Shepherd Mountain Bike Park and Hiking Trails — Attraction in Ironton

I was a little concerned coming here as this was my first downhill experience and I’m fairly novice on mountain bikes in general, most everything I read said this was overall a very difficult area so I wanted to leave a review from a novice perspective I hope this helps round out the available information on this park. The green trail was challenging for me but very doable for a novice just have to take it slow and know your limits. There was a lot of room to grow through the day for me on the green trail and anything can be walked until your ready to ride it, no getting yourself into something you can’t get out of. My first time down I walked through a couple to the rockier switch backs and one rocky area but with each pass I was able to walk less. All of the “jumps” on the green trail either were easy to go around or just roll over. My bike only has front suspension and did fine but at least front suspension is a necessity even for the green. I didn’t make it to any of the blue trails but from talking to several people I think next time I will be ready for them. I’m glad I didn’t woose out on this, I really had...

The shuttle is the reason for four stars, not five. Not only did we have to hold our bikes in our laps (on a steep drive up) instead of attaching them to a trailer, but the wait times were also longer than expected. For a paid service, the driver shouldn't be making small talk with folks while we're waiting to go up the mountain. I feel like we could have gotten 4-5 more rides up the same distance if we went somewhere else like Howler or Lake Leatherwood. The trails were great. Unforgiving on more difficult trails, but super rewarding...

If your looking for flowing XC trails - this is not the place for you. However - beggars can't be choosers. This was the only trail close to our AIRBNB. The climb up (Coolios Trail) was TOUGH. And then the descent down pushed a XC guy like me. This isn't my type of MTB riding BUT the park is clearly a downhill/session type of place. So my skills were pushed and hopefully improved. If we visit the area again - I will be visiting Sheperd' park again

Oh and before I came I exchanged several emails with the people in charge and they were...