All trails in the Carolina North Forest are multi-use, meaning they’re to be shared between all users, including hikers, runners, dog walkers and mountain bikers.
The Forest has single track trails and roads & utility corridors. The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) defines a single track trail as “one where users must generally travel in single file”. The Forest’s single track trails are usually 3 feet wide, while the roads & utility corridors are wider, usually between 15 and 20 feet wide.
More than 20 miles of single track trail spurs and loops wind through the Forest, over its roots, past its rocks and across its streams & wetlands. The Forest averages almost 100 visitors a day, from dawn until dusk, year-round. Heavy traffic of any kind during or immediately after rain events or during periods of extended wet conditions degrades the trail’s surface, causing erosion of the trail tread, path braiding, cutoff trails, and sedimentation of waterways and wetlands.
Staff post the trails as ‘CLOSED’ when unsuitable recreation conditions are prevalent across the property. We typically turn the signs on the gates around only when conditions are particularly wet or hazardous and the trails need time to drain and dry. When the single track trails are ‘CLOSED’ it means that we’re asking ALL visitors to keep to the roads & utility corridors and stay off the single track until the trails have recovered and are posted ‘OPEN’ (or the signs have been turned around).
Trail status updates are posted here as well as at trianglemtb.com and the Forest’s Facebook page.