Andrew's University Trail

Amazing layout of down hill switchbacks and mild long ascents back . Slightly slick on tree roots and wood bridges due to recent rain

Great trail.

It was good a dry...it needs some jumps!

This is a great trail. I can really see the effort that has been put into it over the last few years. I'm an avid rider throughout MI and this trail can hold its own against most trails in the state. It's comparable to most cross country trails in the state. Looking forward to future improvements.
Trail markings are much better than they were. There is room for improvement, but you can generally now just follow the flow. Thanks for the hard work!

This website now sucks. I have to log in to leave a review? I am a Poseur? If you think forcing people to create an account will increase traffic you are wrong.

Still needs better trailmarking.

Andrews has a little bit for everyone. Up front, the Pink Loop is a great way for beginners to try features and short climbs. Best way is to ride Pink several times to build up endurance and skills that are needed for the rest of the park. The loops all connect to make a great ride full of natural and man made features. Each loop is marked with a colored arrow. However, if you are riding the big loop just follow the black arrows. First timers, I know from experience, can get lost quickly without knowing how the loops connect. Some loops get difficult very fast and it's easy to get turned around. This trail system is one of the best.

Great ride this past weekend. This was my first time out at Andrews and we had an experienced rider in our group that knew the trails very well. This was a challenging ride but very fun. Thanks to the good people who maintain these trails.

When you cant find challenge at your next most challenging trail.. come to Andrews.. Fun and Exciting. Not for the faint of heart. I have not ridden a trail anywhere in the country like this one. Good advanced riding. (not like trials riding schooner trace in brown county) but steep banked gullies, short steep drops (1 around 50' starting at 30deg) twisty, tight technical.. It may be my favorite place yet.

The trail markings have been updated and approved. The crew that maintains the trails feel that the markings are now adequate. If you have any issues or suggestions, please contact us at [email protected]

I agree with you. I would give 5 stars if they would get the signage up everywhere so I have given it 4 stars. Just because of the work done to it.

I'm giving an update on to the previous review I did. This trail gets maintained, seems like every other week. I find a new berm here a new jump there, something fixed there. I would like to give 5 stars for all the hard work people are doing to these trails.

However, what is lacking is the proper posted signage. What they have posted are white metal signs with black arrows pointing where to go. They are not everywhere though. So a first timer could get upset until you find your way. I've had to assist a few people who thought they were lost and have them follow me out.

If the signs were more clear, this trail system would easily be 5 stars, no doubt about it. I'm serious when I say they keep this trail in pristine shape. Best trail system that I know of between Benton Harbor/St. Joseph and South Bend. It's really a lot of fun.

Super fun, relatively well maintained trails. It's kind of amazing how much is packed in here. I wouldn't consider these to be advanced trails. I think they're generally intermediate with some beginner mixed in. Great to spend an hour or two exploring.

I don't know why some reviews here are bad. Here is my view. They have a facebook page called "The trails @Andrews." I have been told there is 14 miles and 5 different sections. What is nice is you can get in a 45-60 minute quick ride if you ride one section or you can do all sections, if you want several hours on the trail. You can take your pick.

Bikes I recommend for these trails: hard tails, XC full suspensions, Trail bikes, and possibly all mountain bikes. Enduro bikes or down hill bikes are over kill here and not needed. The best bikes for this trail I say are XC bikes or Trail bikes between 100mm - 130mm of rear travel.

There is some good short climbing, long climbing, fast flowy single track, technical areas, a couple downhill sections that are very easy for the intermediate and expert, a fire road section, flat easy single track, plenty of areas to jump and catch serious air if you want.

The system is maintained by a local MTBing trail group not affiliated with Andrews university. Andrews just owns the property, at least that is what I was told. Thank you to them for all the work they put into this trail, it's really changed in just a couple of seasons.

You will encounter some runners, and walkers/hikers at times but predominately you see MTBers. The runners and walkers mostly use the first section of the trail they never go to other sections so you can really rip it of you want on the other sections. The trail has signage and colored arrows to keep you going in the right direction but could use more as some sections are not marked too well. It is maintained well but not marked too well. I care more about the trail though and not the markings.

They have many berms set up to keep you rolling fast and there is some good jumps as well. There are no rock gardens that I have found, but I will admit to only have rode three sections of the trail. The trail can be muddy in some sections up to three days after a rain. I believe it is because the high trees not much sun gets into some areas. For the most part it's got it all. I like the section on the way back closer to the end of the ride. You find it to be very flowy, lots of berms, and pump track type of jumps. Drop you dropper post and pump the bike in those sections at some speed and it is really fun. It is typical Michigan looking trails with walnut trees, elm trees, and oak trees not so much in the way of pine trees. So, for South west Michigan I think it is enjoyable.

It is easily located as well. When you get into Berrien Springs from the overpass bridge on Highway 31, you will see an abandoned car lot called Bob Cooper's Auto and next to that is BP Gas station convenience store that has free air by the way. Across the street from these two is a street called Campbell Dr., go on this street and you'll pass a Korean SDA church and drive till you hit the parking area. You'll see it on the left, its less than a quarter mile from the church. You'll see the trailhead from the parking area.

My son and I really enjoy this trail. It is a challenge with many different types of riding...dirt, sandy, prairie grass, climbs and obstacles. There is a group of volunteers that maintain the trails and are doing a great job. After a recent wind storm the many downed trees have been moved and in some cases incorporated into the ride. New signage is being put in place. Thank you to all of the volunteers!

Really nice trail. More marking has been done. I rode it and didn't get lost... My Garmin logged 900 feet of climbing.

After reading the previous reviews I had high expectations for this trail and after riding it well it was kind of a let down. Very poorly marked to begin with, the obvious spots are marked but when you need some direction there aren't any. The biggest thing I took away from this trail is missed opportunity to have something really special but instead they have an average trail with nothing that really stands out as fun or challenging. Seems like your always riding uphill and the downhill areas are straight down and over with before you know it. Not what I would call good flow. Not a trail worth traveling any distance to ride unless they add on some sections.

This is a pretty fun trail but expect to never know where you are, even if you have the trail map with you like I did. It's got some narrow, windy singletrack, some steep short climbs and a couple of cool banked turns. Not too technical. It's a fun fast trail, I would definitely ride it again.

The address that this website maps the trail to was way off on our GPS, so we burned a lot of time trying to find even the general trail location, then even more time trying to find the actual trail head(s). As we were riding, it looked like Campbell road is one of the better places to park (gravel lot on the West side of road, cross the street and there's an entry point to the trail system). Once you're on, the trail markings are poor, so lots of stopping trying to figure out where you're going. Being tight on time, we didn't ride the entire trail system, but there was some pretty fun stuff - a few obstacles, pump track style ups and downs, at least one decent bowl. There was a killer climb to get up to the ridge from where we parked, but otherwise nothing too terribly difficult. Overall, it's a fun trail system that makes me want to go back and ride the rest of it.

10/27/14 Update - Finally got back here to ride the entire course and am raising my rating to 5 stars. Absolutely beautiful riding up and down very hilly terrain. There are some really fun ravine crossings where you're dropping straight down and coming straight back up, cliff's edge riding (careful on these - I got a little close to the edge with the front tire and the trail washed out from under me at least twice). Simply an awesome trail with some of the most exciting features I've ridden (eg the ~25' hill pretty much straight down).
Someone also went and posted white MTB direction signs which greatly help, but still not exactly easy to identify the various trails. Bottom line - get out there and ride this thing before we lose it under the leaves!

I've ridden a lot of trails over the past few years and this place is top 5 for me! From CA to TN, NC, PA, etc. this place rocks! Really great flow with natural obstacles, drops, jumps, natural giant berms, huge ravines with side hill trails rolling up and down the banks! Great climbs rewarded by super fun downhills! Can't say enough about this place except I pray that IMBA stays clear. These trails are much better than any IMBA influenced trails I've ridden, thus they are a blast. Whoever built these trails... Kudos to You!!!
p.s. can't offer an IMBA adapted rating since I think they're ruining the sport:)

Easily one of the hardest and most challenging trails I have ever ridden. The back half has tough climbs and quick elevation changes. The markings have recently gotten better but it's easy to get turned around and not hit all the main routes. The trail has been there about 18 years but now is becoming more popular.