Dryer Road Park

With 15 miles of trails stuffed into 132 acres, Dryer Road Park's trail system rivals the space efficiency of DNA strands inside a cell nucleus. Be prepared for lots of turns, switchbacks, hills, rocks, roots, and trees. Additionally, as you roll along you can choose numerous feature options ranging from cobbled sections to log piles, to drop-offs, and the occasional boardwalk. 

Not feeling quite ready to level-up on the obstacles? Dryer Road has you covered there, too. The entire base area is a features playground, complete with a pump track, jumps, slalom courses, boardwalks, tires, and drop jumps. A bike stand with cabled tools for adjustments stands guard near a shade structure and picnic table. Once you're done playing in the park, head up to the trails.

Trails follow a ski resort rating system with green circles, blue squares, black diamonds and one double black diamond called "The Den."  Like ski resorts, the relative difficulty of what's "easy" is in relation to the most difficult terrain. Green circles at Dryer are fun but require some basic level of technical prowess and fitness. All trails are single track. From the base, all trails immediately head uphill to Upper Fields. A path circumnavigates this meadow and all trail entries are located from this path.

A Dryer Road Park Loop

With many trails and a wide variety of difficulties, options are manifold. However, the following offers a solid tour of Dryer Road Park's singletrack for riders hoping to capitalize on a wide range of trails. Upon entry, head immediately over to Kaleidoscope, a quick warmup loop before the climb to Upper Fields. After Kaleidoscope, follow Big Easy. Aptly named, this is an easy and efficient trail to get to Upper Fields. Once you get to the top, turn left and have some fun on Dragon's Back. More of a big feature than a trail, you'll enjoy looping and testing your speed on its short sequence of rollers. After Dragon's Back, turn left on the Upper Field Rim Trail and look for Treebeard, a blue square. From Treebeard (a short trail), turn left onto Helix. Helix is rated green but still quite twisty and filled with challenges. If you're an expert rider, stay on Treebeard and turn left on Ribbon Candy. At the bottom of Helix (or Ribbon Candy), go left to Epping Forest, a long, looping blue. After Epping Forest, you'll head to the Betties: Alpha Betty (a blue) and Betty Loop (a green). The Betties converge at a loose intersection that also has a path called SSW. SSW is made of two parts: a there-and-back and a loop called, unsurprisingly, SSW Loop. Retrace SSW back to the Betties intersection, turn left, and follow 3 Bears to Upper Fields.

It gets a little tricky here. You want a path called Ziggy, however, Ziggy follows a good portion of Upper Field like a singletrack version of a frontage road, and there are multiple entry points. To get to the correct entry, cut straight across the field (there's a path). At the other end, turn left and follow the outer path. Turn right at the first Ziggy entrance you see, continue to the right, and follow Ziggy. Near its end, instead of popping back up to Upper Fields, turn left and go down Gully, which takes you to the bottom.

At this point, you've covered about 4 miles. For that extra half-mile and one more hill, you can do Kaleidoscope again and go back up Big Easy. Turn left, and just before the sign to Dragon's Back you'll see Kasha. It's a long rambling green to the bottom.

Dryer Road Park is proudly maintained by Genesee Regional Off-Road Cycling (GROC). The group has nurtured a careful relationship with the town of Victor on behalf of mountain bikers. There are even volunteer mountain biking patrols with patch kits and first-aid kits, much like ski patrol. Signage will remind you to behave like a guest and "be extra cool and friendly." Being cool also means knowing when not to ride. If the trails are muddy and prone to sliding, hold off. Mud is fun, but here it's synonymous with trail destruction, and what the town gave it can also take away.

Dryer Road Park is family friendly. The base area has bathrooms and a playground. A box rink is available for roller hockey in the warm months, and the town turns it into an outdoor ice rink during the winter. Finally, wear insect repellent, because Lyme disease is prevalent. Because GROC is active with trail maintenance, it's common for trails to be rerouted, former trails closed and covered with brush and logs to recover, and new ones cut. Trail maps are accurate enough, but variations should be expected.