We've also been trying to get back to the Redbird Crest Trail system in Daniel Boone National Forest Kentucky, about an hour south of the Red River Gorge, or an hour east of London Kentucky, near Hazard etc.
Redbird is AWESOME!
They finally hired one full-time trail technician, which is a blessing as there have been an increasing number of downed trees blocking the trails for over a year and a half...
We put in 31 miles one morning in just a few hours, but then came up to section 6 and 7 intersection of one of the other side trails that intersect the 67 mile Redbird Crest Loop. Headed back towards sections 1-4 on trail 6, as there were several trees down on 7 right out of the gate...
Well it took us like 3.5 hours and a lot of profuse sweating and cutting our own single track or trying to spot tire tracks left from others, cutting around probably 60-75 downed trees on section 6!!! After the first couple easy ones, we realize that there was no returning the other direction due to the extremity and severity of the terrain and the singletrack cuts that we had to ride around the storm damage areas. There were often several trees in a very short distance down, totally blocking the trail, with steep drops and steep uphills on the sides.
We talked to a ranger who ended up being cousins with a friend of ours, she labeled the areas that we deemed in the most dire need of maintenance, in order to report back to the trail technician Monday after the July 4th weekend.
Hopefully those trees are cleared because the back sections 8 to 12 are some of the best trails and views there... The Bear Creek trailhead in that vicinity is not one that they recommend camping at due to being the smallest, and right on a major state route. Theres tons of room to camp at the main Peabody Trailhead, huge grassy field, restroom, ranger office a stone's throw down/across the road.
Redbird Crest started out in the 1990s as a 99 mile singletrack race course that was very difficult.
Most of the original single track is not currently in official use, all of the higher number trail sections from 12:00 or 14 up through 22 are single track. Some of it is pretty darn difficult. You can start down this in reverse direction of the numbering system from the ranger station parking lot. There are a few downed trees on this as well but since they are more advanced trails and not a TV accessible whatsoever, probably stay there as permanent obstacles...
There is also some other singletrack riding in the vicinity, and several other shorter trails outside of the Redbird area that are in the Daniel Boone National forest, although they are more suited for dualsports being 5 to 10 miles each and then having to travel 20+ miles to the next trail area on pavement.
My wife and I both very much love Redbird. I was very happy hitting the technical rutted out washed out rocky sections on the 2-track, as I am always always looking for a moderate challenge, as opposed to a nice well groomed golf cart dirt trail... But it wasn't too gnarly that my wife would have a panic attack just looking at the steep climbs/descents!
One section on trail 6 though, there was a split in the trail, and we later found that side trail running up the ridge was cut in because the lower trail headed back toward section 5, had rutted washed out rocky bedrock step shelf type difficult climb. I rode both bikes up to the very last rock step shelf, where I lost momentum with both my old flogged 99 KDX220 and her KTM 200 XC-W...
I can't wait to return with my new freshly rebuilt 97 purple KDX220R...!
One other note, they did tell us that they're considering widening sections 1 through 7 for side x side use in order to draw more people to the trail system. Currently it's almost exclusively visited by bikes except on some of the most rugged Forest Service roads that are impassable for a Subaru etc...
Those trail sections 1-7 are really really fun to rude as-is before they send a dozer through them, so we're hoping to return several more times to ride them as much as possible before that. Sections 8-12/14 ish be difficult trails that they are currently I'm on which you hardly see in will still remain the narrow rutted rocky 2-track they currently are however. The singletrack will remain as-is. I'm hoping to run into the same ranger or the trail technician, to suggest that if they widen 1-7, that they reopen some of the additional original singletracks in order to not lose any appeal to dirtbikers.
There's around 97 miles of official trails there currently, so 1-7 bulldozed wider and likely being smooth out a bit will be no big loss, and in a few years it will be washed out and rutted and rocky again anyways. She tild us they only have 1 single dozer in the entirety of Daniel Boone National Forest, so it's in high demand, so it may take a while if they follow through with that plan.