Mountain Biking
There are phenomenal mountain biking opportunities in the Harrisonburg area.
Mud Pond
Route Description
The route climbs up a gravel road from Union Springs Dam. You’ll pass where you’ll exit later on the Mud Pond Gap trail (544), but keep going to the entrance of the Blueberry trail (544A) and go left. Climb single-track for a mile or so until you get to the 3-way intersection of Meadow Knob trail (maybe marked as 428). You might see a sign for Oak Knob. At this intersection take a left down single/double track with some fun jumps at the end. Eventually you’ll exit back to the road where you’ll take a right to get back to the Dam.
Map
Directions
Take Route 257 W from Dayton, VA into Ottobine. At the stop-sign next to a little general store/gas staion, go straight onto Route 742 (Waggy’s Creek Rd.) and then take a left on Union Springs Dam Rd (Route 933). Most people probably park just past the dam on the left or right of the road, but you can park further up at a couple obvious pull-outs if you want to shorten the ride. The Union Springs Dam on Google Maps.
Narrowback
Map
Route and map for Narrowback North. Narrowback is the site of some of the incredible trail work SVBC recently completed with our second RTP grant. We’ll update this map shortly, but you don’t need it to check out the new trail sections. Come to Narrowback, you will be blown away!
Directions
Narrowback is about a 30 minute drive from Harrisonburg.
- Route 42 South from Harrisonburg for 3 miles to town of Dayton
- After seeing sign for Dayton, take a right after 3rd quick stop light onto Route 257 west
- Go 5 miles to stop sign at Ottobine, left on Route 257 follow sign to Reddish Knob
- Follow Route 257 3 miles to “257 Market”, then turn right on Route 257
- Follow Route 257 past entrance of Hone Quarry Recreation Area, then take left onto Tilghman (Tillman) Road (dirt)
- Follow Tilghman road for a little over two miles and through open white forest service gate
- Parking is on left at the old house foundation, which will be the first left-hand turn off Tilghman.
You should see the brown sign for trail #432, this is the trail you will take back down to the car. Narrowback North is often ridden in conjunction with Narrowback South but by itself provides am excellent ride with a little less climbing than the Cookie Trail and there are fewer rocks. The Festival Trail of Narrowback North has better flow when ridden south to north than the Cookie Trail ridden north to south.
Hillandale
The Rocktown Trails at Hillandale are nearly five miles of super fun singletrack located here, just outside of downtown Harrisonburg. All the trails at Hillandale are designed, built, and maintained by SVBC volunteers, and are great for walkers, runners, and mountain bikers of all levels.
SVBC began work on the Rocktown Trails at Hillandale in January of 2007, and the trails opened to the public in 2009. Coalition members have spent over 3,500 hours building trail at Hillandale. And the work continues!
SVBC is constantly adding to the trails, so the existing map does not include all of the awesomeness that is Hillandale.
Hillandale is fun in the winter, too.
Quick Links
The following locations require a full page of content.
