John Muir Mountain Biking Trails — Attraction in Town of La Grange

I have been going to this trail for years with my mountain bike. It's well maintained and has something for just about everyone. Very fun! I recently bought a gravel bike that claimed to be trail capable so I took it out to the John Muir to see if that held true. My bike is a carbon fiber Lauf Seigla with 30mm of front suspension and 700 x 45c Maxxis Rambler tires. I had them at about 30 psi. This isn't a bike review but I didn't see any information on if a gravel bike could hand the trails so I wanted to give others my thoughts on this. I did the entire blue loop and found that the bike performed pretty well. It was overall very fast and climbing was a dream. Even the very rocky and technical climbs. I found that my hands were pretty much on the brake hoods the whole time. This trail has a lot of small rocks and roots which are very jarring at times but if you pick your line right, it's not a big deal overall. Gravel bikes are very nimble which really helps when dodging rocks and roots at speed. Descending was generally really fun if the trail was more smooth but fast technical descents were not really possible as the bike can't take hard hits like that. Or Rather, my body didn't want to absorb those hits. I found I had to be on the brakes more than I would be on a MTN bike. I also found (the hard way) that Gravel bike geometry doesn't do small logs, pyramids, or drops over 8" well so I went around or walked over those.

It's worth a try and pretty fun if you want to get your gravel bike out into some single track but I won't be doing this often. My hands were very tired from taking impacts for an hour. I hope this helps you decide what bike to bring next time you hit this...

This is a great section of trails located in southern Wisconsin. This location offers beginners, intermediate, and more advanced mountain bike trails. The state does a great job on upkeep of trails and trail signage. There is a bathroom at the trailhead and a few picnic tables there is ample parking however it can fill up. Trail maps are available and there is a large trail map at the trailhead (take a picture with your phone) The Emma Carlin section of this trail is for more advanced riders, and will test your technical and climbing skills. Always call ahead to make sure the mountain bike trails are open if there was rain within the last 24 hours of your planned ride. Take out what you bring in (trash), please have trail etiquette, communicate with other hikers/ riders, respect the land that we have the opportunity to use,...

This park had the potential to be a great park for hiking and biking but as it is now I would not recommend it for either. The trails are NOT clearly marked at all. We tried to follow the white trail but most of the time the white trail was not marked. Other people we came across also couldn't find the trails they were trying to follow. Also the trails are shared by bikers and hikers. This would be fine except the trails are very windy and narrow. A lot of bikers go fast and we were almost hit several times by bikes. When we could see the bikes coming we had to stand in the weeds of the side of the trail.

I think this park had the potential to be a great park for both bikes and hikers but I don't think they should share the same trails. The trails also need to be...