USFS National Forest System Trails · National Forests in North Carolina · North Carolina · Updated June 2026
Bates Trail (USFS trail TR723) is a 1.8 mi trail in National Forests in North Carolina, North Carolina. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Bates Trail?
| 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 National Forests in North Carolina, 88% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Bates Trail (USFS trail TR723) runs 1.8 mi through National Forests in North Carolina in North Carolina. 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. 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. No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on this trail in the USFS data, so treat it as a non-motorized route unless a posted order says otherwise. 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 Bates Trail?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Bates Trail in National Forests in North Carolina, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Bates Trail?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Bates Trail in the USFS data.
- How long is Bates Trail?
- Bates Trail measures about 1.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Bates Trail?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Bates Trail as native material.
- How difficult is Bates Trail?
- 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 National Forests in North Carolina (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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