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Beulah Park in Zion now part of CAMBr

3K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  trailville 
#1 ·
I know its in Illinois, but only by about 3 miles so i thought I'd post here since I know some of you have ridden there and others may be interested in this.

Anyway, CAMBr (the Chicago Area Mountain Bikers) will now be managing mountain bike trails at Beulah Park. Trail work will begin in May. They will be looking for volunteers for trail work, and some more members from North of the Illinois state line (I just joined, though it did leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth).

They have a thread going at CAMBr at this link
Beulah Park, Zion | CAMBr News | CAMBr - Chicago Area Mountain Bikers

Beulah Park trail information available
IL Lake County Zion Beulah Park Trails - Trailville
 
#4 · (Edited)
Riders Needed!!!

Riders Needed at Beulah Park!!!
There's been some new trail put in at Beulah Park and it badly needs riders to help firm things up. The plan so far has been to very quickly add some mileage and make things flow a little better. Some of the new trail is a bit rough right now (just basically some pruning of branches and raking).

So come out and ride them. The old trails are a lot of fun and some of them will probably eventually be closed down so take this opportunity to help get the new trails going while enjoying everything the old trails have to offer.

For those that haven't been out there, I took some video yesterday to give you an idea of what you are missing. Sure, some of the old trails are a bit on the "Rustic" side, but who wants to ride perfectly manicured trails all the time? The barely-there trails with the blue flags are the ones that really need to get some traffic. They're slow now and not all that exciting, but they'll get better.

Youtube is still processing the video, so you can't view in high res yet.
Beulah Park Zion IL Mountain Bike Trails - YouTube



Updated map and more info at
IL Lake County Zion Beulah Park Trails - Trailville

Trail conditions at
Singletrack Conditions - Click Trail System Names for Maps and Directions | CAMBr News | CAMBr - Chicago Area Mountain Bikers

Upcoming work days posted at
Calendar Of Events | CAMBr - Chicago Area Mountain Bikers
 
#6 ·
I got out there this afternoon.

I bit damp and slow. I usually wouldn't ride those conditions, but the trails were officially open and I wanted to help pack the new trails. They have gotten better since the last time I rode them and should be a lot better when things dry out.
 
#12 ·
Well, for a city park Beulah Park is larger than most, but for a piece of land with mountain bike trails on it, it's really small. The whole park is maybe 3/4 of a mile to a mile long (east to west) and maybe about 1/4 to a 1/3 mile wide (north to south). If you ride every piece of trail you can get about 5 miles, but that requires riding some little sections multiple times.

The North loop has the longest continuous trail and feels like a regular mountain bike trail. Everything else is bits and pieces, but a lot of the bits and pieces are really fun to ride. You can get some flow out of the bits and pieces, but you need to get to know the trails. The South/Southeast trails have a lot of fun stuff, but you will hit an intersection like every 100 feet or so in some areas. I think they will have a more structured flow eventually.

If you watch the video, that is almost everything there. I edited some bits out, but what's on the video is very representative of what you will find. That's why I intentionally left in a dead end trail and a spot I had to walk because that's the conditions you will find right now on some trails. It is a fun mix though because there is some fast flowy clean trail, some techy stuff, jumps and drops, and some overgrown trails that make you feel like you are exploring.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I've been having a lot of fun riding Beulah recently on my Rigid SS. Figured it was time for some newer video but the rigid wasn't gonna cut it for shooting video, so I cheated and used suspension.

Anyway, I decided to put together an example of a fun loop around the system for people that haven't been there or are struggling to find flow in the spiderweb of trails. The video (from this week) shows the complete loop and I even included an amazing map animation that shows the details of the loop (it's at the end of the video).
Beulah Park Mountain Bike Trails - Zion, Illinois July 2013 - YouTube



Also, there's a trail workday at Beulah this Sunday at 3:00.
 
#15 ·
The Unofficial Beulah Park Master Plan input thread.

I have a thread going on the CAMBR site to share ideas on the Beulah Park trails. I'm also getting ideas from people offline and incorporating them into my posts. This is not an official "what do you want?" thread from CAMBr, but I'm hoping good ideas and suggestions will help to shape decisions being made at Beulah. Decisions being made now will be affecting how we ride out there for years.
The Unofficial Beulah Park Master Plan input thread. | CAMBr - North | CAMBr - Chicago Area Mountain Bikers

If you don't want to post on the CAMBr site, feel free to post here and I'll review posts. You can also PM me if you don't want to post.
 
#16 ·
Beulah Park is turning into an outstanding little trail system.

There's a rather small group of us that have been working out at Beulah this year, but we've made a lot of progress on this system and right now it is absolutely a blast to ride.

Navigating the trails is still a little tricky because nothing is marked, but it's a small park and if you download the map from my site (now has a topographic background) to your phone, you should not get that lost feeling. There are enough geographic features and landmarks (the river, ravine walls, 3 bridges, the paved path, a skills area, etc) that you should be able to figure out where you are. Plus you really need to ride every trail out there because there is something interesting on just about every piece of trail. And the way we've designed the really fun lines in the park, you can easily quickly loop back on a side trail and re-ride most of them without having to do another big loop.

IL Lake County Zion Beulah Park Trails - Trailville
 
#17 ·
You know it's funny, I've lived in the Waukegan area for 31 years now, and I just heard about these trails a month ago. It's even more strange since for the last 10 years I've lived in Beach Park, a mere 3 miles from there. :eekster:

Anyway, I went out there about 3 weeks ago. And I have to say, the trails are pretty cool for a city park, especially one in Zion! I think I'll be riding there much more in the future, and maybe even volunteering for trail maintenance.

C|
 
#18 ·
Beulah Park Features and Fun Bits.

I've been wanting to put a video together of the features at Beulah park for several years but just didn't get around to it until this week. If you like log skinnies, Beulah probably has more developed log skinnies than any other trail in the area, in addition there are some man-made skinnies, many small jumps and drops, and a recently finished BMX dirtjump area if you're looking to get some bigger air. It's a little trail system with a whole lotta fun packed into it.

 
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