Such a pleasant trail for families to ride bikes and walk. Clean, and some fun exploring in the creek, neat bridges and rock steps.

The trail in Greene county is pretty good. It needs some tree trimming but the trail surface is solid. Thru Polk County not so much. Ruts, loose gravel, spiders repelling from low tree limbs. The scenery is nice but you need to keep eyes on the surface as it changes frequently from sand, dirt, gravel. Just when you direct your attention to the scenery the surface goes soft.

If only the trail was maintained as well as the signs for it are. It starts out in Springfield as a beautiful paved trail for 8 miles, and then the trail deteriorates from there. I wanted to be sure to ride the whole trail, but it was terribly disappointing. Trail went from paved, to crushed limestone, to rocks, to sand, to single track with grass and weeds growing up to your knees. The markings for the mileage were good, but there are no restroom facilities at any of the trail heads where there is parking. When you get to Boliver, there are no markings telling you which way to head to get to food, etc. On the sign it says it's a premier trail. That is just not true. We had to clean our bikes and ourselves of spider webs. Nasty. I will say that there weren't mosquitoes at all, and maybe that's because of all of the spider webs. This trail is in need of maintenance big time.

I rode this trail last summer from Springfield to Walnut Grove and back and really enjoyed it. This summer I stopped to ride the Northern section from Bolivar to Walnut Grove to see all the bridges. Ended up turning around just before Wishart due to all the low hanging tree branches and the spider webs that were hanging down between the tree branches on both sides of the path. After a couple of miles of plowing through them, I gave up especially after noticing a few dozen spiders crawling around my legs, arms, bike, helmet and across my glasses. I don't give up very easily but enough is enough. What a beautiful ride this trail would be if, like other trails, (especially the Katy Trail that I rode next), the towns along the trail would pitch in and trim it back.

Nice, easy trail to do with kids. Trail has lots of trees & goes thru a park. I would also recommend the little restaurant along the trail, Galloway Grill. They are biker & kid friendly w/ good food & a decent selection of beers.

The Rusty Chain Gang went from Bolivar to Springfield and spent the night at the Courtyard and went back the next day.

No need to go into great detail as Emily's review was spot on. A mower and tree trimming is much needed on all sections of the trail. Some areas worse than others.

A reminder to everyone there is no water on the trail and pack extra water with you. I had 3 water bottles but needed the 4th.

I am looking forward in going back when I see some more positive feedback.

It is a shame that a trail through such a gorgeous, natural area is so inconsistently maintained. My husband and I rode from south of Bolivar (MM 31) north into Bolivar one day, and the second day rode from MM 31 south on the unpaved portion of the trail down to around MM 21.

The paved portion of the trail was average; some roots, but overall decent. The road detour around Hwy 13 in Bolivar is rather long and a bit confusing if you don't know the area due to inadequate signage, but we figured it out.

Parts of the unpaved section south of Bolivar were smoothly packed limestone and very easy to ride on our road bikes, which are equipped with wide tires (1.35"). However, a good mowing and branch trimming was needed as the grass and weeds were high, and occasionally the trail would almost disappear in the weeds. But this was tolerable compared to the conditions we encountered the farther south we got.

We had hoped to make it to Walnut Grove at MM 16, but ended up turning around early due to the gravel conditions, mostly from the Little Sac River bridge (MM 23) to MM 21 (and probably farther south). This section appeared to have been relatively recently re-graveled, and not well. The gravel was larger and deeper than ideal (up to 3" deep in some places), leading to fish-tailing and difficulties controlling our bikes. I would recommend this section for mountain bikes only. It was nice to see that some maintenance had been done on this section, but unfortunately, it was not done well; the gravel was not spread evenly or thinly enough, making it somewhat hazardous and not fun to ride.

The bridge conditions were also inconsistent. Some appeared in dire need of maintenance. One wooden bridge had a large hole where a plank was missing, a very hazardous situation.

With more consistent and careful maintenance, this rail-trail could be the gem it should be, but it was a disappointing trail for us, especially compared to numerous other rail-trails we have ridden across the US.

The bolivar portion can be hard to ride on a street bike. We have a tandem and it was pretty hard. We came back with mountian bikes. And it was great!!

From the trailhead at Springfield, the trail is paved and flat for the first 9 miles. Not much scenery to see along this stretch. But this is misleading as the remainder of the trail has many low hanging branches and dangerous ruts as you make your way down the trail. I was riding my hybrid and got a flat tire as did another cyclist we encountered along our 35 mile ride. As we saw only 6-7 cyclists all day long, the odds of getting a flat are pretty high. If you must ride this trail, start from Boliviar as it is much more scenic. Bring all the water you can carry and bring extra tubes!!