LHORBA Laurel Intermeditate route

This Laurel Mt ride includes many of the best, and some challenging, mountain biking trails in this area of Forbes State Forest. Expect the majority of the trails to be rocky but with excellent flow and very little climbing. All of the trails with Expert signs were built, with the approval of the Land Manager by members of LHORBA (Laurel Highlands On & Off Road Bicycling Association).

This ride is a shortened version of the “Best of Laurel – Advanced” ride, eliminating the Wolf Rocks and Fish Run loops to the south and the additional mileage of the ski trails to the north, at the end of that ride. You can increase your mileage by adding any of these sections back in, or you can further shorten the ride by following sections of the “Intro” ride to bypass some of the expert technical portions (ie stay on Silvermine to bypass the Hemlock/Black Bear segment)

As with the Advanced ride, this starts at the Mainline trailhead. This is located on Summit Road 2 miles off of Route 30. You can avoid the out and back on Summit to just do the looping portions by using alternate parking at Burma, Locust Camp, or Rector Eddie Roads

Start by riding Mainline Trail to the Warming Hut. Get on Summit Trail behind the Warming Hut. The trail will twist and turn through a tunnel of mountain laurel as you ride gradually downhill to Spruce Run Trail.

Make a left on Spruce Run for a fast ride surrounded by hemlocks and pines then transitioning to intermittent rock gardens. You'll cross a doubletrack with a gas well on your left. Continue straight until you come to Burma Trail where you make a left. Follow this doubletrack back to the gas well and make a right on Beam Run Trail.

Enjoy more rocks while keeping an eye out for the optional log piles and skinnies on your left. Make a right at T. Cross Summit Rd and make a left at the next T onto Black Bear (unmarked) for more rocky fun. At the next intersection make a right onto Rocky Gap. Try to clean the section of trail that squeezes through high rock walls, over roots and rocks. Bear left after coming out of the rock crevice and cross over Silvermine onto Outcrop. On Outcrop, as on all of the "Expert" trails, watch out for optional lines over numerous rock obstacles. Cross over Silvermine, ride through more rock crevices, optional log plies and skinnies before making a left on Silvermine at another gas well. Enjoy a relatively more mellow ride before making a left on Hemlock.

Make a right on Black Bear, a left on Silvermine, until you reach Rector Eddie Road.

At this point you will diverge from the Advanced ride by turning left instead of right on Rector Eddie. In 0.35 mile, you’ll rejoin the advanced ride by making a left onto Black Bear. Make this left and then the next right on Black Bear at the 4-way. Immediately before Black Bear spits out onto Summit Rd, make a left on the "Expert" section of Black Bear. Be aware that you'll approach a big rock that will have two apparent options over it and you'll not see the options until you are on top of it. Stay LEFT over the logs filling in the crevice. The existing/former skinny on the right has rotted and is no longer rideable.

Stay on Black Bear, past Rocky Gap, and cross over Locust Camp to Spruce Run, across Summit Rd, onto Burma Trail. Make a left on Summit/Spruce and then a left on Summit Trail.

After crossing the drainage beyond the cottage, you’ll again break off of the Advanced ride by making a right onto Summit/Spruce. Summit then quickly breaks left just before a bridge on Spruce. Follow Summit back to the warming hut and then back up Mainline to the car.