Mountain Biking - Klondike County Park

I'd say, if you are looking for some awesome trails in Missouri try Klondike County Park, on South Hwy. 94 near Defiance. 4 trails that range in difficulty from novice to hard. The easiest to find are Hogsback Trail, Donkey Kong loop, and Strip Mine Loop. Hogsback is the longest of the trails and is what i would consider novice, lots of singletrack some switchbacks, a double switchbacks, tight confines with trees, some rock mostly dirt and a fair amount of roots, the only real climbing is getting up to, a steep asphault path and then a steep ascent through woods, has a good fun factor. Donkey Kong Loop is the shortest, I trudged my way through that one very rocky, and turny, the best thing about Donkey Kong was the great views., DK was about a mid difficulty, and Strip Mine being the hardest has a big rock step down, and some really cool terrain, i didn't ride it, cause it was above my ability, but i walked a little bit of it and it was pretty narly, that stepdown was awesome, eventually i'll ride it. Donkey Kong Loop and Strip Mine Loop are all fed off of Powerline Trail, which is sandy and really wide, it gets you to the fun trails. And one last trail i discovered on accident was Donjo's Trail, i amde a wrong turn on Powerline and was cruising down hill, and saw a sign in the thickett and decided to investigate, Donjo was fun, singletrack lots of dirt, more technical than Hogsback and shorter too, and it takes you back to the Shower house for camping.

That brings me to the park itself, it's nice. Camping spots from bare to better, and you can rent cabins, theres a shower house, playgrounds, paved walking and biking paths and a lake in the middle of the park you can fish in and the coolest part about the lake is it's surrounded by white sand. The best part of the park by far is the overlook bluff. It looks out over the river, farmfields and a coal power plant.

Definately worth checking out. It's on Hwy. 94 about 15 minutes south of Hwy. 40/61 theres a big sign on the left side of the road that you can't miss.

Check out Matson Hill if you get the chance. It's too short at only 3 miles, but it's some of the best single-track in the state. And it's in your back yard. I did it and Lost Valley in the same day. I liked the single-track portion of Lost Valley quite a bit as well, but there's too many weak fire roads for me. I have heard quite a few good things about Klondike, so I'll have to get out there this Fall. Until then, it's my normal after work ride on the Chubb.

how is the chubb, i haven't made it out there yet. I'm gonna say i enjoy the singletrack on Hogsback at Klondike more than Lost Valley, i used to ride Lost Valley all the time when i started MTBing, i thought it was awesome, except for the fire road. Then i went to Klondike and was amazed, Hogsback is at about the same difficulty level as Lost Valley, but for me it's alot more fun than Lost Valley. I haven't been to Matson yet. I drive past it on my way to Klondike all the time, but when i come back past i've already ridden like 4 or 5 trail rides and am kinda tired, i'll have to try it.

Yeah, you've got to do Matson Hill. It doesn't take very long and it's sweet. I'm getting back into biking after a long break, so I'm still working on my technique. I can pretty much ride everything at Matson Hill, though. I'd recommend doing it counter clockwise. The descent on the south side is long and rocky. Some ledges could be hard to get up.

Chubb is a good trail. You can make it as hard as you want. When I'm not feeling it, I start out on the trail from the lower parking lot from West Tyson. It's single track with a few good climbs in it with a rockgarden or two thrown in for good measure. The trail starting from the upper parking lot is much more challenging. I walk several spots on that side on the way up. I am getting to where I can ride most of it down, though. These two trails meet up at the top of a hill at a picnic bench. From there, you can go down hill and then ride the flats along the river over to Lone Elk. I usually just ride the 4.5 mile loop on my after work rides. Go check it out with a bud. I'd recommend starting from the lower parking lot at West Tyson your first ride out, though.