Find the top rated mountain biking trails in Kalamazoo, whether you're looking for an easy short mountain biking trail or a long mountain biking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a mountain biking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
For several decades the first 1.5 miles of the pumpkinvine nature trail heading out of Goshen was indeed crushed limestone. It was decent, but dusty, or iffy when wet. Well, this September the city finally decided to pave it and it’s awesome—wide, smooth asphalt, with limestone shoulders. In the last year, they also finished the section connecting CR 33 to CR 35 so the trail really feels like it’s finally done and among the nicer trails in the state. Be sure to check out Mooey’s, the Amish ice cream shop at mile marker 6. They’re open thru September 28.
I started in Hartford on a gravel bike with 40 tires. The trail is barely visible and there are potholes and deep sand everywhere. It needs to be paved to make it more accessible. Only 3 miles of the trail are paved.
We parked at the Saranac trailhead and boat launch, across the street from Saranac depot and historical museum. There's a pavilion with restrooms. We went left from parking lot toward Ionia (right goes toward Lowell). Trail is smooth asphalt for first 1-2 miles, then turned to smooth, level crushed stone, then back to asphalt for 1-2 miles into Ionia. The trail is mostly tree-lined with a few bridges closer to Ionia, including one large bridge over the Grand River; only one significant road crossing after crossing the road in Saranac until Ionia. It was about 8.65 miles from parking in Saranac to an elevated bridge over a roadway near downtown Ionia. There's a pavilion with restrooms and designated trail parking after crossing the big bridge. Ionia has a picturesque downtown with a brick paved Main Street, historic store fronts and court house.
The trail is well maintained, and the pace was pleasantly fast for crushed stone surface; on gravel bikes with 42c tires.
Rode this trail from Lowell north toward Belding about 8 miles one way. We parked in Creekside Park off Gee Drive; rode sidewalk about ½ mile to the Foreman St trailhead. Since it was Saturday, it looked like we could have parked at Cherry Creek Elementary School less than a block from trailhead or Lowell Middle School also off Foreman St. The trail starts next to a private residence; there's a small sign identifying the trail.
The trail was smooth asphalt for first mile; then turned to recycled asphalt which is like gravel. It was fairly firm in most spots, not a problem for our 42c tires, the pace was a bit slower. The intersection at McPherson Rd was very loose, otherwise the trail was level and good for our gravel bikes. The trail is mostly tree-lined, at least on the west side, passing through woodland, marsh, and farmland.
A nice, quiet ride with infrequent road crossings and very few people.
I love this place! Never too busy. I take the paved trail. I go all the way through and back. Only takes 90 minutes. Very scenic.
Late August I rode the Kal-Haven from South Haven to Kalamazoo and back. I suppose it should be called the Haven-Kal?
The trail was in perfect condition. Very well maintained. In fact midway there was a downed tree blocking the trail. On the way back a few hours later, it had been removed! Kudos to the trail maintenance team.
Ride with GPS indicated a total vertical ascent of 1436 feet, but my Wahoo recorded 630 feet. Typical of RWG, I guess. It's pretty flat. I didn't really notice any significant hills.
Lots of people on the trail, but not too many. Straight in many sections but never boring.
My only negative opinion of the trail are the stop signs. The trail crosses many country roads, some paved, some gravel, every 1 mile and often every half mile. So there are stop signs. And you need to stop and check because there are cars some going fast. But they get annoying and tiresome. Just when you build up your speed and are in a good cruising flow, you see a stop sign, and have to brake, downshift and unclip. And then build up speed again, only to unclip again, multiplied by 100 times over the out and back. Ug.
In its day, you may have been able to ride a road bike on this rail trail. Unfortunately, it is primarily loose, broken asphalt. It would be a great ride if you have a mountain, fat tire, or e-bike with wider tires.
We began our ride on the far north end, at the Plym Park trailhead in Niles. Parking is more than adequate and very safe. However, as with the entire trail, there are no modern bathrooms. Simply a porta-potty every now and then. Plym Park seems like such a nice place and we were pretty surprised at the lack of facilities there.
The first 2.5 miles is probably not our favorite that we've ever done, and that's trying very hard to be diplomatic. The signage was non-existent, the crossings were poorly marked (especially the first major crossings at Wayne St and M-139. No buttons to push for crossing at a very dangerous and partially obstructed intersection. At worst, they need a push-button flashing yellow, probably a Hawk light. Either way, we made it past there to the riverfront part of the trail. Again, lots of beauty here, but it was hard to take your eyes off of the trail in front of you because the roots that have undergrown this part of the trail have caused massive bumps and ruts. This continued for the entirety of the Niles (city) part of the trail until we reached Fort Street, a little over 2 miles in to the journey. We had decided to ride the hybrids today and not the road bikes. We were very glad we had made that decision.
Once we crossed over Fort Street, we rode along a fairly new section of the trail alongside 3rd Street. This was MUCH better pavement conditions. However, about a half mile down, you are required to cross this very busy street with (again) no lights, no flashers, etc., just on your own with some white paint on the road. Crossing over, you ride a circular trail cut through a nature park, which is nice because it takes you away from this very busy street. (It was our bad luck that a very large tree had come down overnight and forced us to "portage" over this tree! Never had that experience before.) Once back to 3rd St., you hit US12, which is a major road. Fortunately, there are very good pedestrian crossing signals here, and we didn't have any issues in either direction. Crossing this, you are dead-straight North/South for the next 3.5 miles until you are almost on Notre Dame's campus. This is a very nice ride with the exception that there are probably seven or eight cross streets so a lot of stops. Not dangerous crossings, but ones that prevent you from going a nice distance to stretch your legs out.
Once you reach Douglas Road and Business US 31, you are on the NW tip of the campus. Lots of great places to ride there which are not part of this trail, so I won't talk about them here.
Overall, it's a decent trail and the City of Niles is actively working on it, patching many of the bad spots with new pavement, as well as clearing brush and trees that are encroaching, so props to them for their efforts. Unfortunately, there are just SO many place that need fixing, they are fighting a losing battle against those tree roots. We're glad we got to finally experience this trail. Unfortunately, its lack of facilities and poor pavement quality make it a three-star at best, and that's only to the south of Niles. North of Fort St, no more than two.
Rode this trail last year. Started in Goshen and headed toward Middlebury. There is a large section of trail that is exposed to the wind. Chose a calm day, it’s not pleasant riding into a 20 mph wind!¿
The trail is nice but be careful with small sinkholes . There are many ….. at least at the section from South Heaven (I rode about 15 miles). I rode in one of them and fell down pretty badly.
Started in Jackson and went west to Concord (against the wind). In Concord continue west on the street when trail terminates. Ate lunch in Concord Tavern downtown which is to your left as you dead-end into Main Street... fantastic pizza.
Then rode back to Jackson (with the wind). Saw deer, birds, and lots of little critters. Very enjoyable outing of 22 miles round-trip.
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