Bother Ridge Trail Details

Activities
- Mountain Bike
- Horse
- Hike
- Trail Running
- Backcountry Ski
Riding Area

West Virginia
Harrisonburg, West Virginia
AKA

Darkstar
Difficulty Rating

Double Black Diamond rate
Trail Type

Mixed
Bike Type

AM
Direction

Both Directions
Popular direction shown
Climb Difficulty

Double Black Diamond
Physical Rating

Extreme
Trail Visibility

Sometimes hard to follow
Dogs Allowed

Yes
eBike Allowed

No
Global Ranking

#64847 in Mountain Biking
Land Owner

George Washington National Forest

Dropping off the west face of Bother Knob from the northern section of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail, this 2000' beast quickly descends to a fire road crossing. Continue west on 1026 following yellow blazes on a 1 mile high speed doubletrack descent along the ridgetop. Look for a subtle trail entrance at the end of the doubletrack where things start to get really steep. Continue along the ridgetop, multiple line options exist through a variety of difficult, exposed and steep terrain. There is one steep climb on the singletrack section that wraps up a sub-knob before things get really interesting. Stay on the ridge until there is a not-so-obvious hard left hand turn. Do not continue along the ridge past the easy to miss turn... The drainage at the bottom is wide, flat and has disoriented even the most capable backwoods explorers. After the left hand turn, the trail follows an old logging road bed into the flats. Keep an eye out for yellow blazes, the trail is hard to follow and grown over. If you get to the old upside down school bus at the bottom, you know you're close. There is a single and easy Little Fork river crossing leading to a short climb back up to the bottom trailhead parking on the backside of reddish pavement.

Traditionally Indigenous Territory

Manahoac

More Stats for Bother Ridge Trail multi-use trail trail

Altitude change

-1,977 ft
Altitude min

2,286 ft
Altitude max

4,337 ft
Altitude start

4,337 ft
Altitude end

2,359 ft
Grade

-10.5%
Grade max

-55%
Grade min

14.1%
Distance climb

1,404 ft
Distance down

3 miles
Distance flat

276 ft
Avg time

01:07:46
view trail stats

status	date	description
	Jul 8, 2024 @ 8:26am Jul 8, 2024	Very overgrown in summer lots of saplings growing in trail that need to be pulled before they take over the trail. Grass growing in low spots...
	May 25, 2021 @ 4:11pm May 25, 2021	Mostly overgrown with several trees down. Few trail markers. Use Trailforks to navigate.
	May 25, 2021 @ 7:42am May 25, 2021	Mostly overgrown and several trees down. Few trail markers to follow. Used Trailforks to navigate.
	Jan 4, 2020 @ 1:57pm Jan 4, 2020

Bother Ridge Trail

Supporters, Builders, Maintainers & Land Managers of Bother Ridge Trail