Lebnnon Hills Park
Length of ride:5 - 1/2 Miles
Difficulty:Intermediate
Description of Ride:
Lebnnon Hills Park
This trail is located in the west
end of the park. It is accessed from Johnny Cake Ridge Rd. I road
this trail system three times. This is a very popular trail, and
every time I was there the parking lot was near capacity.
The trail I road has it's trail
head located in the south western corner of the parking lot. At
the opposite end of the lot as the entrance. The first time I
road it, I took it somewhat easy. It was 5.4 miles around the
loop that I road. I noticed as I road that there were signs along
the trail that indicated it was rated intermediate. I never saw a
trail rated easy. Every time I saw a trail sign it also had a
letter designation like H4 or L0. I don't know what that was, but
did notice also that there are sections of trail diverging from
the main trail that were closed off.
The first ride I took I saw a work
crew in the woods, working on what looked like a new section of
trail. The park trail system looks as though it may also be
maintained by the Minneapolis Offroad Cycling Advocates (MOCA)
and the county park system.
The first thing I well say about
this trail system is that for me it was like going on a ride in
Disneyland. The trail was very smooth, there were numerous banked
corners that could be taken at high speed, and lots of swift
smooth trail. After saying that I would not advise a beginning
rider to take it on, there are lots of obstacles and challenges
along the trail. There is one section about 3 1/2 miles into the
ride that diverges from the main trail. It has lots of small log
pile obstacles along the first part of this section, and more log
and rock obstacles along the rest of it. After about 3/4 to a
mile, there is another divergence in the trail that says expert
only.
I took a ride down this section. I
have taken lots of rides in the woods of the North West, and the
trails there are not built for bike riders, many have lots of
natural challenges where I have had to carry my bike. I figured,
there may be a couple of areas where I might have to carry my
bike, but that didn't bother me.
The first two obstacles, a log
pile, followed by a "rock garden" stopped me to the extent that I
had to kick start my self after not having enough inertia to get
over them. I think there was one other spot that I didn't get the
right approach and had to put my foot down and scoot through some
rocks. There was also three good sized wood bridges, the kind
made specifically for bikes. There are no handrails on these slat
bridges. I rode around the first, over the second and around the
third. The first was defiantly doable, but the distance off the
ground caused me to hesitate and go around it. The third one went
up and over some logs, then split into two sections, this one had
an alternate route that hopped over a log and I chose that. There
was also a very large teeter-totter that I didn't even think
about crossing. Other than that the main challenges were rocky
sections and a couple of places that had logs forming a large
platform stairway. There would be a log, then six to eight feet
of up hill, then another log stair. There were ten to twelve of
these stairs in a couple of places. This trail looped around and
exited back at the 3.8 mile spot. So this location is the
convergence and divergence of 4 trails. I think there were a
couple of other trails here also, they were blocked off.
There are two trails that leave
this spot, both converge back together a little further down the
hill side. One I have already described, where the expert trail
branches off of it. The other is a little easer, there are no
real obstacles, there are a few rocky spots but very ride able.
It cuts about a mile off the ride. Both trails converge at a
couple of large challenges, one a drop of about a foot over a log
plateau, and the other, a "log jam". That consists of a pile of
logs about four and a half feet tall. Nether of which interested
me at all. The run from this point for the next half mile or so
is very fast and smooth. It is probably one of the fastest on the
trail. Lots of banked turns, the trail weaves back and forth but
watch the bumpy spots along here, they can catch you off guard
after banking a fast turn.
