Ellicottville, New York sits in the south west of the state, home to Holliday Valley ski Resort and some rather intense mountain biking trails. Ski resorts are rather empty during the warmer months with general maintenance and new trail building being the only real activity on the mountain, but if you know where to look, biking possibilities are everywhere. Holliday Valley and Holimont are both open for biking however ski lifts are not available for you gravity junkies. IMBA provides an “IMBA EPIC” single track loop of about 29 miles consisting of highly technical rocky single track, a few flowy sections and some gravity experiences up and down. My personal riding experience found the IMBA trail to be rather poorly marked in some transition areas and road crossings, however there are plenty more trails that are not part of the loop to make for a very enjoyable ride.
Parking at Holimont and riding uphill and then across the ridge to Holliday Valley and down Holliday Valleys DH trail proved to be a good mix of climb and descend for a morning ride, the downhill is mild enough for almost any bike above department store grade. My bike for the day was and is my current favorite hardtail, a Salsa Timberjack, this bike is a mix of climb all day, gravel grind or hang it on the lift and slope style down.
Staying just on the two ski resorts was plenty of trail for the morning miles, and the ground itself was kind to my trail dog “Bruce”. After a quick snack and van relocation, I found myself at the top of the ski area in a parking lot on a dirt road at the intersection of the IMBA single track. Mcarthy hill road is just south of Holliday Valley and is the access road to this parking area (42.248878,-78.677196). Pushing forward the single track quickly crossed the top end of the ski resort in and out of the woods. The trailforks app as well as MTB project app both have all of these trails marked very well and the app even allows you to download the map for offline use!
Van camping was easily accepted in the parking area of Holliday Valley across from the golf course, and I believe they offer electric hookup as there were a few others enjoying the parking lot. From the traffic seen on the trails, my opinion is this is an easily overlooked mtb destination, I don’t feel a need to keep it a secret but it is definitely worth mentioning as a mtb location for your bucket list. Nice trails, Ellicottville brewing company for an after ride brew and food, and no hassle van parking made for a very enjoyable very frugal trip!
- Nick