Photograph by Grant Moxley
Great Parks of Hamilton County is helping the city’s mountain bikers train and practice more safely and accessibly with the specially built bike skills course at Mitchell Memorial Forest. “It’s a really easy way for someone who’s never been on a mountain bike to just learn to roll over mounds and get used to the balance,” says Great Parks CEO Todd Palmeter. “The day we opened, I watched kids who’d never done it start and struggle, and within an hour they’re zipping around.”
While the small course was built in 2025, MMF’s biking infrastructure has been around for two decades and was created by Palmeter himself (a former competitive mountain biker) alongside Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance. “I went to trail-building school to learn how to build sustainable nature surface trails,” he says. “The entire first phase we built was four miles with 100 percent volunteer labor.”
The trail’s popularity grew, and in keeping with Great Parks’s 2019 master plan to increase adventure-based recreation, MMF had its mountain biking program enhanced. “It’s easy to get to, the ramps are wide, the mounds are easy, and if you feel comfortable on the skills course, it’s a great way to move over to the actual mountain bike trail.”
