USFS National Forest System Trails · Lolo National Forest · Montana · Updated June 2026
Sam Braxton (USFS trail 9) is a 3.5 mi trail in Lolo National Forest, Montana. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Sam Braxton?
| 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 Lolo National Forest, 34% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of C.
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About this trail
Sam Braxton (USFS trail 9) is a 3.5 mi trail in Lolo National Forest, Montana. 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. Underfoot, the trail is recorded as native material. Based on slope, this is a Advanced trail (grade band 12-20%); that reflects steep gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. 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 4 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 Lolo National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Sam Braxton?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Sam Braxton in Lolo National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Sam Braxton?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Sam Braxton in the USFS data.
- How long is Sam Braxton?
- Sam Braxton measures about 3.5 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Sam Braxton?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Sam Braxton as native material.
- How difficult is Sam Braxton?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Advanced (grade band 12-20%), 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 Lolo National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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