Mountain Biking in Asheville, North Carolina: A Guide to the Best Trails
Asheville, North Carolina is known for it’s breathtaking natural beauty and endless opportunities for outdoor recreation. One of the best ways to experience the stunning scenery around Asheville is by mountain biking. With miles of well-maintained trails, Asheville is a mecca for mountain biking enthusiasts of all skill levels. With views from every area its hard to pick a bad place to ride here. This area of the country sees lots of rain every year and riding in all kinds of weather is going to be the norm if you can brave it.
While we were here, we were able to ride most of the popular trails and areas around, enjoying a beer after each adventure since there’s pretty much a beer bar or brewery at the bottom of every trail system here. We got rain for at least half our time spent here and it made it a bit more difficult for us to ride since were used to dry blow out moon dust in Utah. Roots and rock were slippery and made for some interesting line choices and slower speeds. If we spent more time here we would get comfortable with it and learn how to ride more confidently.
Asheville
We had the luxury of having one of my old friends from SLC who moved out here a few years ago show us around. He was unable to ride due to an injury but he was happy to shuttle us around on a few of his favorite trails so we would save our legs for another day. Below you will see so of the areas we rode and had a great time with. All of the trails were pretty top notch and we hope to come back soon as as we can because people keep building and developing these systems, creating an amazing eco system for all riders.
In conclusion, Asheville, North Carolina is a must-visit destination for mountain bikers. With miles of well-maintained trails, stunning scenery, and a variety of terrain, Asheville offers something for everyone. So grab your bike, get ready for some good post ride beers and come enjoy the green forests that Western North Carolina offer. Don’t like bikes and just want beer? Click here.
Ride Kanuga Bike Park
If you know anything about mountain biking in North Carolina, you’ve probably heard of this place. All you youtubers ride here and show what a cool place it is. Well they aren’t wrong. Its about 30 or so minutes south of Asheville. This is a pedal park but e-bikes are allowed. They have a small little shop with gear, snacks and e-Bike rentals. We opted to give the e-Bikes a try (haters gunna hate), since at this point our legs were getting heavy and we wanted to do multiple laps.
As you can see below, we did over 4k feet of climbing on these things and wow was it awesome. Getting in 7 laps and a few on the lower jump lines it made it easier to have fun and not be totally beat. All in about 2.5 hours as well. The best trails there were Deadwood, which had good flow into some loamy lines as the bottom and Paint it Black, with good chunk and technical drops. Even Rhodo Ruckus was a blast with great berms and fast flow.
Pisgah Ranger District
Well well well, again, probably at the top of most peoples list of places to ride. And damn, it doesn’t disappoint. We road the best, according to our shuttle driver, section of trail in the area Buckwheat Knob to Bennett. Hopefully your have a big travel bike because the chunk from breakfast will still be leftover for lunch. It was such a great section of trail and we were lucky to save well over 1k of vertical climbing with the drop-off. The trail had great scenic views to go along with the endless fun. Of course at the bottom we had to stop at The Hub and Pisgah Tavern for beers and food.
Kitsuma Peak
About 20 minutes Northeast of town lies this fun little trail that runs next to the highway, Kitsuma, yup Cane Creek named a rear shock after it so its gotta be good right? I’d say so. Really good flow with a few chunky root sections. This trail can be a loop connected with the green gravel road or shuttled like we did from left to right on the map.
Ride Rock Creek
Shuttle laps for the win! Ride Rock Creek is a new shuttle served area just south of Asheville. The day we were there is just rain the last few days so the trails were a bit soggy and slow. We ended up doing 7-8 laps before we were out of energy. The shuttles they use are old school busses so you can pack them in there and rotating out every 10 minutes or so. They are open Friday – Sundays 10-6. Starting at $55 per day its a bit expensive for the small number of trails they have at this time. They do say they will be adding more and more trails in the future. Hopefully they can add a bit more tech and chunk to the area and grow the system to be a top stop for downhill laps in the area.
They offer rentals of bikes and have a small shop for quick things if you forget something. Our favorite trail was Dark Hollow, a steeper chunky trail with off camber corners and a few rock and root gardens. Bark Buster is a blue trail with a loamy and raw feel. Pretty good flow and not to steep. For a good warm up, I’d suggest starting on Green River. Easy green with flow you can pump and roll though with big berms.
On the last day we did a brew tour ride with some of Matts friends. Starting in the river arts district and going all around on the bike path to find drinks. We did officially get to ride with the famous BOBO on it as well. If you wanna see some of the places we drank just check out the Asheville tab for more.
