East Fork

Rode here four times over a 6 week period. It was muddy in spots the first time, but dry all the others. Fun place to ride.... nothing too difficult if your not a raw beginner, but enough rocks, roots and elevation change to require your full attention. A beginner loop that is great after the first mile (ride CW), an intermediate loop that is just a fun ride. You can make a lollipop loop out of the Tech and Lake trails (nice views of the water). The Beach trail has a few treacherous sections, so be aware.
I enjoyed all the trails in the area, but this one would probably be my go-to trail if I lived around Cincinnati.

This was my first outing to these bike trails. I have been to the park and am familiar with the hiking trails though. So I wanted to see what the easy trail was like so I could better gauge the rest of the trails. So the trail itself is fairly simple and I enjoy the fact the manholes were integrated into the trail itself to create simple drops and curbs to ride and versus just going around them. Now the one obstacle I hate as I have a hardtail is root systems and that is the main obstacle on the easy trail. So for me the trail is slightly more difficult on this account but i appreciate the fact I have an entire trail dedicated to learning to ride roots better.

Mike's link to CORA is a huge tip (thank you- wish I saw this sooner). This trail is in a marshland though. I'm a bit skeptical that this would ever not be a mudpit.
Definitely wait for a dry spell and if you do try it out, beware the northwest fork toward slade road, it can siphon you out of the blue loop and is also really really wet.
I enjoy a downed log here and there, but this trail has far too many downed trees for my liking.

Quite a cool system. There is lots of features that fit nicely in-between flow. there is not much of a climb then decent, its more of a start with a flat ride that then varies in elevation throughout. the trail dried very quickly but you should check coramtb.org to see if there open. very fun

Bigtrax, East Fork, like the other local trails, posts their trail status online at coramtb.org. On the day you posted, the trails were closed due to wet conditions. They were back open (but status yellow) on the 22nd and due to all the off and on rain back then, not back to green until June 6. The trail stewards do a good job of keeping the status up to date online. It has definitely saved me from driving all the way there there to experience a bad ride.

This is a beautiful area of the state, the campground on the other side of the lake is nice too. The beginner loop was ideally balanced between easy sections and challenges. I brought 5 pre-teen boys to learn the sport. They each took some minor spills but had enough fun to get hooked.

Great place for beginners to lower level intermediate riders! Build your skills get faster and move on to more challenging trails. Great for practice.

Wonderful. The trails are marked well. nice flowing single tracks. fun ride for everyone. one section of trail i almost wrecked taking in the view of the lake haha

A good mix of trails from easy (white) to the more advanced. The conditions are usually good and some of the trails take you out near the lake.

Parts of the backpacking trail can also be used for riding. These are maintained well and they have races here which are fun.

Really fun trail. Nothing too complicated. Good flow. Well maintained. There were quite a few hikers on the trail.

The trail was tacky the day I rode. It appeared to be a trail that would take an extra day to dry thoroughly. It presented no problem, except slipping on wet roots & rocks. There are no lung busting climbs (or extended downhill runs). There is a sign marking the trails, but I still got turned around. East Fork is someplace I will pass this park 2-3 times a year - for work. I will pack my bike and be back. I rode on a weekday and there were only a couple of other riders, but you could tell this trail is well ridden. I'd say it gets busy on the weekends.

Fun scenic ride with lots of potential but needs some work to fix drainage problems.

East fork is very pretty, winding singletrack that drifts around a large lake. You can get 10-12 miles easily. Make sure it has been dry for a few days because this trail takes a long time to dry out. The trail has several poor design areas that has turned into a boggy mud pit. There have been recent IMBA lead trailbuilding days so hopefully this system can get back on the right track.

Overall, fun scenic ride, easy to intermediate difficulty at best with mild elevation changes.

To the person who rode EF on 7/8/13 lamenting about how wet the trails were...here were the trail conditions as posted on the East Fork State Park MTB trails Facebook page for that day:

Trail Condition Update: Trails still have long, continuous areas of mud. Damage is likely and trail use is discouraged at this time!

~The water-logged Trail Crew

I would offer you had a bad experience at East Fork due to the over 8" of rain we had in the weeks proceeding your ride and the 2" received the night before. That level of precipitation is unprecedented in SW Ohio for that time of year and the CORA trail crew was unable to do any kind of meaningful work to correct the waterlogged trails. I can tell you they are absolutely ripping right now!

I suspect you also only rode P1/White Trail (beginner trail) based on your description so you missed the rest of the trail system that has over 1000' of elevation changes (a lot for SW Ohio) and more challenging sections that I think you would enjoy.

I would offer that you come back and ride again (late summer / early fall is the best time) to see if your opinion might change. We'd love to host a ride with you.

A note to the rider who complained about drainage on his ride on July 8, 2013. Here is the Facebook posting on the trail conditions that day: Trail Condition Update: Trails still have long, continuous areas of mud. Damage is likely and trail use is discouraged at this time!

~The water-logged Trail Crew

You chose to ride the EF trails after we had received over 2" of rain the previous two days and over 8" of rain in the last several weeks. YES, they were wet and had you looked at the trail condition updates, you would have be told to stay off the trails.

East Fork is one of the best trails in Southwest Ohio offering trails for every level of rider.

Rode both the White and Red/Orange Trails this pas weekend. The White trail is a great easy, warm-up with gentle runs up and down hill - nothing too tricky. The Red/Orange trail has some nice flow with a few technical areas in the creek beds and switchbacks. Overall, great riding right now.

This trail had lots of roots and some rocks, along with a creek crossing or two. Some steady climbs, but nothing too steep. At the gravel parking lot you'll enter at the mountain bike trail sign. The white loop is 3 miles around and goes back to the parking lot. The blue loop turns into red-blue-yellow markings on the trees; this can get a bit confusing the farther you go (the trail starts splitting in many ways. The park ranger later explained to me that it meets up with a hiking trail that you're supposed to veer off of if you follow the tree markings correctly). I followed blue-yellow-red until I came to just red near the lake and followed the red trail to the outlook over the beach at the top. You will follow the same trail back; you could easily end up with a 10-15 mile ride from this. Although slightly hard to follow, I found this to be a really enjoyable trail!
JUST A TIP: When on 125E, follow signs for park office, not the campground. Just past park office on Left is a gravel road where you can park.* Review edited 6/18/2012

trail is very fast right now new tech trail maturing nicely. great maintance on trail (thanks cora) just a great trail to shredd. rideable for everyone.

Great signage and easy to find for an outsider. The park office sells great maps for $3. There are several colored loops in the system but the only one I rode was the white loop. Apparently it doesn't drain as well as the other loops because it's failry flat, and the area had seen quite a bit of rain so it was extremely muddy. After walking through the mud for a half hour, I called it a day and went to wash my bike off. The locals I spoke with in the parking lot spoke highly of the remainder of the trails, but the weather just wasn't cooperating with this ride.

Ridden several times. My kind of ride - fast, twisty in spots, and without all the log jumps and junk that frustrated trick park/BMX riders like - did I say I like to go fast? Only thing missing is a true bomber downhill. BTW - look out for the deer - I ran into one full speed last time i was there. Broke my wrist...* Review edited 3/14/2012

great set of trails to just fly around on. not tech. at all. well marked can't get lost. good flow.