Topic: Hot Spots to hit in Croom? Anyone have favorite places?

[Dean Palmer]

Looking over the available information, and looking at the posted maps, there is not a lot of information on where the best places to hit are in Croom.

There is a place listed as "the pits" and I'm not sure if we ran into that area already. We came across a sign that directedus to a trail called "drunken Monkey" that took us to a hilly and semi-challenging area along the blue trail just north of parking area #3 and East of road #9. The pits area on the map is shown to be north and west of there, but I'm not sure if there are two different areas, and we missed one. Anyone familiar with this trail?

Also, are there any other areas out there that are not just sandy fire trails, but better packed trails with more elevation changes? I know we won't find anything like Alafia, but I'm guessing someone has found some cool spots that might be worth the effort. GPS coordinates would be great as well.

Any help and precise directions appreciated

[Garry]

Dean there's 60 miles of trail out there, and not all of it sandy; you didn't find any?  Just north of Parking #3 and east of FR9 is like over 3 miles as the crow flies.  Lots of trail in between.  Also when not in the rainy season more open trails without good tree cover offer sand, and we are still experiencing the effects of the the motocross damage to some of the blue trails.  There is a pits area near FR #2 and FR #9.  Actually some particular spot in that area sucks in tall guys to the opposing hillside so watch out! 

There is lots of single track and the fire roads are not part of the mountain bike trails.  In the rainy season Croom is a fast fun place to ride. Actually, it's pretty nice year round, but I'm sick that way.

Download a map and pick and choose, or join the next group ride out there.

[Meerkat Surprise]

If you keep heading north from Drunken Monkey for another mile or two you will hit the pits sections (not far beyond the 8-mile bailout). Continue past the pits and you finally get to the trails that weren't torn to shreds by the motocross guys. With the rain we got this morning, and the cooler weather, the next couple of days out there should be great. If I get out of my last final tomorrow with enough time I'll be hitting up a short ride in the late afternoon.

[SandPine]

Marsha we should hook up. I am hoping to hit parking 1 by 4pm today. I'll Be in dade city all day so when done helping Latte I am hoping for a croom ride. I plan to ride south red to blue and do the 35 miler course if I get out there earlier.

[Luis]

My favorite ride in Croom involves riding pretty much everything... go explore, get lost and have fun 

[Garry]

I used to struggle at Croom.  Got lost one day - learned it after that - and love it now.

[Luis]

Speaking of Croom...can anyone report on the trail conditions? looking to do a long ride Sunday...

[Dean Palmer]

Thanks everyone. We will be out there tomorrow morning, probably parking by the fire tower at #3 and going from there.

[Dean Palmer]

To follow up, it was a good day, and the rains had packed down most of the sandy areas a bit. Still some hunters out there however, and we made good use of our Incredibells to let them know we were not available for target practice 

As other have said, Croom has a lot of varied terrain and enough miles to satisfy anyone. We found the pit area south of parking area #3 and a few other areas that gave us some climbs and downhill runs. We rode the entire yellow loop and the red connector loop south of #3.

[SandPine]

Dean,
Good to hear you had some good riding out there.  I'll be hitting Croom so we can have a detail conditions report of all trails.  Did you leave gel, tube, or chain at Skip Memorial?  You can't just ride by the south red connector from yellow to blue without stopping at Skip's memorial and saying hi.  At least read over the material by the cross.  How about the abandoned grave yard?  I am sure you found the red clay pits and the fun pits on south red.  But did you find the "spirit tree" ?  that is on the north side though.  How about the big water fall over by sugar falls mountain.  Is it nice to take a dip in that thing specially when is really hot.   

[StonePony]

Although it sounds like you may have a leg up on me in terms of trail exploration, I'll add my 2 cents here, and then ask a question of the Croom experts.  Been riding Croom for about 2 weeks straight, and find the 12 Mile yellow loop to be outstanding, and have been using it for a fast-track "get back in shape" training ride at speed.  Trying to get the total ride time to under an hour, but so far the best time I've been able to squeeze out is 64 minutes.  Will keep trying.  Anyway, personally I think yellow is a superb trail, and there's probably enough riding there alone to keep anyone busy for a few months.

I've also deviated off yellow south and headed down red south (which seems to be chewed up a bit in parts) around/past the clay pit, but here's where I have a question for the Croom guru's -- it seems that the map I have doesn't match up exactly with the actual red trail a few miles past the clay pit.  Yesterday I came to an intersection that had me heading left/right to stay on red, and green was shown as straight ahead.  Now, unless I have an old map, that isn't what I'm supposed to be seeing.  The first split off should be a left turn on a green connector (if I'm reading the map correctly).  What am I doing wrong?   

[Garry]

 -- it seems that the map I have doesn't match up exactly with the actual red trail a few miles past the clay pit.  Yesterday I came to an intersection that had me heading left/right to stay on red, and green was shown as straight ahead.  That seems confusing to what I know the trail to be and the map.  Heading East on Red after the Clay Pits you pass FR7 for a half mile or so then head North passing over FR8 to then come to a sandy corner where the bailout (Green) should be on your left.  Continuing straight on Red you'll hit some pits then connect to Blue near the fence that seperates the motorcycles from this side.  How did you end up looking straight into Green?

Now, unless I have an old map, that isn't what I'm supposed to be seeing.  The first split off should be a left turn on a green connector (if I'm reading the map correctly).  What am I doing wrong?  I can only imagine you to be looking at the map wrong?

[SamW]

I rode Croom (mostly the blue) Sunday and got side-tracked on what I can only imagine were short red loops (not on the map), but it was all good,. Part of what I like most about this sport is finding new areas to ride wheather by purpose or chance. I was also encouraged by how the Enduro damage sectiion has already started to heal itself and most is now rideable by us poor, inferior MTB riders. My attitude for riding the upcoming Croom 35/50 has now changed dramatically. We can all thank mother nature, but little or no thanks can be given to the Enduro people unfortunately.

[StonePony]

-- it seems that the map I have doesn't match up exactly with the actual red trail a few miles past the clay pit.  Yesterday I came to an intersection that had me heading left/right to stay on red, and green was shown as straight ahead.  That seems confusing to what I know the trail to be and the map.  Heading East on Red after the Clay Pits you pass FR7 for a half mile or so then head North passing over FR8 to then come to a sandy corner where the bailout (Green) should be on your left.  Continuing straight on Red you'll hit some pits then connect to Blue near the fence that seperates the motorcycles from this side.  How did you end up looking straight into Green?

Now, unless I have an old map, that isn't what I'm supposed to be seeing.  The first split off should be a left turn on a green connector (if I'm reading the map correctly).  What am I doing wrong?  I can only imagine you to be looking at the map wrong?

Hmmmm...bizarre -- normally I'm fairly good at reading maps -- my skills seem to have taken a turn for the worse!     My mistake might be traced back to the clay pit.  The first time I did the ride, I had a hard time finding where the red trail continued on the south side of the clay pit, and pretty much rode around almost the whole thing before I found what I thought was the continuation of the red trail.  It appears to be the red trail, although there are green circles on all the trees as well for the entire length of the trail (which I found odd).  So that's the trail I'm talking about -- I basically rode on that for what seemed to be a few miles of trail with a lot of whoop-te-doos that were difficult to maintain speed on, and eventually I came to a sign post that said to make a fairly sharp left up a small hill with some rocks lining both sides of the trail in order to stay on red.  There were a few signs in that area actually, all within 20 yards of each other, and it seemed there were a few alternate red trails.  At that point I turned around and headed back, and this time noticed another red trail marker to my left as I approached the clay pit.  I suspect this area is where I must have taken a wrong turn.

[Garry]

Ah Grasshopper - I see the problem.  All of those green dots are from the motorcycles.  Not good for bicycles, we're working on that.  They damaged 19 miles of bike trail so that sometimes it hard to determine what is (was) bicycle trail and what isn't.  There are only three Red Connector trails in the whole place - well, four, but it's very new - coming out of the red clay pits the trail continues on your right right after looping past the right edge of that deep big pit.  There is another older trail entrance just beyond that which would likely get you lost.  Hope that clears it up some.  Dec. 28th there is a club ride there.  Might be a good chance to see the actual trails without getting off on motorcycle trails by mistake.