The city of Eugene sits in the lush evergreens of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, on the western side of the Cascade Mountain Range. Along with the town of Springfield, separated from Eugene by the Willamette River, the area boasts a population of nearly 250,000 residents, making it Oregon’s third-largest city.
Despite the city’s size (okay, it’s large for us Oregonians), trail access is few and far between for Eugene’s mountain bikers. Many riders in the area find themselves making the journey to places like Alsea Falls, Blackrock, or Oakridge — proper mountain bike destinations themselves, but a bit of a trek from Eugene.
However, the city of Eugene is looking to change that. A new trail proposal has been approved, and the city is now looking for trail builders to construct 12 miles of new trails, much of it mountain bike-specific singletrack.
As you can imagine, this has Eugene-area mountain bikers stoked!
New trails coming to Suzanne Arlie Park
Mountain bikers in the Eugene/Springfield area have been relatively hamstrung if they want to ride singletrack close to the city. Aside from a random bit of trail here and there, along with what appears to be mellower bike paths, residents have two options: Ridgeline Park in Eugene and Thurston Hills in Springfield.
Carpenter Bypass is another popular location, but it’s located nearly 30 minutes south of Eugene via the interstate. Local riders and advocacy groups have expressed growing frustration over the absence of nearby trail systems. These groups have repeatedly urged the city to build more trails, but as is common around the country, finances and resources are spread thin.
What Eugene does have going for it is an abundance of parks and open space. “I was involved in purchasing this property back in 2008,” Philip Richardson told us. “We bought it in several chunks. Now we have 565 acres.”
Richardson is a City of Eugene Landscape Architect and Parks Planner in the Parks and Open Space Division. The 565 acres of land he referred to is Eugene’s Suzanne Arlie Park, where the 12 miles of new trail will be located.
Suzanne Arlie is Eugene’s largest park. It skirts Eugene’s eastern city limits, falling between the popular Mt. Baldy and Interstate 5. The land was first purchased in 2008, with the city acquiring 200 acres. Three years later, Eugene purchased the remainder of the land comprising the park’s current acreage.
Today, the park has a series of hiking trails, including Eugene’s Ridgeline Trail, which stretches through several parks. Aside from some social trails that mountain bikers built in years past, Suzanne Arlie Park hasn’t seen any singletrack development. Thanks to the nudge from local riders and Eugene’s willingness to provide a space for trail development, Richardson anticipates construction on the new mountain bike trails to begin within the next few months.
Eugene hired Eddie Kessler of Ptarmigan Trails to consult and help build an overall trail plan. They’ve decided to break the project up into two parts: the trails and the amenities. The amenities include the trailhead itself, bathrooms, parking, and widening the road near the trailhead, which zoning codes require. This shouldn’t be an issue for Eugene, as most of this is standard construction and does not require specialized trail crews.
Part two of the project consists of the trails themselves, which Richardson said have been more of a challenge. The city asked for bids on the project, yet few came in. The project spans two building seasons, which is part of the issue with finding a trail-building contractor.
“We talked to some of the bigger folks like Dirt Mechanics, and they’re just booked through 2026,” Richardson explained. This isn’t surprising given recent trail expansion and the increased use of specialized trail-building contractors in recent years.
Fortunately, as of the time we spoke, Richardson did share that they have received a bid on the project, although the city wasn’t ready to share the details.
Eugene received a $1.2 million federal economic development grant for the project. Richardson remains hopeful they will still get the funding, even though the Trump Administration has created uncertainty around how recreation funds are distributed.
He doesn’t anticipate that this federal funding will cover the entirety of the project and told us that the city is seeking additional funds. Richardson predicted the Suzanne Arlie project could cost upwards of $2.5–$3 million.
5.6 miles of mountain bike-only trails are currently planned
Roughly two of the twelve miles of new trail in Suzanne Arlie Park will be an extension of the Ridgeline Trail. Like so many around the country, this existing trail grew in popularity during COVID. However, the trail is more popular with trail runners and hikers, with many miles closed to bike use. Even the sections open to mountain bikes weren’t necessarily where people would want to ride.
“Another interesting thing that [Kessler] helped us as an agency kind of get our mind around [was that] pretty much all of Ridgeline has been designed for hikers,” Richardson explained. “[Eugene trails are] not really designed with bikes in mind.”
To address this lack of MTB trails, 5.6 miles of the new trails at Suzanne Arlie will be designed and built specifically for mountain bikers. They will consist of five beginner, four intermediate, and four advanced trails. The remaining 4.4 miles of trail will be multi-use, some connecting with the bike-optimized trails to create loops.
While there isn’t much information yet about exactly how each of these individual trails will be built, unofficial planning names give some hints. Trail identifiers such as “Enduro 1,” “Blue DH,” “Black DH,” “Family Flow 1,” and others all sound like descending-focused trails.
The remaining four-plus miles of new trails in Suzanne Arlie Park will be what the city of Eugene calls “shared use.” And while these trails won’t be designed with mountain biking in mind, Richardson explained that they lean more toward the mountain biking end of the spectrum.
“I think just because of how much use and activity there is from mountain bikers, it’s like ‘mountain bike’ and ‘trail design’ [are] kind of in the forefront right now of the best trail design, whether you’re talking about hikers or bikers,” he said.
Praise from a city parks planner goes a long way in building a relationship between the city and the local mountain bike community. Richardson hopes to partner with trail organizations like Disciples of Dirt for trail maintenance at Suzanne Arlie.
As the project gets closer to kicking off, Richardson knows crews will deal with a relatively short build season. While snow and freeze/thaw aren’t the issue in Eugene, water certainly is. The city can receive up to 50 inches of rainfall annually. When the weather does turn dry, the building window only holds for several weeks before the fire risk creeps to extreme.
Richardson and the city of Eugene would love to have the project wrapped up by the end of the 2026 building season. This will depend on the city securing more funds for the Suzanne Arlie Park Project and cooperative building seasons.
Updated at 1:30pm MDT on April 10, 2025, to reflect that 5.6 miles of trail will be mountain bike-only, not shared-use as originally reported by Richardson.
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