West Branch

I think the portion I rode is great for beginner to intermediate riders. I enjoyed the ride.

West Branch is a fun, old school style, trail. The roots are perfect, enough to add interest and to force a few line choices but they're easy enough to not interrupt your speed (however I am on a 29er). The lakeside trail is a lot of fun with twists, turns, and great scenery. The Quarry is worth the fight. I really enjoyed doing the 2.5 mile trail because it rides very differently than the rest of the trail. Sure I lost flow and had to waddle walk through many rock gardens, but the sense of accomplishment when I was able to keep my speed and pick the right line made it all worthwhile. I also enjoyed the scenic cliffs, rock wall, and ridge top ride that came with the Quarry trail. The Southside trail is sort of a mix between the other two. It had some more manageable rock gardens with enough space in between to gather your wits and attack. The Southside creek crossing is the best I've ridden across any trail in the surrounding 9 states. Combine all three for a great workout and a lot of fun. Awesome trail!

West Branch is all old school xc trails, not fast flow trails. If you park at the mtb lot off Rock Spring Road you'll see that the trails are located either side of an abandoned section of Cable Line Road.

The trails on the lake side are the easiest, though with the enormous amount of roots that is a relative term. For absolute beginners, the easiest section would be East Davis, at the east end of the lake side trails.

On the south side of Cable Line Road are the gorge side trails. These are just as rooty as lake side, but have the added attraction of many, many rocks. Most of the trails are good for intermediate riders, but Rock Wall (that's the one with the "EXPERTS ONLY" sign) is for advanced technical riders only. Bit O' Honey has it's technical moments as well, but is nowhere near as hard as Rock Wall.

There is another part of the trail system that is not connected to Cable Line Road. If you head east down Cable Line from the parking area, and then turn to the right (south) on Porter Road, you'll find a trailhead on the left side of the road about 1/4 mile out. This is Quarry Trail, a 2.5 mile long loop chock full of intermediate technical features. This is the trail that handles water the best, so it can be rideable when the rest of the trail system is too wet.

The lake side trail is relatively flowy with plenty of rocks and roots to negotiate, and numerous plank bridges. Trail is well marked and scenic. Roughly 12 miles round trip if you don't attempt the rock-garden trail. If you're looking for a trail with more rocks than you could ever count and that's your thing, then have at it. If you're thinking the writers of these reviews are over-exaggerating, they're not. As for the lake side trail, it's a nice mixture of ups and downs with no grueling climbs. We traveled over 90 minutes from Erie to ride the trail and it was worth the trip.

I'm a rookie first timer and my review is based off of my generic knowledge of mountain biking.

West Branch State Park was pretty fun albeit challenging for me. I rode the Kitchen Sink trail and the Rock one.

I recommend running a lower tire pressure and if you've the means maybe a first aid pouch because you will crash into something or land in a ditch; it just can't be me doing it.

PROS: Amazing scenery, plenty of track for a long ride, and my wireless service was great (tmobile).

CONS: ROOTS ROOTS ROOTS! At one point I was screaming mad. If you're all flow, this is not your type of track.

All in all, a scenic ride and definitely a great workout for the endurance buffs.

If you're looking for fast flowly easy single track do quail hollow

ROOT GARDEN - not much fun if you like fast flowy single track. A good amount of up and down but everything is filled with roots. If you're riding a hard tail, this is a nightmare. Even with a full it slows the pace down quite a bit.

The lake-side trail is great and pretty similar to a lot of the other trails in the area. The trail is well rooted which can make some of the climbs challenging. The second half of the trial on the South side of Cable Line Road is all about rocks, rocks and more rocks. I like a good garden, but trying to pedal through miles and miles of them gets a little old and grueling. It was also a little damp when I went which made navigating the rock gardens a bit tricky. Overall it's a great trail. Very scenic along the lake. If you're going to take some of the more challenging trials on the backside, be prepared for a good work out.

I rode on the side by the lake first. The trails were typical of others found in the area as they flowed along the lake shore, breaking inland around washes. Elevation change was average and the trails tipped very slightly toward the technical end of the spectrum with many large roots and different styles of bridges. The lake is very scenic and I enjoyed the experience. Then, I rode the other side, which is composed of rock gardens...and rock gardens...and more rock gardens! I enjoy a good rock garden as much as the next person, but riding through very similar rack gardens for miles on end gets old. The difficulty level remained relatively consistent. If the rocks were dry the gardens were mild and not too difficult to navigate. The damp areas were a different story, and they were nearly impossible to ride with my XC race tires (I will sport different rubber when I return). I rode one section of trail marked "expert" which definitely fit that description. I struggled to even walk the wet sections. Fortunately, most of that trail was dry, but I was still only able to ride about two-thirds of it. I would like to try that trail when it's completely dry on a different bike!
Overall, this is a story of two different trail systems. The trails on the lake-side are well designed and enjoyable. I would compare them to Alum Creek with some similarities to Royalview and Findley. The trails on the other side were not as enjoyable. On the other side I liked the expert trail and the creek crossing, which is the coolest I've seen in Ohio. I found the rest of it boring. Riding similar rock gardens over and over for miles and miles beats up the body, bike, and mood. For future visits i will ride the lake-side and only 1 rocky trail. That should make for a better experience. Also, I will definitely come here to ride the rocks before all of my future trips to the rockies.

Good climbs, great scenery and challenging obstacles.

Good place to ride

It was a lot of fun with my kids

Rode today must say after rains we've had this trail was a very difficult trail but still very fun. Can't wait to ride it when it's not so wet. Definitely need to be in shape for this one.

Pretty hard trail, not terrible difficult technically but it has a lot of little twist and such. If you arnt in shape, you will be dying for breath at the end of it. Try it though, I enjoyed it

Like others have said, the lake side has more flow. Side to south of cableline rd is a couple miles of rock garden. From the lot head down the shared path to the road, hang a sharp left and another left onto the singletrack like 50ft later. I usually ride the lakeside out and back because I'm pressed for time, if I am lucky I will come back to the lot and ride the other part about halfway out and back, really isn't my kind of riding on the other side, but as close as we've got to Akron.

Pretty nice trail to ride, some technical bits but overall fun stuff.

Didn't get to play around a whole lot. Just picked one trail at random on the lake side and followed it through for about 3 miles back to the main path. Lots of roots and swift descents. Quite the trial on my walmart bike

Its gotten really rooted or (rootty) over the years and popular ! But a fast, fun, and maintained trail thx to CAMBA. Best part of the trail- ? "the machine" Makes me giggle! Its also got a sweet part were you dip down and ride through a stream ! They have marked the trail quite well! Expert, advanced, And this trail is always getting better! KUDO'S Camba

Trail can basically be divided into two sections, the lake side trails are, tight, twisty, rooty, with a few flow sections. The trails to the south of Cableline road are tight, twisty, rocky, with some very interesting features. My first lap around was quite frustrating, bike hit a tree, one endo, and enough dabs and undignified get offs to last a few months. The second lap I really enjoyed as I had learned where most of the tricky spots were, and there are a lot.
The new for 2011 Quarry Trail is a must ride for those who like to play in the rocks. 2 1/2 miles of technical fun.* Review edited 7/31/2011