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XC riding around Seattle and Bellingham ?

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gobriango

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
I'll be coming through Seattle this summer (late July/early Aug) on an RV trip and I'm looking for some quality XC riding. We don't mind tech but aren't looking for drops or jumps, as we'll be on XC race bikes.
I'm a former pro (50+ now, a little slower, a little fatter but can still put in series miles) but my 2 buddies are slower, older and will be on E bikes. We're looking for anything in the 1.5 to 3hr range. We just want to get out and have a great time riding that insane PNW Ewok style terrain.

We'll be coming in from Spokane and heading up to NCNP, so we're open to anything within the Seattle/Bellingham corridor.

From what I can tell Grand Ridge Route over to Duthie and then riding everything in Duthie looks good ?

How about Souring Eagle is it still worth checking out or will it get really small, really fast ?

Tiger Mtn looks beautiful but is there enough XC riding there to be worth it or is it all freeride ?

Is Ranging River Loop worth doing ?

I did Suntop Loop out near Rainier back in 01, with the beta from magazines and loved the PNW style woods (and did a NORBA race at Crystal Mtn). Anything out that way worth heading too ?

I think I rode at Galbraith Mtn in Bellingham but again this was before the internet and I just can't remember. It was awesome but super short. Anything up that way that is 'must do' ???

I also rode some XC trails in Anacortes that went in between neighborhoods and was pretty cool but it looks like it is all gone.

Well I look forward to everyone's suggestions and help.
 
#3 · (Edited)
gobriango said:
I'll be coming through Seattle this summer (late July/early Aug) on an RV trip and I'm looking for some quality XC riding. We don't mind tech but aren't looking for drops or jumps, as we'll be on XC race bikes.
I'm a former pro (50+ now) but my 2 buddies are slower, older and will be on E bikes. We're looking for anything in the 1.5 to 3hr range. We just want to get out and have a great time riding that insane PNW Ewok style terrain.

We'll be coming in from Spokane and heading up to NCNP, so we're open to anything within the Seattle/Bellingham corridor.

From what I can tell Grand Ridge Route over to Duthie and then riding everything in Duthie looks good ?

How about Souring Eagle is it still worth checking out or will it get really small, really fast ?

Tiger Mtn looks beautiful but is there enough XC riding there to be worth it or is it all freeride ?

Is Ranging River Loop worth doing ?

I did Suntop Loop out near Rainier back in 01, with the beta from magazines and loved the PNW style woods (and did a NORBA race at Crystal Mtn). Anything out that way worth heading too ?

I think I rode at Galbraith Mtn in Bellingham but again this was before the internet and I just can't remember. It was awesome but super short. Anything up that way that is 'must do' ???

I also rode some XC trails in Anacortes that went in between neighborhoods and was pretty cool but it looks like it is all gone.

Well I look forward to everyone's suggestions and help.
Click to expand...
The Grand Ridge is decent to ride, but I wouldn't consider it a destination ride. I would avoid riding Grand Ridge on a weekend because of the number of other trail users, but Grand Ridge can be fun to ride fast when there aren't so many other people on the trail. There isn't that much trail mileage to ride at Duthie. However, it could be interesting to visit Duthie from the perspective of seeing what King County has allowed bikers to build in a county park. It is pretty amazing that the county allowed the kind of jumps and drops that are in Duthie to be built in a county park. Riding Grand Ridge from I-90 to Duthie does give you a good amount of mileage and about 2200 feet of elevation gain. If you are going to Duthie and have all day, it could be worth riding over to check out Soaring Eagle as well. To get to Soaring Eagle from Duthie ride out the northern exit from Duthie, cross Duthie Hill Road and ride down Trossachs Blvd to the end. Soaring Eagle is about 1.5 miles from Duthie. Soaring Eagle is pretty small but has some fun tight singletrack that feel unlike other trails in this area. I see from your profile that you're from Red Bank, NJ. Soaring Eagle feels like a park that you might find in NJ such as Hartshorne Woods close to Red Bank or Ringwood State Park.

Tiger does have a good number of trails to ride. Raging River is a great trail system to ride. If you're looking for elevation gain, another good trail to ride is the Ollalie Trail. My favorite set of trails in the Seattle area are at Tokul East and West.
There's a huge variety of trails there and you could spend an entire day riding up fire roads and descending on singletrack trails.

To get the PNW-style Ewok terrain that you mention, Raging River, Tiger, and Tokul would all be great choices.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
JIMSLICK said:
The trails in Anacortes are still there and great, also the kettle trail system in Coupeville is very XC and great
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I was looking on MTBProject and they show nothing in the area but Trailforks shows a ton of trails .... yup that's what I rode. Again, it wasn't amazing but the trails were solid (at least by 2001 standards). Glad to know they weren't bulldozed for more houses.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Spectre said:
The Grand Ridge is decent to ride, but I wouldn't consider it a destination ride. I would avoid riding Grand Ridge on a weekend because of the number of other trail users, but Grand Ridge can be fun to ride fast when there aren't so many other people on the trail. There isn't that much trail mileage to ride at Duthie. However, it could be interesting to visit Duthie from the perspective of seeing what King County has allowed bikers to build in a county park. It is pretty amazing that the county allowed the kind of jumps and drops that are in Duthie to be built in a county park. Riding Grand Ridge from I-90 to Duthie does give you a good amount of mileage and about 2200 feet of elevation gain. If you are going to Duthie and have all day, it could be worth riding over to check out Soaring Eagle as well. To get to Soaring Eagle from Duthie ride out the northern exit from Duthie, cross Duthie Hill Road and ride down Trossachs Blvd to the end. Soaring Eagle is about 1.5 miles from Duthie. Soaring Eagle is pretty small but has some fun tight singletrack that feel unlike other trails in this area. I see from your profile that you're from Red Bank, NJ. Soaring Eagle feels like a park that you might find in NJ such as Hartshorne Woods close to Red Bank or Ringwood State Park.

Tiger does have a good number of trails to ride. Raging River is a great trail system to ride. If you're looking for elevation gain, another good trail to ride is the Ollalie Trail. My favorite set of trails in the Seattle area are at Tokul East and West.
There's a huge variety of trails there and you could spend an entire day riding up fire roads and descending on singletrack trails.

To get the PNW-style Ewok terrain that you mention, Raging River, Tiger, and Tokul would all be great choices.
Click to expand...

Are the trails easy to follow ... looks like they go in every direction ?

Looks like Ollalie is best done as an out and back ?

Nice shout out to Hartshorne .. I used to live a few blocks from there and I used to race Ringwood all the time in the early 90's. I've since moved to the Atlanta area ... not great riding but good enough.
 
#6 ·
gobriango said:
I'll be coming through Seattle this summer (late July/early Aug) on an RV trip and I'm looking for some quality XC riding. We don't mind tech but aren't looking for drops or jumps, as we'll be on XC race bikes.
I'm a former pro (50+ now, a little slower, a little fatter but can still put in series miles) but my 2 buddies are slower, older and will be on E bikes. We're looking for anything in the 1.5 to 3hr range. We just want to get out and have a great time riding that insane PNW Ewok style terrain.

We'll be coming in from Spokane and heading up to NCNP, so we're open to anything within the Seattle/Bellingham corridor.

From what I can tell Grand Ridge Route over to Duthie and then riding everything in Duthie looks good ?

How about Souring Eagle is it still worth checking out or will it get really small, really fast ?

Tiger Mtn looks beautiful but is there enough XC riding there to be worth it or is it all freeride ?

Is Ranging River Loop worth doing ?

I did Suntop Loop out near Rainier back in 01, with the beta from magazines and loved the PNW style woods (and did a NORBA race at Crystal Mtn). Anything out that way worth heading too ?

I think I rode at Galbraith Mtn in Bellingham but again this was before the internet and I just can't remember. It was awesome but super short. Anything up that way that is 'must do' ???

I also rode some XC trails in Anacortes that went in between neighborhoods and was pretty cool but it looks like it is all gone.

Well I look forward to everyone's suggestions and help.
Click to expand...
My opinion:

Yeah you will like Grand Ridge + Duthie.

Soaring Eagle is not worth it, I don't think. It gets small fast.

Raging River and Tiger are actually good options if your definition of "XC" is inclusive of a couple thousand feet of elevation. So consider them, just plan using Trailforks. It's definitely not all freeride and those are our best riding areas IMO.

You might also wanna take a look at Olallie. Nice smooth trail. Still a lot of vert.
 
#9 ·
Ollalie maybe, the others are much more tilted towards gravity riding. Ollalie is too, but up top its up and down and the gravity part is pretty smooth relatively.

Your classic WA rides IME are big climbs followed by big descents. 410 and I-90 have many, as well as other areas. There are other areas w/o this and generally smaller trail systems…but the big climbs and decents are WA “xc” to me.

Still, there are so many trails systems…
 
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#10 · (Edited)
gobriango said:
Are the trails easy to follow ... looks like they go in every direction ?

Looks like Ollalie is best done as an out and back ?

Nice shout out to Hartshorne .. I used to live a few blocks from there and I used to race Ringwood all the time in the early 90's. I've since moved to the Atlanta area ... not great riding but good enough.
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Yeah, I used to live in Monmouth County. Soaring Eagle reminds me of the size of the parks I used to ride in the tri-state area.

I've attached a map of Tokul East and West. The trails generally run along a ridgeline. If you head downhill, you'll eventually hit the Snoqualmie Valley Trail which is a rails-to-trails dirt road.

The only way to ride the Olallie Trail is as an out-and-back.
 

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#11 ·
Jayem said:
Ollalie maybe, the others are much more tilted towards gravity riding. Ollalie is too, but up top its up and down and the gravity part is pretty smooth relatively.

Your classic WA rides IME are big climbs followed by big descents. 410 and I-90 have many, as well as other areas. There are other areas w/o this and generally smaller trail systems…but the big climbs and decents are WA “xc” to me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, what counts as XC in other parts of the country doesn't really exist in WA. When I lived on the East Coast and even in CA, I never imagined that I would be riding a DH-F as my everyday front tire, but that's what feels right for just about everything I ride here.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Jayem said:
Ollalie maybe, the others are much more tilted towards gravity riding. Ollalie is too, but up top its up and down and the gravity part is pretty smooth relatively.

Your classic WA rides IME are big climbs followed by big descents. 410 and I-90 have many, as well as other areas. There are other areas w/o this and generally smaller trail systems…but the big climbs and decents are WA “xc” to me.

Still, there are so many trails systems…
Click to expand...

I'm probably going to ruffle some feathers but I'm not a huge fan of the "climb a fire road for an hour and descend for 20min" types of rides. Unfortunately, that seems to be more the norm, the further out West you go. I really enjoy doing it a few times a year but for that to be the majority of riding, I find it gets old really really fast. I actually love climbing on single track, just as mush as descending (please don't tell anyone).

So what trail systems would you recommend where I can ride terrain that goes up and down the whole way or part of it?
 
#13 ·
For high country XC, Alpine Baldy up Highway 2 by Skykomish is not to be missed. It's all singletrack. Moss Lake out east of Carnation has a nice XC network.

Galbraith has some nice blue and green XC trails, but it's kind of a spaghetti system with loads of intersections everywhere.

If you liked Suntop, then the Northway Trail at Crystal Mountain should be on your list.
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#15 ·
gobriango said:
So what trail systems would you recommend where I can ride terrain that goes up and down the whole way or part of it?
Click to expand...
In that case, Grand Ridge, Duthie, and even Soaring Eagle might be just your speed. All of Grand Ridge is singletrack. Soaring Eagle has a fire road going through the center of the park, but you can do multiple routes around the park entirely on singletrack.


For other trail systems that are mostly singletrack without extended fire road climbs, Henry's Ridge (Henry's Ridge) and Black Diamond Open Space also just came to mind for me.

Moss Lake kinda fits the bill, but it's a pretty small trail system. The Evergreen MTB Trail Guide (Trails) is a good resource to search for rides.
 
#16 ·
gobriango said:
I'm probably going to ruffle some feathers but I'm not a huge fan of the "climb a fire road for an hour and descend for 20min" types of rides. Unfortunately, that seems to be more the norm, the further out West you go. I really enjoy doing it a few times a year but for that to be the majority of riding, I find it gets old really really fast. I actually love climbing on single track, just as mush as descending (please don't tell anyone).

So what trail systems would you recommend where I can ride terrain that goes up and down the whole way or part of it?
Click to expand...
I hear ya. There are still riders in the PNW that prefer undulating terrain on old school trails. It's crazy that we don't have loops of undulating singletrack like they do on the East Coast or down in the Southwest. Unfortunately our only mtb. group is in the "business" of bidding on and building winch and plummet style trails and BMX-theme parks and isn't interested in advocating for and developing actual trail systems that traverse terrain and landscapes, let alone connect to other trail systems that traverse terrain and landscapes. As a result a lot of the good riding is overlooked or grey area in local county/state parks...

That being said, if you want to ride our best trails (8-inch-wide singletrack, root systems to solve, up up down up down jank)... ...the networks I recommend are not going to feel like destinations as they are in our lowlands, without any payoffs or views:

Quick "on your way to the next stop on the roadtrip" 1 to 1.5hr long, 5 to 10 mile rides with around 1000 to 1500ft of climbing:
1. Sub-Black Hills (Olympia)
2. Black Diamond/Henry's Ridge (Trails on the east side of highway 169 are the best)
3. Paradise Valley
4. Victor Falls (OG trails only-stay away from bike park)
5. Soaring Eagle

Out of that list I'd say given you're likely coming over i-90 from Spokane, you can do a short detour south (ironically going past the parking lot for Tiger Summit, just avoid it) and hit the trails on the east side of highway 169 in Black Diamond. This will give you our loam, spaghetti, and some root balls.

If you've already swung north and want a spot for an hour to and hour and a half both Paradise Valley and Soaring Eagle have great singletrack but you run out of trails quickly without lapping them.

As others mentioned you can do the Grand Ridge -> Duthie (just ride straight through Duthie) -> Soaring Eagle and back to get the miles and climbing but the trails only get good once you get to Soaring Eagle, the stuff on Grand Ridge is blown out wide boilerplate.

If you have a full day come south and either do one of the loops off of 410 near Crystal, which is the closest we come around here to an alpine or destination ride but it's still going to feel like winch and plummet.

Honestly, with a full day I'd send you to Capitol Forest were you're going to get all of the above plus a feeling of accomplishment and views.
 
#17 ·
kellyc said:
As others mentioned you can do the Grand Ridge -> Duthie (just ride straight through Duthie) -> Soaring Eagle and back to get the miles and climbing but the trails only get good once you get to Soaring Eagle, the stuff on Grand Ridge is blown out wide boilerplate.
Click to expand...
I kinda disagree with your thoughts about Grand Ridge. Yeah, the trail bed is pretty wide, but riding Grand Ridge is like driving on a race track where the fun comes from being able to ride the trail fast. The bermed corners allow carrying a lot of speed through the turns. But, that's most feasible to do pretty early in the mornings in the summer (around 6-7am) or on rainy mornings in the winter. There is a lot of speeding up and slowing down for other trail users when riding there on after about 8 or 9 am on a summer weekend.
 
#19 ·
gobriango said:
I know this is opposite of a XC specific trail network but is Devil's Gulch worth riding ?
Click to expand...
Oh boy, the eastern side of the Cascades is a whole new world of XC riding. Yes, Devil's Gulch is a very cool trail and not very technical at all. It's open to motos, but I've had great experiences with the dirt bikers there. Being open to motos, the e-bikes are definitely allowed there. It's quite a scenic ride with some very cool rock formations and such.

If you're in that area, Nason Ridge is also a very scenic ride with some serious climbing.
 
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#20 ·
One more thing, the North Cascades National Park is one of the prettiest places in the country. It's not very road accessible, but the hiking trails are beyond magnificent. I grew up near there and am rather biased.
 
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