North Ogden Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Well it's about time again for another story on the adventures in Ogden mountain biking. Monday's tale takes place on a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline trail between Ogden Canyon and the North Ogden Divide. The trail head actually begins at a parking lot that is just at the mouth of Ogden Canyon. It's a single track, switch back climb of about 300 feet in a little under a mile until you reach the Pineview service road.

From there it's a quick sprint of about a 3/4 mile until you come to a spot where Ogden city is building a couple new water tanks along the mountain side. From here you have two options: you can follow the service road until the gated part and then follow a single track, lower trail that takes you to a junction where two three trails cross called Douglas Junction, or you can head east and up to where another trail that better follows the shoreline is under construction. This trail has not yet been connected to the service road but is accessible after a quick hike-a-bike to the trail. This trail then drops back through a gulch and then comes out a little higher along the shoreline. This trail also is a single track trail, however some parts of it are still under construction and so it requires just a little more hike-a-biking. It's worth it though because the trail rides along the ridge of the hill has a quick little downhill where it meets up with the Douglas trailhead.


Here you can follow the trailhead down to the road or continue along the shoreline trail towards north Ogden. The rest of the shoreline trail from this point is relatively flat. It has it's ups and downs but no major climbs or downhills. Some parts can be a little technical while trying to maneuver around, or over rocks and sometimes you even weave in and out of little patches of oak and maple groves. The trail basically follows the contour of the mountain and is relatively easy for about another two miles or so. Once you get to the trail that is right below Lewis Peak it gets pretty much impossible for a bike to go across. There are too many rocks and boulders in the way to ride across. You could hike it but then it's just not fun when you really wanted to bike. So from this point you can either double back along the trail, or drop down to another trailhead and loop back along Mountain Road which eventually gets you back to the trail head at Ogden Canyon. On this ride I decided to take the loop back because I'd been out for a little while and needed to get back quick so I thought the road would be the fastest way.
While riding back along the road I looked up at one of the canyons that I had weaved in and out of and saw a sight that I had missed while riding. A huge waterfall cascading down off the cliffs in the canyon. I had crossed over a couple of streams along my ride and I figured this waterfall is what feeds them. I kind of wished I would've seen it while I was riding, but oh well.


Now for a quick side note. The best part about the Ogden trails is that many of them connect to each other one way or another. For this ride I didn't have to Jeep my bike to the trailhead because there were plenty of trails that would take me there from my house in Ogden. I took a quick little downhill trail called Birdsong trail that ends right next to the NOBST trail head. On the way back I picked up the Rainbow Loop trailhead to make it back home. Overall the trip was about 12 miles and took a little around two hours. It took that long not because of the uphill climbing or anything like that but because I probably stopped and talked with three or four different people on the trail. I said this in my last blog and it remains true...those people that you meet out on the trails all tend to follow the same "trail code" where it doesn't matter what's going on, you can always stop and talk with a fellow trail goer. So not only do you get beautiful views of the valley and mountains, but you meet some new friends along the way.