25 Mountain Bike Trails in the USA to Ride Before You Die
We've culled the thousands of possibilities down to 25 superb choices worth traveling across the nation to ride.
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It’s "safe to say there is no other ride quite like this anywhere in the States,” <anchor>writes</anchor> the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. While the Ape Canyon to Plains of Abraham ride begins by climbing up a narrow singletrack deep in a PNW forest, it soon breaks out into the Mount Saint Helens blast zone and lava flow area, providing a truly surreal landscape for a mountain bike ride. Once you hit the Plains, you’ll spend miles traversing the lunar landscape and surfing through the volcanic pumice.
Mt Saint Helens
# Mt Saint Helens

### Info

Overview:

This is an area of epic rides with some unique scenery, difficult and interesting routefinding, varied terrain, and a wild sense of remoteness.

Maps:

Additional Info:

Ape Canyon, Plains of Abraham and Smith Creek are the most popular trails in this area, making for a long ride (23 to 26 mile round-trip) with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. There are two ways to do this ride -- starting from either the top of Smith Creek Trail (near Windy Ridge viewpoint) or from the bottom of Ape Canyon Trail.

You can ride either just the Ape Cayon trail or just the Smith Creek trail - or combine the two for an epic!

The Ape Canyon/Plains of Abraham portion can be described as: safe to say there is no other ride quite like this anywhere in the states. Climb through a forest that somehow survived the blast of St. Helens with views getting better and better the farther you climb. You will pop out of the woods and begin traversing the Plains of Abraham. Some more climbing, descending, and surfing the pumice and you will hit a gated logging road that will take you to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint.

Smith Creek is a different animal: you start by descending into the Smith Creek drainage on a steep, rocky and easy to lose trail roughly following the creek through dangerous and unstable washouts and river crossings. There is a dangerous 50 foot washed out section of trail between Smith Creek and Ape Canyon creek that goes across an unstable ridge, with sharp drops off to either creek on both sides. Parts of the trail are on old overgrown logging roads and THEN there is the bust out climb (1,300 ft) up to the start of the Ape Canyon Trail.

### Photos

### Videos

### Trail Status

### Ride Reports

### my favorite loop

09 | 02 | '18

Fun ride did the loop.  Starts out with a lot of climbing but its not to loose so its rideable.  Beautiful views no matter what direction you look.  The trail seemed to handle the traffic pretty good, it did not seem packed for holiday weekend and cars everywhere.  My favorite...

Submitted by Troysteigman on 09/19/18

09/19/18

Troy steigman

### Great Ride

09 | 27 | '17

Smith Creek is closed in between the top of the steps and where it rejoins with the road.  Trail is closed due to washouts.  There are a few up there below the rock face, but mostly it's just overgrown.  Don't recommend this section.  The loop can still be ridden, just take th...

Submitted by jamhow on 10/03/17

10/03/17

James Howery

### In good shape

07 | 29 | '16

Everything is in good shape. Saw a lot of hikers and lots of bikers. So, be careful on the fast downhill back to the parking lot. Not tons of blind corners though. Pumice makes this an epic more for experience and views; than the actual love of the trails. Although the last downhill is fast smoot...

Submitted by davgol on 08/05/16

08/05/16

David Golomski

### Epic everyone should do

06 | 25 | '16

Parked at the north Smith Creek Trailhead and rode down Smith Creek and then FS-83 up to the Ape Canyon trailhead then the trail to Windy Ridge and back to the car. The trail is as loose pumice as they describe and has some rerouting especially at the Smith creek crossing. Routes can be hard to f...

Submitted by tomvale on 06/26/16

06/26/16

Tom Valenti

### Spring ride

05 | 28 | '16

Rode from Ape Canyon trailhead May 28, 2016. Trail is mostly in very good shape; down low some water damage and a nasty hole that you will see on the way up and hopefully remember on the way down. We got up just about to the Plains proper before encountering significant snowfields. Ride is totall...

Submitted by TThrelkeld on 06/16/16

06/16/16

Todd

### A Fun Workout

07 | 27 | '15

I found the climb up to the top of Ape Canyon to be quite challenging for a 60yr old rider on a vintage steel bike. However the view was worth the three mile climb with it's steady (but never too steep to ride) grade and all the huffing and puffing along the way. The trail through the w...

Submitted by billmcne on 07/29/15

07/29/15

Bill McNeal

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249 Main Ave S, Suite 107-188

North Bend, WA 98045

(206) 524-2900



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