The Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance has released year-end statistics revealing that they built over 40 new singletrack mountain bike trails across Washington State in 2024. Of particular note, the organization opened two brand-new trail systems: the Trek at Tehaleh Trails (which we featured previously) and Tennant Trailhead Park.
The scale of trail development in Washington is staggering, and is largely due to Evergreen’s ability to employ 15-24 full-time, year-round trail builders, with that number swelling to roughly 35 trail builders during the peak summer season.
The new trails at Tennant Trailhead Park
Work first began on Tennant Trailhead Park in 2017, but the trail system just opened in the spring of 2024. According to Evergreen, Tennant offers “a family-friendly local trail system just one mile from downtown North Bend. In partnership with the Snoqualmie Tribe, all trails at Tennant Trailhead Park are named in Lushootseed, honoring the land’s cultural heritage, local geography, and wildlife, while providing an educational opportunity for trail users.”
The park is currently home to about two miles of purpose-built singletrack, with progressive trails rated from green to double black. Two standout trails at Tennant Trailhead Park are Jumping Frog and Elk.
Jumping Frog is “a short but sweet flow/jump line [that] packs the fun into a 643-foot descent,” according to Evergreen. It’s a “great trail for intermediate riders to level up. There are no mandatory gaps, just tabletop jumps built for progression.”
Elk is a “loamy, technical trail with all the features you can hope for,” according to Evergreen. It “starts with a nice big rock to climb on and roll down, followed by a tabletop, a gap jump, and then a set of technical rock/root garden and drops. The remaining varies between berms, technical, minor jumps, and small drops until the end, [where] you finish with a few fairly big berms and jumps.”
Off of Elk, advanced and expert riders can opt for two double black lines known as Bobcat and Cougar, which are “loamy, technical trails.”
Building new trail segments all across the state
Evergreen’s crews and volunteers have built trails in a multitude of existing trail systems all across the state. In a recent blog post, they highlighted 15 of the best new trails that opened this year. Above and beyond trails in the Trek at Tehaleh and Tennant Park trail systems, their top 15 list includes:
- Urusus, Loup Loup Ski Bowl, Methow
- Oso Peligroso, Loup Loup Ski Bowl, Methow
- Lower Mica Peak Trail, Liberty Lake Regional Park, Spokane
- Ferdinand the Bull, Raging River, North Bend
- Executive Decision, Raging River, North Bend
- Great Space Coaster, Duthie Hill, Issaquah
- GHY, Duthie Hill, Issaquah
- Upper Big Sandy Trail, Teanaway Community Forest, Cle Elum
- Bouncy House, The Summit at Snoqualmie Bike Park, Snoqualmie Pass
- My Little Friend, The Summit at Snoqualmie Bike Park, Snoqualmie Pass
Learn more about the new trails at Raging River here.
Evergreen has rebuilt several old trails to make them better than ever.
One trail building trend currently on the rise across the nation is the rebuilding and reshaping of older trails. The reasons why a trail may need to be rebuilt vary, but in many cases, the lips on jumps and the cupping of berms on flow trails tend to erode and degrade over time.
Duthie Hill in Issaquah is one of the most famous trail systems in all of Washington, with iconic jump lines for all levels of riders. However, the trails there have gotten a bit dated. “We recognize that riding styles have changed, bikes have evolved, and the demand for progression at Duthie has only increased,” said Evergreen. “The Duthie Refresh project provided us with the opportunity to address the need for extra steps in the progression at Duthie by reimagining the Space Coaster trail.”
The rebuilt and redesigned Great Space Coaster trail “now offers a progressive intermediate tabletop jump line.” The redesign places Great Space Coaster between Luna and Gravy Train “in terms of feature size and overall difficulty.”
“Duthie Hill’s historic ‘GHY’ trail was also fully redesigned and rebuilt by an all-women crew, making this a more progressive double-black jump line with new machine-built features,” said Evergreen. GHY was originally designed for BMX and dirt jump bikes, but the increase in the size of the jumps and the changes to the shape of the trail now better accommodate mountain bikes.
Support Evergreen’s work in 2025.
If you want to help make more fantastic, professionally-built trails in Washington a reality, consider donating to Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance’s end-of-year fundraiser, “Fund the Adventure.“
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