Turkey Mountain gets the reputation. Ask anyone in the Tulsa metro where to mountain bike and that's the name that comes up first, along with the crowds that follow it most weekends. What most people outside the sport don't know is that the same statewide group of trail builders who patch up Turkey Mountain's most beat-up sections also built the 16-mile network wrapping the east side of Claremore Lake, and riders who've done both describe the Claremore trail as the far quieter of the two.
The Claremore Mountain Bike Trails didn't start as anyone's grand plan. They started as a forgotten three-mile path the city opened in 2009 and then couldn't afford to maintain. By the early 2010s it had gone to seed. That changed in 2014, when Josh Froman, who owns the Claremore sign shop Adventure Signs, and a friend decided to clear it back into shape. What they rebuilt caught on with more volunteers, and by the time the Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship got involved to help design it for the long haul, the trail had grown well past its original footprint into the 16-mile system riders use today.
The Same Builders Who Fix Turkey Mountain
The Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship, or OEF, is a statewide cycling organization formed back in 1996 to advocate for off-road trails and teach volunteers how to build them so they hold up. Its members are the ones who show up when Turkey Mountain's trails get chewed up from overuse and need structural repair, not just a rake and a trash bag. That's the same group of builders behind the Claremore Mountain Bike Trails, which means the sustainable-trail techniques used to keep Tulsa's flagship system rideable were applied here from the ground up, on a trail with a fraction of the traffic.
Rory Peterson, one of the volunteers most associated with the trail's design, has said the priority from the start was managing erosion rather than just laying dirt.
"Erosion is a major concern and mitigating this natural process is a top priority."
That's not boilerplate. It shows up in how the trail behaves after a storm.
The Trick That Keeps It Open in the Rain
Most Oklahoma dirt trails turn to soup after a hard rain and stay closed for days while the clay dries out. Claremore's trail was engineered specifically to avoid that. The routes are built to shed water rather than pool it, which is why the city and multiple trail-cataloging sites describe the network as rideable and walkable close to year-round, a claim that's unusual enough in this part of the state to be worth stating plainly. Riders on Tripadvisor have noted the same thing anecdotally, calling it well maintained and less crowded than Turkey Mountain.
That water-shedding design is also why the trail could grow from three miles to sixteen without turning into a maintenance sinkhole. Volunteers built five loops plus an out-and-back route, scaled to different skill levels, along with professional trailhead signage. The first two miles of signs, fittingly, were donated by Froman's own shop before the city and a state grant funded the rest of the network's color-coded markers.
What's Actually Out There Now
If you haven't ridden it in a few years, or never have, here's what the current system looks like on the ground:
- North Trailhead, 15011 E 470 Rd, reached by taking Highway 20 east to NS 4180 Rd (Justus School), heading north two miles, and crossing the low-water dam.
- South Trailhead, 19298 S. Lake Dr., just east of the Claremore Lake Park entrance off Blue Starr Dr.
- Five loops plus an out-and-back, ranging from easy to technical, with named segments including the Sawtooth Loop, a 2.2-mile beginner route good for birding and a quick after-work ride, and connector trails like CLOAB and Lower Scout linking the two trailheads for riders who want a longer beginner-friendly haul.
- A pump and skills track tucked into the network that regular riders mention but casual visitors often miss.
The trail is mapped on MTB Project, Trailforks, and AllTrails, and Singletracks ranks the Claremore network seventh among Oklahoma's 68 listed mountain bike trails, a notable spot for a system most of the metro still treats as a secret. Regular riders also organize informal group rides under the name Tuesday Night Shred, meeting up from the campground in the early evening.
On the Calendar This Month
The clearest sign the trail has outgrown its quiet reputation is what happens every September. In 2018, the network joined Oklahoma's Tour de Dirt series, the official USA Cycling State Mountain Bike Championship Series, and Claremore has hosted a leg of it called the Shoreline Shred most years since, right along the lake.
The format has stayed consistent year to year. One day is given over to a Strava-timed enduro plus live music and festival events at the trailhead. The other is race day, with course options that have ranged from 7.5 to 22 miles and a kids' race kicking things off before the adult heats. Riders have come in from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas for it, which for a weekend turns Claremore's quiet trail into one of the busier mountain bike venues in the region. Check Visit Claremore's event calendar for this year's exact dates and registration details before you head out.
Outside of race weekend, the loops belong mostly to locals, dog walkers, and trail runners who've figured out what a decade of volunteer labor built two miles from downtown.
Peterson put it simply a few years back, describing what the trail had become for families in town:
"Our trails are a great place for young riders to learn from more experienced riders."
That's still the pitch, minus the marketing gloss. A sign maker and a friend cleared some brush in 2014. A statewide club that also keeps Turkey Mountain rideable helped them build it right. Now Claremore has sixteen miles of singletrack that mostly stays open when everyone else's trails are closed, and a championship-series race that lands on its shoreline every September.
If you're the kind of person who tracks these things down, this is the one worth adding to your regular rotation before word gets out any further.
Claremore keeps turning up details like this once you start looking past the obvious landmarks, which is part of why our team enjoys writing about it. If you're weighing a move within town, or just curious what your own property near the lake might be worth in today's market, Ridge Real Estate is always glad to talk it through. You can also browse our full Claremore neighborhood guide or reach out any time for a free home valuation.
