I've ridden Shimek for years and it's a nice place to ride, I'm lucky it's only a 20 minute drive to get there.

The last two years have been extremely bad with all the rain and muddy trails, the worst I've ever seen them.  The year ended with still muddy trails so I expect Spring riding will still be muddy.  It'll take some dry, hot weather yet to dry the trails up since it's mostly shaded.

I don't consider the trails rough riding unless it's muddy, some are marked if you can read the map.  With all the mud, they've brought in more rock making it harder for bare foot horses. 

The best time to ride is when it hasn't been raining and it's dry.  May, June, September, & October are my favorite months to ride out there.  When you get into really hot weather, you'll have to deal  with the big horse flies.

The two campgrounds are primitive with one place to water in each campground.  Each campsite has a hitching post and fire pit.  The upper campground is the one you can get cell phone service from so we like to camp there partly for that reason and feel it's the most centrally located spot for all the trails.  If you get there early enough, they have stalls but not very good shelter overhead, it's poles laid across the top. 

If you don't like primitive camping, there is the River Valley Campground that has a very nice set up.  Their price is double to Shimek but you do get electric, nice stalls and an outdoor arena.  If you're set up like I am self contained and don't need electric and have a shower, they do have primitive parking for the same price as Shimek. You'll be parked along the river and you'll have to use tie lines.  It's about 30-45 minutes of riding to get into Shimek from there.

I've ridden in the Big Piney, Hoosier, Shawnee, Panther, Emminence and still think Shimek is a pretty place to ride and feel very blessed to have it at my back door. I would recommend anyone to come when it's not raining, can you tell I'm a little sick of all the rain?