The Green Mountain State Forest, located near Bremerton, WA, provides a rich area for MTB, for all levels of ability. Trailheads begin off of Holly Road, and Tahuya Rd. There is the option of climbing light to moderately gravel roads to the top and coming down the various trails, or staying on the trails exclusively. Climbing the trails up can be challenging with some steep sections with large obstacles. Below, I've broken out the major trail systems, with some beta, pictures and video of each.
The climb from the road to the top parking area is approximately 1,000 feet of vertical, over anywhere from 3 to 5 miles of riding depending on the road or trail taken. Each of the roads are in pretty good shape with no major ruts or obstacles. They are all gated. The forest is a multiple use area, with hikers, horseback, MTB and off-road motorcycles. Weekends can have a lot of activity, so it's best to try and make it on a week day if possible. There are still trails I haven't ridden, so check back for additional information, or register, and let the site notify you when updates have been made! Again, here is the map of the area...
If you have any questions or comments, jump to my discussion area, or drop me an email.
A Great Place to Ride... A
group of us met for a ride up the fire road GM-1, and then down one of
the many trails. After discussing it a bit, Alan and Neil
suggested we take the Beaver Pond trail down. I didn't get video
or pictures of the decent, but here is some video of the ride up...
On this day, Nate was the rabbit, and made it up first. I challenged John for second, but lagged by 50 feet. My excuse was that I waited behind to catch video of everyone, and to make sure no one was having problems, but of course, that is just an excuse... Alan and Neil stayed with Andy, and they took their time, letting us freeze on the top! Remember this was in late February, and there were snow flakes falling at the observation area. |
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| Gold Creek Trail... The
Gold Creek is a fairly steep trail with numerous switchbacks and decent
obstacles. The first time on this trail, I went up with John and
Alan. It was my first time riding a clipless bike up steep single
track, and I provided a ton of entertainment for John and Alan - falling
over damn near every time I stopped! Also, due to the steepness
and terrain of the trail, we ended up walking probably a third of the
way up. Now when we do this trail, we fire road
up. However,
this trail is a blast going down, although a bit short - average time
down is around 15 minutes without even trying.
Here is some video we took coming down...
Overall, a pretty sweet trail... |
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| Beaver Pond Trail... The Beaver Pond trail leads down off of the Vista Trail to cross the GM-1 fire road, and links back up with the Wildcat trail. This trail has some great switchbacks on top, along with some challenging terrain - you'll want good brakes! Once off of the switchbacks, the dirt is very loamy, and provides lots of traction through its berms. | |||||||||
| Tin Mine Trail... The
Tin Mine trail is actually on Gold Mountain, adjacent to Green
Mountain. Ride the GM-6 fire road from the Gold Creek trailhead
area for about a mile and a half. Take the obvious trail to the
right, and head up a slight incline. Cross a creek, and through a
rocky trail for about one quarter mile, and the mine is achieved.
The fun part of the ride starts here with slight to moderate climbing
with numerous, but achievable obstacles. After about a mile, the
trail loops off steeply to the right for the return back to the
GM-6 fire road, about a quarter mile from the trailhead. However,
if you go straight, you'll break out into a clear cut area, with a panoramic
view of the southern peaks of the Olympic mountains. We usually
rest here, and soak in the scenery. Extend the ride by downhilling
the trail back to the mine, which while not very challenging, is a
lot of fun.
We took some video at various sections of the trail...
All in all, this is one of the more pleasurable trails in the Green Mountain system, and can provide intermediates like myself with numerous opportunities to increase their skill levels. |
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| More Tin Mine Trail... I really like breaking in some fresh meat. So I couldn't resist inviting Mike and Juan (both novices riding older rigids) along for some wet and gooey action on a very wet Tin Mine Trail. Check out the sweet single track action.. |  |
