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Best biking areas in NC?

4K views 29 replies 18 participants last post by  dshack 
#1 ·
Ive considered a move to NC for some time, I have family in Cary. I dont know anything about the trails and have never ridden in NC. Suggestions on the best biking areas to live?
 
#2 ·
Cary does not have the best mtb in NC, but it's not too bad either. Check out trianglemtb.com. There are some areas in Cary where you could probably ride 3+ hours of trail without more than a few hundred yards of pavement... and even more if you count fire roads.

But the mountains have the best riding, of course.
 
#4 ·
San Lee and Governor's Creek are pretty good rides and fairly close to Raleigh..You really have to be on your toes when riding San Lee or at least I do...theyve rerouted alot of the trail and prolly extended the mileage a little bit.
 
#5 ·
Can't beat Asheville for the best mountain biking in NC....maybe the country. Like Desdenlock said, Sanford has some GREAT trails. If you dig the smooth, flowy greenway-type trails, Wilkesboro is the place. Winston-Salem and Greensboro have some good stuff although there seems to be trend towards smoothing them out like Wilkesboro. Charlotte has a GREAT variety and a cool scene.
 
#6 ·
You minds well live in the Raleigh Triangle area. You have a great assortment of trails all within and half hour or less within the Triangle. Then....you have more options within a 1-2 hour distance: Kerr Scott Trails, Uwharrie, Sanford, Danville, Greensboro . 3.5-4 hours to the mountains and Pisgah, Bent Creek, Dupont and more.

If you have a lot of flexibility...best choices are within the Triangle or farther west (but longer than an hour from Cary).
 
#7 ·
go west young man...



i agree with this - used to live in chapel hill - you could do 25 miles in town with some pavement, gboro [wild turkey, owl's, etc] made for a great day - 30 to 40 miles if you do it all. as for the triangle area - link up crabtree, 286, rocky road, umstead and sludge = 25 to 30 miles of fun.

now in asheville - miss some of the rolling piedmont - but with dupont and pisgah here - i never make the drive back east.
 
#8 ·
The triangle area (Raleigh/ Chapel hill/Durham); lots of people and jobs. Try Lake Crabtree (poke around a bit...you might find some "un-named" trails...(but I ain't saying' nuthin'!). New Light used to be good too, but I haven't been there in forever. Not sure what it's like now. Also the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem) offers lots of work (and people), and has Wild Turkey, Owl's Roost, Country Park, and Hobby Park). Charlotte (again, lots of people and jobs) has The US Whitewater Center, and some other goodies. Asheville has the best riding, and is a cool town. Lots of good home-brews up there, too. Yummy. Lots of good riding in NC...
 
#9 ·
Raleigh is a great area for riding. I've been here over 7 years and I'm still finding new stuff to ride. Briar Chapel is great and growing. Crabtree and the area trails are fun and fast. New Light and Beaver Dam up north offer more technical lines if you're into that, and the Governor's Creek trail down south is good as well. Something for everybody around here, and you can ride all year long.
 
#10 ·
I've never been riding in the Raleigh area so I can't comment on the riding scene there, but check out Charlotte, and this site Tarheel TrailBlazers Charlotte's Premier Mountain Bike Club. Lots of good info on that site. We have great variety here and lots of places (10+ different trail systems) within about 20-30 minutes of downtown. Takes about 2 hours to get to the stuff in the mountains and about an hour to get to Wilkesboro (kerr scott trails). For the best riding though and a really cool town I'd move to Asheville. Hands down no competition the best riding town in NC, maybe in the whole country?
 
#13 ·
Ill be taking a trip to visit family in Morrisville this summer and want to take a look at some of these sweet trail you guys are talkin about!!

Which trails would you guys visit if you had a couple days in the morrisville area? Can be up to a 1.5 hour drive I suppose...
 
#15 ·
Trail and XC rider. Depends on ones perception of skill level. I guess I call myself intermediate, but Ive never met a trail I couldn't ride... Then again I haven't ridden anything seriously difficult in some years. I will say that I tend to ride the "Warning, Expert Only" trails around here like Im taking a stroll down the street. BUT they are Florida trails, Which says a lot itself...
 
#16 ·
there are some decent trails right near morrisville... you can start at Lake Crabtree County Park for a little warm up (mostly beginner... but there are some nice dirt jumps, a pump track and even a small creek gap)... from there you can ride out the back side of the park towards Umstead State Park for some hilly fire roads... there may be some other trails 'round there as well ;)...

check out trianglemtb.com and even post up on the forums... i am sure you can get some folks to show you around... all the riding right there is as good as anything within an hour or so...
 
#17 ·
Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys. Im actually pretty overwhelmed with information. Thats why I thought Id ask about the best trails to visit for summary. Seems like there are going to be more good trails than I will have time for! Nuthin like Florida where there are only 2 good trails within 200 miles of here! lol

Dog - you mentioned the mountains in an earlier post where would be some good mountain riding areas? Sorry Im not familiar with NC that much :p
I figure since I live in flat country if im making a biking trip to the area I really need to get into the mountain areas!
 
#20 ·
Summary info on Raleigh and the Mountains

...pretty overwhelmed with information. Thats why I thought Id ask about the best trails to visit for summary!
Hey man - I lived in Raleigh for five years, and I'm an XC/trail rider as well. Boiling it all down to one trail, go hit all of Beaver Dam, including the 'drop zone:' it's like a mashup of all the local trails into one.

you mentioned the mountains in an earlier post where would be some good mountain riding areas?!
....and I moved from Raleigh to those mountains. If you just have a day, hit up all of Bent Creek. The hardcore Pisgah-istas will snub their nose at it, but again, it's like Beaver Dam. It's got a bit of everything, and you can't really get yourself in trouble.

Terse info on Raleigh

* Crabtree is a fast, fun, but completely unchallenging racetrack
* Find some locals on trianglemtb (look for Tank and James) and ask them about the 'other' Crabtree trails. 286 and Rocky Road are horribly kept secrets right beside Crabtree, but not discussed publicly.
* Legend Park (I lived right beside it) is a blast and packs a lot into 5 miles of trail.
* Garner: Same as Legend, but a tangled knot of trails and a growing bandit system
* All the others are fun, mostly XC stuff.

Terse info on the Asheville area in the mountains
* Bent Creek is sort of the "intro" every visits
* The Brevard area has bigger, rougher, gnarlier, more remote trails
* Tsali (an hourish further West) is big fun, but not technical
* Dupont is fun, but bring a map
* Kitsuma is interesting, but the 1/2 lap on pavement makes it only semi worth it.
* Bring a big cooler to bring home local beer. There's so damn much of it, and it's so good, you -have- to ride a lot out here just to keep the weight off.
 
#19 ·
Lake Norman State Park in Troutman 35mi north of Charlotte is my local spot, 21 miles currently and I think there are another 8-9 planned. Piedmont flowy fun trails. I moved to NC because of the variety of trails here, and because NC is a great state. Tarheeltrailblazers website was my bible when I moved here, really cool people too. Around Charlotte there are many trail systems within 30 miles of each other. Western NC Asheville area trails are amazing. Tough if you are outta shape.
 
#23 ·
Uwharries are pretty fun and the trail has just been reworked in Oct 2011...its a couple of hours drive from Mo'ville..you definately get a workout riding that place....supposedly this weekend they are gonna work on Supertree a little bit.
 
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