USFS National Forest System Trails · National Forests in North Carolina · North Carolina · Updated June 2026
Trace Ridge (USFS trail TR354) is a 4.5 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 Trace Ridge?
| 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
Trace Ridge (USFS trail TR354) is a 4.5 mi trail in National Forests in North Carolina, 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. Its grade-based difficulty is Advanced (grade band +12-20%) — a steep steepness profile derived from USFS slope data, not a technical mountain-bike rating. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. 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 2 on the agency's 1-to-5 development scale, where 1 is the most primitive, minimally maintained tread and 5 is the most developed. For day-of certainty on closures or seasonal orders, check directly with the ranger district, since this reflects the USFS data as of the latest refresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Trace Ridge?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Trace Ridge in National Forests in North Carolina, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Trace Ridge?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Trace Ridge in the USFS data.
- How long is Trace Ridge?
- Trace Ridge measures about 4.5 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Trace Ridge?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Trace Ridge as native material.
- How difficult is Trace Ridge?
- 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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