USFS National Forest System Trails · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · Virginia · Updated June 2026
Beards Mountain (USFS trail 459) is a 8 mi trail in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, Virginia. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Beards Mountain?
| 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 George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, 90% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Beards Mountain (USFS trail 459) is a 8 mi trail in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, Virginia. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, covering the trail's mileage, tread, grade band, and the bike and e-bike uses the agency lists as designated. The tread is mapped as native material. USFS slope data puts it in the Advanced band (grade band +12-20%), meaning a steep climb — keep in mind this measures steepness, not trail technicality. 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 Beards Mountain?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Beards Mountain in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Beards Mountain?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Beards Mountain in the USFS data.
- How long is Beards Mountain?
- Beards Mountain measures about 8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Beards Mountain?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Beards Mountain as native material.
- How difficult is Beards Mountain?
- 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 George Washington and Jefferson National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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