News Briefs - Midwest

IMBA Trail News
Volume 15, Number 3
Summer 2002

Utah watch out! The newest mountain biking destination may be the humble state of Illinois. Our source? Mountain Bike Midwest, a new book by Richard Ries and Dave Shepherd (published by Menasha Ridge Press, menasharidge.com) that highlights many miles of trails once known only to locals. Pumped by the book's descriptions of the slickrock of southern Illinois and its "heart-bursting hillclimbs," the Shawnee Mountain Bicycling Association (SMBA) will continue its work with Shawnee National Forest managers, with an eye toward an October Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew visit. SMBA will also continue work on the Lake Glendale, Cedar Lake, and Lake Kinkaid regions.

In Northern Illinois, the Springfield Area Mountain Bike Association (SAMBA) celebrated the May opening of a new 17-mile multi-use trail in the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area, which SAMBA first suggested in 1999. The trail winds around a lake, through woodlands and open prairies, and was designed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Panther Creek now offers the longest mountain bicycling trail in Central Illinois. Directions to this new trail from Springfield: take Route 125 (West Jefferson St.) 20 miles west through Ashland. Two miles past Ashland, turn right (north) onto Newmansville Road. After seven miles, the entrance to the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area will be on the left. You can check out the latest from SAMBA at www.cityscape.net/~samba.

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