Mountain Biking the Arrowhead Trails

What the Arrowhead Trails are

Arrowhead Trails mountain biking is purpose-built flow and cross-country singletrack inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, near Fayetteville. The trails were built by the Boy Scouts and are open to the public, and the agency figure for the network is 12-plus miles of singletrack. Style is the point: bermed corners, rollers, and difficulty that steps up gradually rather than all at once. That is a deliberate contrast with most established mountain bike trail in this state, which is natural-surface and technical, following old logging and game trails over rock and root at steep grades — terrain that punishes riders who came to practice cornering.

The distinction is worth taking seriously if your only West Virginia riding has been on inherited trail. Statewide, the riding here rates Intermediate to Advanced, and that rating is earned by rock, roots and grade rather than by anything built. Arrowhead is machine-thinking applied to the same sandstone country: the trail goes where a trail should go, drains where it should drain, and holds a line through a turn instead of dropping straight down the fall line. Newer construction elsewhere in the state works the same way — the Mountaineer Trail Network in the north, and the Snowshoe Highlands Area Recreation Collaborative in Pocahontas County.

Where it is and how to find the trailhead

Arrowhead sits inside the national park near Fayetteville, which sounds simpler than it is. The park has no single entrance and no loop road; it is assembled from separate access points that can be forty minutes apart by car. There is no entrance fee. The park's own warning is the one to heed here: mapping apps misroute in the gorge, so carry the official park map rather than trusting a phone to put you at the right gate. Load the route before you leave town, and expect cell service in the gorge to be an unreliable backup.

Because the park groups its trails by what they reach rather than by difficulty, do not expect a rated trail sign at the head of every spur the way a bike park would give you. Plan the ride from the network map, not from signage you hope to find. Fayetteville is the practical base — it is where the outfitters, food and lodging in this end of the gorge are — and the drive from town to the trails is short enough that a wet morning does not have to end the day.

How it rides

Arrowhead is the friendliest introduction to riding in the gorge, and that is the sentence to hold onto when you are choosing between it and something more famous. Flow trail rewards a rider who stays off the brakes and looks ahead; it does not require the trials-riding skills that a rooty, rocky West Virginia climb does. The progressive difficulty means a group with mixed ability can ride the same network without splitting up, and a rider new to singletrack can build speed on features that forgive being ridden slowly. A rider who was put off the sport by a first day on inherited trail will get a different answer here.

That does not make it a beginner-only network. Twelve-plus miles of flow and cross-country trail is enough to make a real day, and flow trail rewards fitness and line choice as much as nerve. Ride it once slowly to learn where the berms load and where the rollers can be doubled, then ride it again at speed. The other thing Arrowhead is genuinely good for is a shakedown lap: if you have driven in with a new bike or new suspension setup and want to sort it out before committing to harder trail, this is the place.

The Arrowhead Trails mountain biking season

The mountain biking season in West Virginia runs March through November, and Arrowhead follows it. The limit at either end is mud rather than cold. Purpose-built trail holds up better than inherited trail in wet weather, but it is not immune, and riding a saturated flow trail is how berms get destroyed. The trails close in wet weather, so check status before you drive: Trailforks is the most current source for West Virginia trail conditions and status, and the network's own closure notices show up there first. Purpose-built surface recovers faster than inherited trail once the rain stops, but faster is not the same as immediately.

June is a good target. The trail is dry, the days are long, and the humidity that makes the gorge unpleasant for climbers by August is still tolerable on a bike moving through shade. October riding here coincides with the Gauley release weekends to the north, which means the region's lodging is full and the trails are busier than usual. Winter is a maybe, not a plan — a hard freeze can leave good riding surface, but a thaw turns the same trail to the condition that closes it. Riders who want the network to themselves should aim for a weekday.

Adding mileage at the Summit

The Arrowhead network does not stand alone. Adjacent Boy Scout Summit trails add significant mileage when they are open, and the Summit Bechtel Reserve is the other purpose-built riding in this region for the same reason Arrowhead is — it was designed for bikes instead of adapted to them. The qualifier matters: the Summit is an active Scouting facility, so public access to those trails is conditional and changes with what the reserve has scheduled. Confirm it rather than assuming it from a trail map, and take some comfort from the fact that the two networks sit close enough together that a closure at one does not cost you the day out.

Practically, this means you should plan a day at Arrowhead and treat the Summit mileage as a bonus you confirm rather than mileage you count on. If you are driving a long way for a two-day trip, check access before you build the second day around it. Trail-running and hiking are also listed uses on the Arrowhead trails, so a group that is not all riding has something to do on the same network, which is not true of every trail system in the gorge. Trailforks is again the place where riders post what they actually found on the ground.

Where else to ride, and who to follow

If Arrowhead is closed for weather or you want a second network, the national park lists mountain biking among its uses, and other trail in the region allows bikes with caveats worth knowing — Babcock's Narrow Gauge Trail permits them but requires carrying the bike around the difficult sections, and Little Beaver's trails near Beckley are ridden year-round by locals. None of these are flow trail. They are the inherited, technical kind, which is the point of having both options in one region. Bikes and walkers share several of them, and the surface is rock and root rather than groomed dirt.

For riding beyond the gorge, Snowshoe Bike Park is the state's only major lift-served downhill and has hosted UCI World Cup downhill racing, and the machine-cut networks in the north and in Pocahontas County are still growing. WVMBA organizes riders, races and advocacy statewide, and is the group to join if you want to know what is being built next. For day-to-day trail status anywhere in West Virginia, Trailforks remains the source to check before loading the bike. Races and organized rides are the fastest way to meet the people who know which trails are worth the drive.

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