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Hillside

RECOMMENDED ROUTE
Intermediate/Difficult Intermediate/Difficult
 4.2 (63)
  1. Areas
  2. MN
  3. Southeast Minnesota
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“A nice training ride that never ventures too far from the parking lot. ”

David Gustafson
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Map Key

5.0

Miles

8.1

KM

100%

Singletrack

1,005' 306 m

High

909' 277 m

Low

486' 148 m

Up

484' 148 m

Down

4%

Avg Grade (2°)

11%

Max Grade (6°)

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Unknown

Overview

This is a fun trail. Plain and simple. Over 7 miles of fun singletrack. Challenging, twisting and exciting. The trail is a singletrack loop that doesn't have many spurs, or crossings, so getting lost isn't a problem.

Need to Know

As of 2016, the trail no longer has any required fees to park or annual passes. The city of Elk River has planned to make improvements to the trailhead and invest additional money into this trail, so look for on-going trail work in the coming future. Volunteer trail work nights are on Mondays, usually starting mid to late afternoon.

Description

If you're not wanting to do the whole loop, you can hang a left on the grassy doubletrack underneath the powerlines about 1.5 miles into the trail.

After a little bit, look for the singletrack coming back across the grassy doubletrack. You'll see a brown sign saying that this is Hillside park, hiking/biking. This is your trail. Other than a mechanical, or bad weather, you should have no reason to take the shortcut. This trail is too fun to cut anything out. It has a lot of quick ups and downs. With no real sustained climbing, this trail isn't terribly physically demanding, that is unless you push the pace yourself.

I enjoyed the rolling singletrack meandering through the forests, crossing logs, and rocks. The one spot that really impressed me was a switchback climb where they had built out the corner, using logs as retaining walls, so that you could change directions on the hill without completely stalling. It was subtle, but it just shows how much went into this trail. They have also done a great job building up large logs to be completely rideable, many of which are used as skinny's.

With its close proximity to the Metro, and its high quality mountain biking, I am guessing that this trail will develop quite a name for itself.

History & Background

The singletrack trail at Hillside Park was laid out and constructed by BLAST during the years of 1999 and 2000. From 2006-2016 it was maintained by the small DirtWirx crew of volunteers, with numerous improvements made to the original trail design. In 2016, Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists partnered with the City of Elk River to maintain the trail system, and began the process of a major redesign of the trail system to address erosion issues and bring it up to modern sustainability standards, yet retain the Hillside character that many riders have come to enjoy.

Contacts

Local Club: Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists (MORC)

Land Manager: City of Elk River, MN - Parks and Recreation

Shared By:

David Gustafson
Full Details

Trail Ratings

  4.2 from 63 votes

#1

in Southeast Minnesota

#284

Overall
  4.2 from 63 votes
5 Star
51%
4 Star
32%
3 Star
8%
2 Star
8%
1 Star
2%
Recommended Route Rankings

#1

in Southeast Minnesota

#7

in Minnesota

#284

Overall
18 Views Last Month
20,138 Since Jul 30, 2013
Intermediate/Difficult Intermediate/Difficult
0%
8%
36%
30%
26%
0%
Add a Photo

Photos

New new features
Dec 21, 2020 near Elk River, MN
Drop to rock gap
Dec 21, 2020 near Elk River, MN
The Elk River Hillside Trails "Rock"!
Nov 8, 2015 near Elk River, MN
No cases for this lawyer
Dec 21, 2020 near Elk River, MN
Bridge over a downhill descent.
Sep 20, 2015 near Elk River, MN
Sending it over a rock drop.
Jan 29, 2018 near Elk River, MN

7 Comments

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Weather

Current Trail Conditions

Minor Issues 43 days ago
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Check-Ins

Jun 8, 2022
Tony Grossman
5.3mi — 46h 05m
May 20, 2022
Andrew Far
Amazing dirt around noon today… the sand is very loose and annoying but loving the new features! — 12h 00m
Sep 25, 2021
Erik Olson-Williams
Aug 13, 2021
Joe Napieralski
Jun 22, 2021
Melissa Hanson
Great trails !!!!!!! A little bit more signage would be nice but great park!
May 19, 2021
Derek Burchill
The rain last night helped, the trail is more grippy than yesterday. Guessing the rain tonight will help even more. 10mi — 1h 00m
May 18, 2021
Derek Burchill
Very dry and dusty. Corners are loose and sandy! 10mi — 1h 00m
May 16, 2021
Lisa Neznerol
1st time here. 2nd time on my bike on a singletrack 7.8mi — 1h 06m

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