Thousand Hills

I am from kirksville originally, but live in St Louis. I was back visiting my family for the week and did this trail twice. Lots of tech. This is also a hiking trail and some of the features were not very rideable. Mostly a very fun trail. Lots of tics and spiders were my biggest complaints.

Trail update: the trail is in poor shape due to the rainy spring. I would stay off for a few more weeks unti it truly dries out. I started at the east TH and immediately encountered a large tree on the first creek crossing that should have been a glowing red stoplight. From there it got worse. I only rode a bit because while most of the trail was dry, there were many spots that had water seep from the hills and coupled with the deer tracks on the trail, things were in bad shape. To top it off, the ticks were exceedingly abundant. The trail needs more time to dry out. After I left, a huge downpour dumped more rain so I'll leave the trail alone for at least a month until the state can clean things up.

I did the entire trail, out and back (22 miles); took about 3.5 hours. I was tired, to say the least.

This is a very well maintained trail and nicely marked and even has mile markers.

The trail ranges from roots, rocks, dirt and gravel. Pick the right line and you can avoid the roots and most rocks, except at the creek crossing, which there are a lot of. There are also several leg burning hills, especially around the dam and past the connector trail at mile marker 7. Connector trail 1 is super easy.

This is very much an intermediate trail but some of the climbs are tough. The rock section after the dam (mile marker 2) is really hard to find a line. There are other difficult hills as well, but all doable. Most come around a bend and I found myself in the wrong gear a few times. When riding along the lake, pay attention the the trail; there are several drop offs that the weeds hide and the fall would be minimally 6' onto rock. There are some sections that flow but this is more of a grinding trail and it will wear you down at the end. But it's a great trail with nice challenges with beautiful views of the lake.

Great trail. Well maintained singletrack. Not very many hikers because it's such a long trail. Good up and down terrain. Not super technical but if you do all 21 miles it's a great ride. It wraps around the lake then back the way you came. Recomend for if you are randomly in NEMO.

No reviews yet? Wow. It starts out with a singletrack bomb down to the lake and you basically ascend and descend the hills along the edge of the lake. When you get to the dam you cross a wide creek and climb a steep loose hill. We had to walk it. There is one section that is quite dangerous at the south end of the lake. The trail is right on the edge of a steep hill with thorn to your right and the lake about 6 feet below on the left. We made it to the primitive campsite and had to turn around due to a flat.