USFS National Forest System Trails · Payette National Forest · Idaho · Updated June 2026
Upper Bear Creek (USFS trail 228) is a 4.4 mi trail in Payette National Forest, Idaho. Mountain-bike use here is accepted but discouraged in USFS data, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Upper Bear Creek?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Accepted but discouraged | — |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
Zooming out: across Payette National Forest, 20% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of D.
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About this trail
In Payette National Forest, Idaho, Upper Bear Creek (USFS trail 228) covers 4.4 mi of National Forest System trail. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for Payette National Forest, covering the trail's mileage, tread, grade band, and the bike and e-bike uses the agency lists as designated. USFS records list its surface as native material. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Note that mountain-bike use here is discouraged in USFS records — confirm with the ranger district before riding. On the electric side, Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are also designated — Class 1 being pedal-assist only, Classes 2 and 3 adding a throttle and higher assisted speed. The route is mapped as USFS Trail Class 3 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 Upper Bear Creek?
- Mountain-bike use on Upper Bear Creek is discouraged in USFS records, though Class 1 e-bike use is designated. Confirm current rules with the managing ranger district.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Upper Bear Creek?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Upper Bear Creek in the USFS data.
- How long is Upper Bear Creek?
- Upper Bear Creek measures about 4.4 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Upper Bear Creek?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Upper Bear Creek 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 Payette National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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