Review Date
September 22, 2011

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 2 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Reviewed by: 50by50 ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
This was my first Technical trail since getting back into riding again. I wanted to experience a single track after riding on limestone all year long. I liked it!. Im 6'3" 265lbs so Im top heavy and and did not look forward to falling. I road 4 miles and loved it. It was challenging enough to get me interested in trying some more.

Recommended Route:
any of the single tracks

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Waterfall glenn

Review Date
August 23, 2009

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Reviewed by: Bueno Wayneo ,  Racer

Summary:
I went left after crossing the bridge and it starts off pretty narrow with a few log crossings and a few nice switch backs but what i hate the most is how short it is. Because its so short you need to take a few laps to get a good work out but the trail is so boring you really dont want to do more than two or three laps. There are also a lot of ruts from people riding it when its wet. I guess its a good trail if you are just getting into mountain biking but not if you are experianced with technical trails.

Review Date
January 27, 2006

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: idleuser ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
It's a very simple trail with easy access to anyone with a car or who lives nearby. Fortunately it is a legal mtb single track trail. Unfortunately though there is not much variation topographically. The trails are fairly level throughout but the twists and turns with occasional fallen logs keep it mildly interesting. I've ridden the trail so many times though everything comes second nature and it has lost it's flare. It's actually quite easy to get a handle on. It's nice though because it's about a 1.5 - 2 mi circular single track trail mixed with a couple other short sections. There's one by the river when you make a right after the bridge. It's a bit narrower and a little more... "hilly" I guess. Check it out.

The only reason I ride it so often is because it's a 20min ride from my house.

Review Date
July 26, 2005

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 1 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Reviewed by: maxuhm ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
I just moved to the area from Minnesota (via london) and found this trail online. Realizing that this is Illinois I accepted that most trails are not going to have sizeable climbs or seriously undulating terrain and Knock Knolls certainly has neither. It does a good job with the small amount of space available, and there's not much more one could do trailwise with the available terrain. It's a technical ride with an unending amount of sharp turns. Without any hills or straight(er) sections of singletrack, a decent workout requires riding hard through numerous hard turns wherein handling becomes a serious issue. The past two rides have ended with me being punished for not setting up turns well enough for the amount of speed I was trying to carry. So in the end it's a great trail for working on handling, but otherwise it doesn't offer anything beyond proximity.

Review Date
May 19, 2004

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 2 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Reviewed by: coolercanuck ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
Don’t get me wrong, knoch knolls park is great and all. Its great if you’re the type of person who likes trails that get progressively more flat and boring every month. It’s got some nice hardpack/ single track to ride, with the occasional log. Lots of these logs are natural and fall on the trail on their own. So some people build up more sticks to make these logs crossable by EVERYONE. But then someone goes and takes away these crossings, making things suck again.
I have no idea who does this. I understand why unnatural stunts are destroyed like teeter totters (even though they kick ass) that have nails and stuff in them, but when park district police or the local bike shops that sponsor the races in their or god knows who go in there and destroy log crossings it pisses me off. These crossings do not harm the park. They make trails better and easier to ride. Yet SOMEONE goes and rips these things apart, taking away everything but the natural fallen log, and that makes the trails a pain in the ass for everyone. Even worse is some chainsaw- happy loser who has gone through there lately. I found a chunk of tree and PLACED it on top of a circular log to make an all-natural teeter totter. I used no unnatural fasteners of any kind. For god’s sake, this thing looked like it was made by a cave man. I thought “Hey, its all natural, they have no reason to wreck it.” Man was I wrong. I come back within a week and I find woodchips in its place. Someone is going out of their way to make these trails less fun for the people who ride them. Even worse is the destruction of dirt structures. I SEE NO PURPOSE IN SMASHING JUMPS OR BERMS!! These are made of dirt, frikken dirt that has been re distributed into a different place to make biking more enjoyable. Heaven forbid we build berms so we can go faster, and jumps, o man, what are we thinking. A jump that’s out of the way and completely ride at your own risk, what are we thinking.
Anyways, all this ranting about trail destruction might get me somewhere. If anyone knows something about park regulations or who is responsible for trail “maintenance” (and I use the term loosely), please, email me.

(coolercanuck@wideopenwest.com)