Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Riding Season

The Blue Lake Ridge trail on a typical June day

The best riding is in the summer. The Valley trail opens April 1st but may not be logged out until June. Most of the ttrails are not open until August. Most of the trails on this system are in high elevation areas. The winter snow is slow to melt out on the shady side of ridges and in the deep forest. The snow is generally gone by mid-July. Trees fall over in the winter times when the ash soils are saturated with water. It takes several weeks before volunteers and Forest Service trail crews can log out the trails. In August, the ash soils dry out quickly and get dusty.

The prime-riding season really starts after the first rainfall of the late summer and continues until the snow closes the trails about mid-November. The Mount St. Helens ash does not get muddy but rather packs down like wet sand.

How good can the riding get? – There are a variety of wildflowers in the high open areas. After some rain in the fall, the traction is great. The huckleberries and other shrubs turn many shades of yellow, orange and red. In September and into October, you can eat huckleberries right along the trail. The sweet, tangy berries are a true delicacy.