USFS National Forest System Trails · National Forests in North Carolina · North Carolina · Updated June 2026
Buckhorn Gap (USFS trail TR103) is a 6.3 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 Buckhorn Gap?
| 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
Buckhorn Gap (USFS trail TR103) runs 6.3 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. 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. 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. 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 National Forests in North Carolina.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Buckhorn Gap?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Buckhorn Gap in National Forests in North Carolina, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Buckhorn Gap?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Buckhorn Gap in the USFS data.
- How long is Buckhorn Gap?
- Buckhorn Gap measures about 6.3 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Buckhorn Gap?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Buckhorn Gap as native material.
- How difficult is Buckhorn Gap?
- 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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