[zackde]

Is it illegal to trail biking in any wooded area that is not designated? I map googled my place and there are a number of wooded areas here.

thanks

 

[dzm3]

I'm not a legal expert, but I bet it depends on the land ownership, and doing anything on someone's land without a permission is a trespassing.

dz

 

[Allamuchy Joe]

Is it illegal to trail biking in any wooded area that is not designated? I map googled my place and there are a number of wooded areas here.

thanks

Check out the site www.mtbnj.com -- it has places all over NJ that you can mountain bike in legally.

Also, you can bike in all the Wildlife Management Areas all summer long and only on Sundays during the hunting season.

Have fun.

 

[NJMX835]

There are tons of parks and WMA's to ride at in NJ (Ringwood, Wawayanda, Allamuchy, etc.

Most of the illegal places to ride suck anyway because of lack of good single track.

All you will find there mostly is beat up moto trails so it's not even worth it.

 

[mergs]

Is it illegal to trail biking in any wooded area that is not designated? I map googled my place and there are a number of wooded areas here.

thanks

Possibly. Its hard to say since there are no blanket rules for mtb on public land, the regulations totally depend upon who the land owner *is*. If its state owned land then the policy is set on a park by park basis by State of NJ, usually NJDEP or NJ fish and Game if its a "Wildlife Management Area". If its county owned, or muni-owned then the county or town set its own policies.

If you're talking about private land (which it sounds like above), then its totally up to the land owner to set policy. If there is a sign stating Private Property or No trespassing, assume that you cannot use it on foot or bike. If its not posted and you happen to ride on it, and are confronted by the land owner, chances are if you are polite and apologize the land owner will not care. However, any landowner reserves the right to call local police, who can charge trespassers. So unless you have permission, I can't recommend that you ride there even if its not properly posted.

My recommendation is to stay off private (unless you have landowner permission), and stick to public lands that allow moutain biking (and perhaps help the local crews with trail work once or twice a year). A Joe said, a great list of areas here http://www.mtbnj.com/directory.php