Your source for Mountain Biking in the Triangle
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill
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Your source for Mountain Biking in the Triangle Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill |
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Current Trail Status
| Status | When Updated | Who Updated | More Info |  | Help keep this info accurate by clicking the red bicycle | |
| Airport Side | open | 01/28 10:27 am | mancher |  | ||
| School Side | open | 01/28 10:27 am | mancher | |
| Category | Average Rating |
| Overall : |  4.1 / 5.0 based on 32 votes |
| Technical : |  3.3 / 5.0 based on 32 votes |
| Climbing : |  3.1 / 5.0 based on 32 votes |
| Freeride : |  1.8 / 5.0 based on 32 votes |
| Scenery/Wildlife : | 3.9 / 5.0 based on 32 votes |
| Flow : | 3.5 / 5.0 based on 23 votes |
Description
Location: Chapel Hill, near Seawell Elementary School
Miles: 20 miles
Skill Level: Singletrack is intermediate, Doubletrack is beginner
Special Note on Airport and School Side designations
Carolina North may now be opened and closed based on two distinct sections. These sections
will simply be called Airport side and School side for the time being and their
boundaries should be obvious if you take a look at a map. Seawell School road is the main dividing
line between the two sections, the trails to the left of the road are the "school side" and
the trails to the right are the "airport side"
Please respect the Carolina North land managers decisions on the open/closed status of each section as a rule
even if you may personally disagree with the status.
Map
Park Hours and Fees
Directions
Rules of the Trail
The Chapel Hill trails comprise of two area: Adams Preserve and Williams Tract.
Williams Tract is also known as Carolina North Forest. These trails comprise of a mix
doubletrack and singletrack. You can ride the doubletrack without riding much singletrack
and vise versa. I recommend printing out the map and take it with you. The singletrack is
designed to be technical in nature. The doubletrack is predominately smooth.
More info on Adam Preserve
More info on Carolina North Forest
The school side usually dries a few days after rain. The airport side, particularly the inner and outer loops, take significantly longer to dry. Please take this into consideration when planning a ride.
Park Hours
The trails are open dawn until dusk, 365 days a year.
Please see the Trail Status at the top of the page for closures due to trail conditions.
Fees
There are no fees to ride here
Directions
There are several places to access the trails. The most popular parking area is Seawell Elementary School.
Parking is not allowed here during school hours. To get here from MLK Blvd, turn on Homestead.
Go 3/4 miles to Seawell School Rd. Turn left. Go 1.5 miles. The Parking area is the third one on the right.
Rules of the Trail
1. Be aware and considerate of other users.
2. Leave No Trace. Please don’t litter. Preserve what’s here for the benefit of future users! Trees, brush & grasses are not to be cut, painted, scarred, harvested or otherwise damaged.
3. No New Trails are to be blazed, cut or otherwise established. Unapproved structures & stunt features will be removed.
4. Signs, Advertisements or Notices will be removed. Unauthorized material can be claimed at the Land Management & Trail Information Office.
5. Don’t Block The Gates - The Forest Road network is for emergency use & land management operations.
6. No Motorized Vehicles - Motor vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, all-terrain, off-road & utility vehicles) are not allowed in the Forest.
7. Trail Courtesies - Bikers must be aware of hikers & joggers. Hikers & joggers using bike trails must yield right-of-way to bikers.
8. Pets MUST be leashed. It's the law! Please clean up after your pet.
9. No Alcohol - Possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages is not allowed in the Forest.
10. This Area Is An Ecological & Wildlife Preserve. Hunting, trapping, fishing & gathering activities are not allowed. The removal or destruction of any object (animal, rock or artifact) is prohibited and is considered vandalism.
11. Camping is not permitted in the Forest.
12. No Fires or fireworks are allowed in the Forest.
13. Firearms are prohibited in the Forest, including air rifles & paint guns.
Rules, guidelines, and definitions for our TriangleMTB.com trail reviews
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I came to these trails as basically a "noob" on a @200 Walmart dual-suspension rather-heavy bike. I thought these trails were GREAT FUN! These are the first trails around Chapel Hill that I've ridden, so I have nothing to compare them to, so my observations are based on a completely unbiased viewpoint. The airport side is a blast--there are alot of semi-technical trails; nothing TOO hard, although there are some bigger hills to navigate up and down out by the "pond". There are also some cool wooden track things that remind me of old roller coaster tracks without the rails that are fun to ride. There ARE some gnarly rock-trails, but even on my cheap Wallyworld bike, I could navigate them well enough at slower speed--but then again, I"m not out there to beat any records. I ride for casual/serious fitness, but I'm not taking any chances on breaking either my bike or my bones. So for that kind of attitude and approach, I found, and continue to find these trails just about perfect. There's enough variety of trails and beautiful sections to prevent them from feeling "old". I've ridden there about 6-7 times now, and can't wait for them to dry out so I can try out my new HardRock '29'er! |
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I personally didn't really like this trail. It passed through way too many narrow openings between trees making it really difficult to get any kind of flow going. It was technical in the sense that you have to have good balance to slowly navigate through tight spaces, especially on the airport side. I think the school side was slightly better in terms of flow and the intersections there were somewhat easier to understand than the maze on the airport side. Also, the constant flow of people walking or running on the trails gets really annoying after a while. IMO Briar Chapel is the better option if you are in the area. | ||||||||||||||||||
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I personally didn't really like this trail. It passed through way too many narrow openings between trees making it really difficult to get any kind of flow going. It was technical in the sense that you have to have good balance to slowly navigate through tight spaces, especially on the airport side. I think the school side was slightly better in terms of flow and the intersections there were somewhat easier to understand than the maze on the airport side. Also, the constant flow of people walking or running on the trails gets really annoying after a while. IMO Briar Chapel is the better option if you are in the area. | ||||||||||||||||||
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To add to what FS_Clydesdale is saying, I rode the Okkaneechee and the Lowland trails yesterday (school side) , it was a lot of fun but yet again the intersections are very confusing and we ended up basically mixing the 2 trails. It's still OK, we rode on several beautiful sections , especially the lowland 2-6 and the Okkaneeche dual-slalom section, very interesting. Also, the section that is reported as CLOSED on the map in this site it's actually open, quite technical, steep, with jumps, and it ends up alongside the railroad. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Rode CNF for the first time and was bewildered by the shear number of intersections, spent too much time with the Hand drawn map posted here and got turned around way too much to enjoy the trails on the school side. We jumped across the road and realized we should have been on the Airport Side all day! Flow was so much better but we wasted too much time with the School side maze to explore deep into the Airport side. We are hitting CNF again this weekend and will head straight into the Airport side. Also, of note, the traffic of pedestrians on the School side added to the frustrations. Much less ped traffic on the single-tracks of the Airport side. Spent some time cropping and arranging the Carolina North Forest Map posted below by L_GT hopefully this will help decreased stoppage time and increased trail bombing time. http://tinyurl.com/63ljdwd | ||||||||||||||||||
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Rode CNF the other day for the 3rd time in as many yrs.. It's a lot of fun if you stick to the original trail system. There are way to many trails that other riders have burned and the majority suck. I feel like I've riden pretty much everything around here, even the trails we dare not speak of. CNF has more variety than any other trail system I've riden in the Triangle. From flowy to technical. From smooth to rocky. Pretty much everything and a lot of terrain to cover. Definitely worth the trip from Raleigh to Chapel Hill every once in a while. While your in the area if you have the energy you can checkout Briar Chapel. Another decent trail with a lot of potential. | ||||||||||||||||||
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I forgot to add the link to the map: http://www.fac.unc.edu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=-nOpSF771Yc%3d&tabid=727&mid=1717 |
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I am a beginner, got a bike last month and started riding the CH trails, basically in my backyard. A lot of fun, actually. Of the 3 main sectors (School-side, Airport/Neverland, Airport/Crow Branch), the last is the most fun, and technical, if I believe my "advanced" friends. Wiped out only twice so far. The School side is a bit chaotic, with the trails not marked well and intersecting each other and the fire lines way too often. The Airport side is way more fun. The Wormhole , starting from waypoint #1 down allows you to get some nice flow here and there, with several bridges and berms to make it fun. Neverland has a nice mix of technical sections and flow-inducing part. The Crow Branch Overlook is varies wildly, and has a bit of everything. There is a beautyful section that zig-zags between young pine trees that is a lot of fun. A couple of killer-uphills, rocky and rooty, followed by fast, if narrow, downhills. I have got a detailed map from the Carolina North Forest website, it makes you appreciate the effort made to serve the trails to users. I am afraid the map shown on this review of CH is just not detailed enough and does not give you the idea of how nice this trail is. | ||||||||||||||||||
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No detailed review given. | ||||||||||||||||||
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I'd never ridden these trails before today. I ended up riding two of the singletrack sections on the school side. I've ridden most of what the Triangle has to offer and I really didn't enjoy these trails very much. I liken them to Harris Park but with tighter turns, more roots, and more miles. It's difficult to get good flow/momentum going and though it seemed as though the trails were well marked in many places they were not. I suppose I'll go back sometime and try some of the other trails at Chapel Hill but my first experience was kind of dull. I much prefer to ride at Beaver Dam, New Light, and San Lee. |
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