Kitsap Biker, land of nill.

Banner Forrest isn't good?

what kind of riding do you like?

Time to check out http://evergreenmtb.org/home/index.php and see how many places we have around here.

Oooh, the Banner gnomes are gonna rise up....

Banner Forrest wasn't technical at all man, and it was pretty disappointing. I'm not that particular but have been used to riding stuff that is at least technical and fun. Banner Forrest is no challenge and I am not expert. I'm new to the state. My old trail was 10 minutes away. Will I have to drive? That can be no problem.

Try Skokomish River Trail or Dungeness or Lower Big Quilcene or Capitol Forest......

Obnoxious overtones aside. Try : Port Gamble, Anderson and Gibbs Lake, Big Quilcene.
An hours drive gets you "epic" Dungeness Gold Creek"

RetroS said:

Obnoxious overtones aside. Try : Port Gamble, Anderson and Gibbs Lake, Big Quilcene.
An hours drive gets you "epic" Dungeness Gold Creek"

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Wow cool!!!! I didn't realize an epic was an hour away. I drove an hour for Banner Forrest

And I've hiked the Upper Quilcene river trail. That leads to Marmot Pass right? How does the Lower Quilcene compare? The Upper wouldn't be good for biking, but I'm sure the Lower is very different. I don't know about you guys but it takes an hour just driving on the Forrest road for me, am I too slow?

Are you talking about the Port Gamble Tree farm? That has another name right? That's supposed to be very highly regarded and I've been meaning to check it out. Are any of these really technical? Back from where I'm from the trails were maintained by a local bike group and it was similar to Banner Forrest, but actually much nicer. Here however, the landscape is much better suited for mountain biking, and I know there's a lot of incredibly dedicated people, so I was surprised by Banner.

Thanks for the advice.

The gnomes at Banner understand, it is what it is. Most love it, but its not everything to everybody. I would very strongly suggest you explore Green Mountain, its 15 minurwa from your backyard. I think it may be what your looking for.

K.C. said:

The gnomes at Banner understand, it is what it is. Most love it, but its not everything to everybody. I would very strongly suggest you explore Green Mountain, its 15 minurwa from your backyard. I think it may be what your looking for.

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I've heard about the Wildcat trail on green mountain. There's also a hiking trail in my hiking book though, would you recommend that trail as well?

Wildcat, Beaver Pond, Plummer to Gold Creek. Seek out the vista, Tin Mine in dryer weather, and the service roads offer good conditioning climbs. Washington State DNR maps available on line. Rocky and rooty ups and downs may satisfy your taste for the technical. Also some rumor that the trials trails may reappear.

Cool, I'm ready to get beat up.

hamshank said:

Banner Forrest wasn't technical at all man, and it was pretty disappointing. I'm not that particular but have been used to riding stuff that is at least technical and fun. Banner Forrest is no challenge and I am not expert. I'm new to the state. My old trail was 10 minutes away. Will I have to drive? That can be no problem.

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Im very offended that you don't like Banner:nono: . It kicks my but every time i ride the forrest .

Ummm, before you go driving off in search of Dungeness Creek, you may want to wait until April for that one. Not exactly a January type of ride.

Don't really recommend doing that one solo either. A few of us almost always lead some rides there in March/April depending on the winter storms. Be happy to show you it.

It's one of my top 5 favorite rides in WA.

First off, it's frickin' Jan, everything is soaked, just about everything is going to suck. I have dry trails, but I sure wouldn't show em to a guy that moves here and says everything sucks.:nono:
Just hang up your bike....

EnduroDoug is right on ownabout Dungeness / Gold Creek. Also in your own backyard is Newberry. Somewhat Bannerlike, generally more twisty, tight and rooty, with about 16 miles of singletrack. No great elevation gain / loss, but bring your full-suspension and advanced degree in rootology.

Gold and Green mountains are where it's at. There is also some good riding up at Port Gamble with some technical drops (5-6 feet) and woodwork in the giant clearcut.

There are quite a few hidden trails and other fun bits at Gold and Green mountains that would make Whistler riders poop their shorts. Ride up there enough and you will find them.

There's a guy who goes by Chance or something who lives out there and knows the freeride trails. He posts on Ridemonkey, so give him a shout. I'm sure we would be stoked to have another riding buddy.

Give me a shout when you move to Seattle. Way better riding out on this side for technical stuff.

BTW, Banner is pretty fun on a full rigid bike. Boring as hell on suspension, unless you're being mauled by a bear, then it gets interesting.

I bet Banner would be "more fun" with some berms, eh Pawner?

I'll have to go with K.C. on this one. It is what it is and enjoy it for that. :thumbsup:

Though, like others I imagine, I'm really wondering what "technical" is to hamshank and where he came from for comparison purposes...

hamshank said:

I found a decent trail in Seabeck the the high school for any locals.

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Seabeck "high school"? Can you be more specific? I'm pretty sure there isn't a high school in Seabeck. Are you speaking of the old elementary school about 1/2 mile south of the Seabeck store? I remember there were some trails that ran in back of the conference grounds to the NE...

Could you post the coordinates of the starting location for this trail..
You can determine them from this link: http://www.itouchmap.com/latlong.html

Once you set a point, click on it and it will show you the coordinates; otherwise Google Earth will work too...

First off, I'm not saying everything sucks. I drove an hour to Port Orchard to go to Banner and I didn't see anything that great.

On the other trail I didn't have time to explore it fully because I set off on a day that was way to cold, but there is a trail behind a school on the way to Green Mountain. I don't know the name but it was a very long name with a K


I found it 47.629591,-122.75372

hamshank said:

First off, I'm not saying everything sucks. I drove an hour to Port Orchard to go to Banner and I didn't see anything that great.

On the other trail I didn't have time to explore it fully because I set off on a day that was way to cold, but there is a trail behind a school on the way to Green Mountain. I don't know the name but it was a very long name with a K

I found it 47.629591,-122.75372

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first off you have to understand that a lot of riders take pride in this area and they work very very hard to keep up and maintain the trails also work with the local governing body so we (public) have use of such trails so when you an outsider come and say it sucks, they take offence. I realize what your trying to say though and thats fine, you just opened a can of worms, thats all. Im sure your a great guy that just want to ride just like the rest of us. I know that Banner is more suited for CX riding rather than free riding. Washingto has all typs of rinding from road, cx, free ride to dh. What i would do if i were you is get with the locals and explore on some group ride until you get to know the areas most suited for your taste. Its all good though and welcome to the area, hope you find what your looking for.