The best MTB trails around Goldstream

This is a pleasant wooded singletrack beloved of locals, who hike, run, and bike here. However, a profusion of side trails in the area, so it's surprisingly easy to get lost if you're not paying close attention. Once you have your bearings, you can always turn those other trails into a longer ride.

The Cranberry Trail is a pleasant wooded loop not far from Fairbanks. It's a relatively serene amble that's mainly frequented by locals and is full of nature. As the trail loops around the south slope, you can expect around 150 meters (500 ft) of elevation gain.

This is a summer-only trail, and one of the older bike trails in this area. As the name suggests, it's lots of bump-eriffic fun and you might just want to ride a few loops of it with the nearby Powerline/Commuter Trail. Travel is allowed in both directions. In the winter this is designated as a ski-only trail.

This dirt-and-gravel trail is an easy way to piece together running loops in this area. Keep an eye out for hikers and mountain bikers — the Skyline Ridge is popular with them, too, and travel is allowed in both directions. Watch for the bright yellow of aspen leaves during the fall.

This is technically a windy, rooty mountain bike trail, but trail runners tend to love this area as well. Travel is allowed in both directions, and bikers are usually so busy dealing with the trail's twists and turns that they don't get going fast enough to present a real hazard, as long as everybody watches out for other trail users.

Technically these are mountain bike trails, but people frequently hike and run here as well. The trails are windy enough, with lots of roots and other (natural) technical obstacles, that mountain bikers don't rip through here at the very high speeds you might find in other places. That makes it pretty easy to avoid trail conflicts as long as everybody watches out for one another. Travel is allowed in both directions, but you'll probably see most bikers starting from the trailhead and riding down After Hours, then taking the uphill on Overtime.

Ester Dome is one of the most prominent land features in this green, rolling landscape. If you're lucky, on a clear day you can see Denali some 200 miles to the south.

There are two main trail loops here: the Inner Loop and the Outer Loop, which are arranged just as their names imply. Both are fun, swooping single-track with enjoyable features like banked turns, but no bike-specific obstacles. That makes this trail system popular with hikers and runners too, but as long as all trail users keep an eye out for each other, there should be no problem avoiding conflicts.