USFS National Forest System Trails · Los Padres National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Black Mountain (USFS trail 15E03) is a 3.1 mi trail in Los Padres National Forest, California. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Black Mountain?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Restricted | — |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Restricted | — |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Restricted | — |
Zooming out: across Los Padres National Forest, 51% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of B.
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About this trail
In Los Padres National Forest, California, Black Mountain (USFS trail 15E03) covers 3.1 mi of National Forest System trail. This profile summarizes what the official US Forest Service trail record says about riding it: how long the trail is, what it's built on, how steep the route grades out, and which forms of bike use the agency has designated. USFS records list its surface as native material. USFS slope data puts it in the Intermediate band (grade band 10-12%), meaning a moderate climb — keep in mind this measures steepness, not trail technicality. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. The agency lists no Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bike designation here; absent a local order to the contrary, that means e-bikes are not an allowed use on this trail. The route is mapped as USFS Trail Class 2 on the agency's 1-to-5 development scale, where 1 is the most primitive, minimally maintained tread and 5 is the most developed. Because conditions, closures, and local orders change between data refreshes, confirm the current status with the managing ranger district before you ride.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Black Mountain?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Black Mountain in Los Padres National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Black Mountain?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Black Mountain in the USFS data.
- How long is Black Mountain?
- Black Mountain measures about 3.1 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Black Mountain?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Black Mountain as native material.
- How difficult is Black Mountain?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Intermediate (grade band 10-12%), derived from USFS slope data. This reflects steepness, not technical mountain-bike difficulty.
How we read this data
Grade-based difficulty above is the USFS grade (route steepness), not a technical mountain-bike rating — a gentle-grade trail can still be rocky or technical, and vice versa. Bike and e-bike status come verbatim from the USFS managed-use fields for this trail; we never infer access we can't cite. See our methodology for how the dataset is built and what each field means.
Where it is
Approximate location of Los Padres National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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