Find the top rated atv trails in Effingham, whether you're looking for an easy short atv trail or a long atv trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a atv trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Access to the trail is easy and I picked the West end trail head in Mattoon. I parked at Peterson Park where there are many shaded parking spots. The start of the trail is one block west and one block north of the park. The trail starts off paved and once out of town is crushed gravel. The trail is pretty well maintained and used quite a bit, but there were still a few sections where my comfort bike got a little out of sorts in deep gravel. Overall though, the condition of the trail was good. The trail is pretty flat and there are only a couple of places along the route where it is necessary to cross roads. The scenery is very peaceful and at one section, the trail cuts through a country club - so you may be sharing the trail in that section with a golfer or two... Both Mattoon and Charleston offer many opportunities for dining, so you won't go hungry! I will definitely be back and will use this trail for 50 mile rides in the future.
Rode today and cant go through to Taylorville and cannot ge on at Taylorville. Get on at Pana and its clear for about 12 to 13 mi. Straight shot.
My wife and I rode the trail on 7/5/2018. We started from Pana and rode north to Tayorville. The trails is in pretty rough shape in areas and in need of some maintenance. We should have brought our hybrids instead of our road bikes. It would have made for a much nicer ride.
We parked in the parking lot of the park at Lake Taylorville to avoid the closed bridge and rode to Pana and back. I admit it was mid-day on a Thursday, but we only saw one other rider the whole time.
The cracks in the blacktop made for a not very smooth ride. Add to that all the small branches and twigs to get caught in your spokes AND all the hickory nuts (?) in places and it wasn’t our best ride, but it was a ride and I can mark this trail as ridden.
My 14 year old son and I rode the trail from Pana to Taylorville and back, nearly the full distance twice for the boy scout cycling merit badge (50 miles). About a mile before reaching the end of the trail in Taylorville, there is a bridge that is closed and there is no easy way to detour around it. The pathway has a few places where the pavement has separated or had tree roots have raised it, but they are marked with white paint. Some of the cracks have been filled with tar and others with very fine gravel. The northern half of the trail is mostly shaded with trees on both sides of the trail (so there are some leaves and small twigs on the trail) whereas the southern half is mostly without shade. There are two small towns where you take a short detour from the otherwise very straight trail. The elevation is slightly higher on both ends of the trail with the middle about 150 feet lower (but it is a very slow, gradual change in elevation). We drove an hour to get to the trail head and it was definitely worth it!
My husband and I rode 12 miles on this trail yesterday after not riding it for a year. We started in Pana at the parking lot. We ran out of daylight, otherwise we would have put on more miles. The cracks in the asphalt were patched. The weeds needed cutting from Pana to Millersville. Someone cut the weeds in Millersville. Someone cleared the area around most of the benches, and the benches themselves were in good shape. One of the bridges needs work, but is easily crossed. This trail is so much better than half a dozen other trails in Illinois, and yet we saw no one one it at a time of day (after work and school for many) when other trails begin to get crowded. We kicked the walnuts off the trail, and moved some dead branched. It is good to go.
I first rode this trail several years ago and was not impressed: the surface was full of washouts and 4 wheeler ruts. However it now seems to be better maintained. The easternmost section is the best, a narrow corridor with lots of wildflowers and birds. As you get closer to Mattoon the trail opens up and there is no protection from the sun and wind. For a nice bit of shade take the spur into the Douglas Hart Nature Center.
I rode this trail yesterday beginning at the parking lot outside Pana and heading to Taylorville. It was quite enjoyable. Obviously it's an older asphalt trail that suffers from some pretty large cracks along the way. Those jolted me more than once. But I'd certainly ride it again.
This is a great trail.
We took the advice from other reviewers and started near the Lake in Taylorville as we passed the bridge that was closed.
This is a awesome trail. Fairly flat and easy to ride. We passed a few people also enjoying the path. It's well maintained. Lovely scenery, peaceful and quiet. (at least the day we was on it)
Highly recommended.
This is a unique bike trail whigh is good and bad. First I rode from Taylorville Lake to the parking lot near Pana and back...24 plus miles. During the whole time I only saw 4 bikers and 1 walker. This is the good part because I am used to crowded bike paths. and since I like to ride sort of fast (17 mph max) I didn't have to be concerned for others. The lack of others is a good thing since some parts of the trail were not wide enough to pass others due to weeds and tree limbs on the sides and weeds growing up in the middle of the trail. Some weeds were mid wheel height. Another reason it is good that I did not need to be concerned with others is that I needed to be concerned about ridges and holes on the trail surface. Thank you to those who took time and painted the worst of these areas so I could avoid them. I want to say thank you and bless you to the people who take care of the trail. One section was mowed on both sides. I am sure these are acts of kindness by volunteers. Also the bridge between Taylorville and Taylorville Lake has been closed so park at the lake to head south to Pana.One last thank you to those who took time to plan and build this trail. It is just too bad that no one is responsible for maintaining it.
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