USFS National Forest System Trails · Boise National Forest · Idaho · Updated June 2026
Big Owl (USFS trail 290003) is a 5.8 mi trail in Boise National Forest, Idaho. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Big Owl?
| 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 Boise National Forest, 99% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
In Boise National Forest, Idaho, Big Owl (USFS trail 290003) covers 5.8 mi of National Forest System trail. Everything below comes straight from the US Forest Service National Forest System Trails dataset — length, surface, slope-derived difficulty, and the specific bike and e-bike designations on record — so you can check legality before you load up. The tread is mapped as native material. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. 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. Treat this as a planning reference rather than a live conditions report, and verify any time-sensitive closure or order with the ranger district that manages Boise National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Big Owl?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Big Owl in Boise National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Big Owl?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Big Owl in the USFS data.
- How long is Big Owl?
- Big Owl measures about 5.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Big Owl?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Big Owl as native material.
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 Boise National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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