Review Date
July 26, 2008

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: hudley2244 ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
Is Argon any good anymore? I road it all the time in the late 80's and early 90's and all the single track were open and/or the rangers did not care. I remember it being good and fun. What happened? Is there any single track open? What wil they do if they catch a dude in his 40's? Just getting back in the saddle again after many years and want to know if it's worth my time.

Comments

finerbiner (03/17/2010)

Go to Palos. It is just a couple miles away and has 20 miles of legal single track.

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Review Date
April 6, 2004

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 0 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Reviewed by: Bike-o-saurus ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
I've only been here once because it was so incredibly chump. The trails are enormously wide, flat, and non-technical. I would bring my Aunt Debbie to ride here. I couldn't believe some guy was out here with a 2G carbon fiber bike. I'd eat scrotum fuzz if I couldn't do the whole thing on a road bike. If you want to actually go mountain biking, go to Palos. Or better yet, don't, so I can the trails all to myself.

Bike-a-saurus Rex

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Three Ravines, Gravity Cavity, Stone House, Turf 1, Cemetary Hill, Ho Chi Minh, etc. etc. (i.e. Maple Lake Palos)

Review Date
September 8, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 2 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: Dan ,  Cross Country Rider , from Darien, IL

Summary:
It's a great workout, but it's not a technical (single track) ride. Keep the pace up and use some of the optional trail off the main loop for variety and extra mileage. The surface is finely crushed limestone, (similar to the IL Prarie Path) but there are some hills to get the heart rate up and there are only a few road crossings. I live near by so it's easy to get there a few times a week and get in 70 miles or so.

Recommended Route:
Counter-clockwise around the main loop with a right turn at the bottom of the long downhill past the Model Airplane field and continue along the tracks until you get to a grassy (fire lane) path that heads uphill to your right and follow it to the gravel road and hang a right back to the Main loop up by the Airplane field and continue. (about 12 miles per lap)

Other recommended trails in the same area:
-Palos North (off Archer & 95th St.) for the technical singletrack sections. (do the "3 Ravines" route)
-Palos South (by the Toboggan Slides) if you want something in between singletrack and the nice

Review Date
April 7, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Reviewed by: Greg Jarosz , from Downers Grove, IL

Summary:
Gets busy on warm Sunday/Saturday mornings with runners and more fair-weather bikers on expensive rides. Late afternoons/early evenings are better in the summer since most trail users have already left for the day...quiet with lots of deer feeding late. The forest preserve district(?) did a lot to cut the sides of the trail back several feet on each side over the winter ... mixed reviews on the new "french poodle forrest" look .... I thought it had more appeal as far as an almost natural appearing forrested area before but it's a little safer for faster runs on the bike around corners (less safe for runners/walkers as a result). Still a nice break from riding elsewhere-two thumbs up!

Recommended Route:
Have only ridden the 9.7 mile circle counterclock-wise pretty much year round. Gets pretty thick though with ice in the winter. Start at parking lot at southeast side of circle...not very challanging but good for warm-ups here ... some short hills (about 5 or 6) around the course.

Review Date
May 10, 2002

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: scott , from orland/plaos

Summary:
does the word easy mean anything!!!!crushed gravel about 10 mile loop,nice pine trees,deer,other wild life.Watch out of hikers and the boyscouts there everwhere

Recommended Route:
any

Other recommended trails in the same area:
palos/challenge park