USFS National Forest System Trails · Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest · Montana · Updated June 2026
Kirby Creek (USFS trail 426) is a 1.8 mi trail in Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, Montana. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Kirby Creek?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jan–Oct, December |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jan–Oct, December |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | Jan–Oct, December |
Zooming out: across Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, 91% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
In Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, Montana, Kirby Creek (USFS trail 426) covers 1.8 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. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use, Jan–Oct, December; recall that Class 1 is pedal-assist, while Class 2 adds a throttle and Class 3 a higher cutoff 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. 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 Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Kirby Creek?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Kirby Creek in Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Kirby Creek?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Kirby Creek in the USFS data.
- How long is Kirby Creek?
- Kirby Creek measures about 1.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Kirby Creek?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Kirby 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 Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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