Buck Hill is a ski area located in Burnsville, a south suburb of Minneapolis. Getting to Buck is a snap. Hop on 35W (from the north), head south, cross the river, look for Buck Hill on your right. Just past Buck, exit on 46. Take a right on 46, then immediately hang a right on Buck Hill Road. Follow that north and you're there. From the south, get on I-35, head north until it splits, stick with 35W. Take the 46 exit and head west across 35W. Immediately after crossing 35W turn north on Buck Hill Road. Take that till you're there.

Buck Hill used to open its doors to the public for riding, but for some reason has decided not to do so any longer.  Buck opens their doors to the racing crowd only on Tuesday evening at 5:30pm for the Gravitylab Freeride Series, and Thursday evenings at 5:00pm for the Penn Cycle Races. Their ride and race schedule is the same as the mountain biking schedule listed previously, except they have a second session of racing on Saturdays. For more detailed info reference their site.

The mountain biking trail is a mixture of brutal climbing, screaming descents, and winding singletrack. If you're a regular at Thursday night race nights, you'll notice that the promoters mix things up by running the course in alternating directions (one night clockwise, next week, counter-clockwise).

There are two sections of singletrack at Buck. One is on the north side of the property. This is where the majority of the singletrack lies. Being on the side of the hill, there is plenty of winding climbing to go around. Throw in a few log crossings, and tight switchbacks, and you have challenging singletrack.  MORC did a great job of re-routing parts of this trail as well as building some new trail.  (see map below)  The other section of singletrack is on the southwest side of of the slope. This section only has a little bit of singletrack, but it breaks up the climbing nicely. Depending on the rain, things can be pretty sandy. However, Buck sheds rain really well, so things are rarely muddy.

Buck doesn't run their chair lifts for bikers, so no lift assist in getting to the top of the slope, sorry kids.

Buck has enough trail available to make one wish they were still open to public riding.  It is a shame, especially after MORC spent so much time fixing and building new trails.  Email Buck Hill here to request they re-open the hill to the public!  (it appears they don't answer their email though, so good luck..)  If you're looking for a great time mid-week, check out the Thursday night racing. It's laid back and inexpensive at 10 bucks. A typical turnout is anywhere from 60 to 100 racers.

Trail Pictures

Trail Maps

The GPS didn't pick up all of the trail, and there have been new trails added since this was taken.

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