USFS National Forest System Trails · White Mountain National Forest · New Hampshire · Updated June 2026
Path Of Least Resistance (USFS trail 97603) is a 1.9 mi trail in White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Path Of Least Resistance?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | — | |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | — | |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | — |
Zooming out: across White Mountain National Forest, 19% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of D.
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About this trail
In White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, Path Of Least Resistance (USFS trail 97603) covers 1.9 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. 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 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 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 Path Of Least Resistance?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Path Of Least Resistance in White Mountain National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Path Of Least Resistance?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Path Of Least Resistance in the USFS data.
- How long is Path Of Least Resistance?
- Path Of Least Resistance measures about 1.9 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Path Of Least Resistance?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Path Of Least Resistance 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 White Mountain National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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