This trail is by far the best mountain bike trail I have seen if you wanted a mountain bike 101 trail. This trail can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be and my first ride on this trail I went with a broken derailleur and was stuck in only one gear the whole ride.
Now the first thing to note is all the obstacles on this course can either be rode around if you are not comfortable handling the obstacle or have a detour trail off to the side. The only exception to this are the bridges that cross the streams. Most of these bridges are constructed to offer some sort of easy challenge whether it be a berm or multiple bumps but nothing really crazy. the trail tends to flow fairly well and for the most part stays pretty open towards the beginning. The trail itself is actually made up of multiple loops with connecting trails in between them. If you wanted to stay on the current loop and not progress to the next one all you do is take the shortcut trail. For the most part the further you go on the trail the more advanced the obstacles become. So between not having to do most of the advanced obstacles if you don't feel you can handle them and being aware of the shortcut trails you can easily cater to your skill level when it comes to this trail and when you are ready to try that obstacle the trail is generally wide enough that you don't have to worry about trees or rocks around the obstacles.
For me the best portion of this trail is the Blue Racer Loop. There is nothing technical about this portion other than some rock gardens but it just flows so nicely and if you have a riding buddy it is set up in such a way you can race them, thus the name of the loop. So you end up with two singletrack trails running in the same direction and you race each other till they merge back together and the loop just keeps splitting and merging.
Now if you are used to more technical trails then this trail is fairly easy for the most part and quite relaxing unless you come here after a rain storm. Anyone familiar with the area knows there trails flood as it is a swampland and along the trail you run into mud pits. I have never been here when it has not recently rained so I am not sure if they are obstacles or just an accident due to the way the trail was made but they make for some excellent muddy riding. Granted if this was not an intended feature of the trail then maintenance must be terrible as it seems everyone loves riding through these pits and I have never seen the trails closed because of this but I also only ride this trail once every few months so I may have been lucky on that note.
The last thing to note on this trail is that it is a one direction trail and it changes based on the day of the week. The direction is very clearly marked at the trail head and since this is the only trail I have found that is like this I have come to love it.
This trail is by far the best mountain bike trail I have seen if you wanted a mountain bike 101 trail. This trail can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be and my first ride on this trail I went with a broken derailleur and was stuck in only one gear the whole ride.
| ThankNow the first thing to note is all the obstacles on this course can either be rode around if you are not comfortable handling the obstacle or have a detour trail off to the side. The only exception to this are the bridges that cross the streams. Most of these bridges are constructed to offer some sort of easy challenge whether it be a berm or multiple bumps but nothing really crazy. the trail tends to flow fairly well and for the most part stays pretty open towards the beginning. The trail itself is actually made up of multiple loops with connecting trails in between them. If you wanted to stay on the current loop and not progress to the next one all you do is take the shortcut trail. For the most part the further you go on the trail the more advanced the obstacles become. So between not having to do most of the advanced obstacles if you don't feel you can handle them and being aware of the shortcut trails you can easily cater to your skill level when it comes to this trail and when you are ready to try that obstacle the trail is generally wide enough that you don't have to worry about trees or rocks around the obstacles.
For me the best portion of this trail is the Blue Racer Loop. There is nothing technical about this portion other than some rock gardens but it just flows so nicely and if you have a riding buddy it is set up in such a way you can race them, thus the name of the loop. So you end up with two singletrack trails running in the same direction and you race each other till they merge back together and the loop just keeps splitting and merging.
Now if you are used to more technical trails then this trail is fairly easy for the most part and quite relaxing unless you come here after a rain storm. Anyone familiar with the area knows there trails flood as it is a swampland and along the trail you run into mud pits. I have never been here when it has not recently rained so I am not sure if they are obstacles or just an accident due to the way the trail was made but they make for some excellent muddy riding. Granted if this was not an intended feature of the trail then maintenance must be terrible as it seems everyone loves riding through these pits and I have never seen the trails closed because of this but I also only ride this trail once every few months so I may have been lucky on that note.
The last thing to note on this trail is that it is a one direction trail and it changes based on the day of the week. The direction is very clearly marked at the trail head and since this is the only trail I have found that is like this I have come to love it.
All the bridges and obstacles, combined with the views through the Oak Openings Metroparks region, this trail is a favorite.
| Thank