[MinesPunk]

My wife and I just moved to Central Illinois and we would like to find a trail area with some cheap cabins for Easter. Any suggestions for trails within a 6 hour drive? We are used to riding in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Colorado and she prefers nice flow while I ride steep downhills. We would also like to find some cabins that will let us bring our two dogs with us. Thanks for the help!

 

[Harold]

Brown County State Park in Nashville, IN has both trails and cabins. Problem is, spring is a bad time of year for mtb riding in this part of the country because frequent precipitation and low evaporation means the trails take a long time to dry enough to be rideable. Pavement and dirt/gravel roads are a better option. You will likely get stretches of weather good enough for mtb riding in the springtime, but it will be nearly impossible to plan for them.

Plus, when spring is in full swing, lodging is tough to find in Brown County unless you plan a LONG ways in advance. Last year, I found a month to be insufficient.

If you want to ride at a particular time with less need to consider trail conditions, you'd be better off heading south. Lots of people in Indiana will head to KY, TN, and NC. You may want to consider Arkansas, too.

 

[Elduder]

dude head to Big South Fork in Tennessee and stay at the cabins in Pickett State Forest. The cabins are nice and the trails are almost always ridable and not too technical and very very fun. There is an IMBA epic down there that is a blast to ride. I swear if you ride from the top of John Muir down and hit Grand gap and come back up it is like you never climb it just flows and flows some more.