Reviewed by: Todd HOckenberry ,  Weekend Warrior , from Boulder, co

Summary:
This trail is just a few minutes from my parents house in Holly. I rode it when visiting from Colorado about a month ago. For Michigan it is pretty challenging and a blast. I like raging through narrow woods at high speeds, not knowing whats around the corner...non-existent in CO. The wall is very challenging. You can loop it and try again and again until you get it right...fantastic. I even saw a group of deer on the trail.
Be prepared to get muddy. I fell a few times. Once over my bars trying to hop a log another time at a very high speed in a mud pit.
I recommend this trail to anybody.

Recommended Route:
East

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Island Lake

Reviewed by: Paul LaRue ,  Weekend Warrior , from Flint, MI, USA

Summary:
Just finished the full 15+ miles of the east trail for the first time a couple days ago. I've ridden it a few times before, but ran out of water at about the 10 mile point, and took the shortcut back. To be honest I have mixed feeling about this trail. On one hand I like a challenge, but there are a couple parts of the trail that have "impossibly difficult" climbs (imagine climbing a hill of ball-bearing-like stones that roll out from under your tire), and one or two other points that are just plain dangerous. For example, one particular very steep decent contains a stone about the size of a bowling ball that is broken at about the angle of a log splitting (read head splitting) axe. Yes, I went over the handlebars avoiding this stone. The difficulty of the trail requires that you either travel very slowly, or count on getting hurt. Because I ended up riding so slowly I didn't get a really good cardio workout.

Having said that, the 3-4 foot log piles are fun, most of the trail is pretty safe, and you really feel like you accomplished something when you finish.

I'd recommend that most people ride the west (intermediate) trail two or three times instead of the east trail. The west trail is fairly fast, with far fewer chances to get hurt.

The north trail is good for a warm up or cool down, just watch out for kids.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever ride the east trail again, and I’ve heard several people say that it’s more like just crashing from one tree to the next that riding. I’d like to see a little more work done to the trail so a few more people besides the extreme riders would enjoy riding it. I tip my helmet to the “professionals” that can supposedly finish the east trail in 1.5 hours -- they are bad dudes.