When talking about mountain biking on the East Coast, Washington, D.C., isn’t usually the first place that pops up.

But tucked away in the scenic Shenandoah Valley, just a two-hour drive from the nation’s bustling capital, is some of the East’s finest riding. And, on most days, you can have it all to yourself.

One person who knows this well is Ryan Kephart, a 35-year-old Washington, D.C., firefighter whose favorite way to decompress is riding mountain bikes. And his go-to trail network lies in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, just outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“Washington, D.C., is an interesting city,” says Kephart. “It’s cramped, it’s tight and it’s nice to get out of the city and kind of decompress.“You get out into the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and you just breathe a sigh of relief. And of course the riding out here is unbelievable.”

We wanted to see what these Shenandoah Valley trails were all about, so we picked up Kephart at his local fire station just as his shift was ending. Before heading for the hills, though, he took us on a whirlwind city tour of world-famous landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument.

It wasn’t until we left the city, however, that we finally began to breathe easy. As we drove along the highway toward Harrisonburg, we were mesmerized by a kaleidoscope of colors brought about by the annual turning of fall leaves. It was clear we were in for a fun couple of days.

Just outside of Harrisonburg, we ventured up a winding road for several miles until it topped out at an overlook parking lot with a 360-degree panorama of the autumn splendor. To the east was Virginia, while the sprawling valley to the west belonged to West Virginia.It didn’t matter to us which state we were in; we just wanted to ride. We dropped straight out of the parking lot into a steep, technical trail that quickly led us down into a multicolored forest. As we ripped along the leaf-covered singletrack, the hustle and bustle of the nation’s capital couldn’t have been further from our minds. We had escaped.

We rode well into the evening and spent the entire next day sampling some of Kephart’s favorite trails. Some were rocky and technical, while others were flowy, high-speed dirt ribbons filled with natural jumps. We could see why Kephart has made a habit of escaping to these hills.

By the time we loaded up the bikes to head home, everyone was exhausted — but it was only physical exhaustion, the soul-affirming type that leaves one mentally recharged and ready to master the daily demands of urban life. — Brice Minnigh