Pass in WA, Fujiama Panorama Resort in Japan (Unicon XII), Snowbird in Utah (NAUCC last summer). The MUni race location from the Toronto NAUCC (I think that’s a ski place). Hmm. Is that all? I think I’m forgetting something.

Snowbird does apparently have a rule against unicycles. Our big group ride there was a first-time thing for them. Unfortunately a mountain bike race was apparently occupying the more interesting trails, so we had to ride down some pretty basic fire roads.

Riding straight down a ski run is generally too straight, and too steep to be much fun. Also, the ski runs are not “groomed” in any way during the off-season, so they’re grassy, rocky, bumpy, or whatever. I prefer a trail that traverses the runs.

It should be possible to do a Web search on “mountain bike parks” or similar, including NY, NJ, CT, MA. Though I’ll admit, some of the Tahoe resorts have no “summer” information easily accessible during the ski season, and vice-versa. Also you can ask bikers or at bike shops. I’m sure there are places out there.

If you go to a ski place to unicycle, I advise against asking in advance. If you ask, they may say no. Then it’s no for everyone. Better to just show up. Since a Coker is so obvious, I’d keep it out of sight until you go to the lift, if possible. If the people at the lift give you a hard time, just drop names like Northstar, Whistler, etc. and act like you’ve done it a hundred times before.

If it’s a “real” mountain, I think you’re going to want a brake… :wink:

Mt. Hood Ski Bowl at Government Camp in Oregon has Mt. Bike trails with lift.

Last summer I was passing through and did a single run on the NORBA Down Hill mountain bike race courses, descending 1,200’ in just two miles! (Click link for map).

Midweek only the lower chair is open so I took the Lower Bowl chair, rode/walked the Skyline Road up and did the Cannon Ball and Fire Hydrant Trail. It was a very challenging downhill run.

It would be fun to spend a day there and explore the lake and some other trails. (If you don’t mind using the chair lift and risking negative gravity karma.)

Thanks, John… I found your response to be quite interesting and extremely informative (as is often the case). I will take all of your advice to heart… I just hope they’re not real hardasses and turn me down after I make the 2 1/2 hour journey upstate with my gear!

Hey Andrew, Hunter is the closest mountain for us NYer’s. I took this from their website.

“July 2: Mountain Biking and summer Skyride open for the season. Mountain Biking will be open weekends through October 2nd. The Skyride will be open weekends and Wednesdays in July and August, and weekends only from September 3rd through October 9th.”

Hunter’s website