Getting Back On The Mountain Bike After An Injury: Where To Ride As You Progress In Your Recovery.
Charlottesville and the surrounding area offers an incredible amount of mountain bike trails, ranging from fun and flowy to long, technical climbs and difficult descents. After sustaining an injury, it can be difficult to jump right back into the hardest climbs that you’re used to tackling without a second thought. That’s why I’m putting together a list of places to ride based on where you are in your recovery process. As you read down the list, the climbs get longer and more technical, and the descents follow the same trend.
Preddy Creek
Good for when you’re not quite ready for long climbs or hard hits but still want to have a good time flowing through the woods. Preddy Creek offers 16 miles of trails for mountain biking (they are multi-use). I personally think the trails are under-rated. They are fun, have some technical areas to keep you sharp as you get more into riding, and mostly shaded which is really nice as we get into the summer season and your cardio isn’t quite yet where you want it.
Biscuit Run
Biscuit has something for everyone, no matter what discipline of mountain biking you’re into. While there are miles of unmarked single track all through the park, there is also a designated mountain bike area called Biscuits and Gravity, offering flow trails, jump lines for beginners and experts (the black jump line is incredibly fun!), and the uphill climb can be party-paced in 2 minutes.
Walnut Creek
A bit more technical than biscuit because of the rocky and rooty terrain, but climbing vibes are similar. There are about 14 miles of trails. Hit the Blue Wheel loops or the Cville Bike and Tri trail for a more mellow ride, or Wilkins’ Way for a longer, more technical ride.
Heyward Community Forest
Adjacent to the Ragged Mountain Natural Area, Heyward is one of my go-to places to ride. There are a ton of trails, most of them have been machine built within the last few years and are a joy to ride. The Song Mountain trails are set up so you can lap the downhill trails. There are 5 downhill options from the top, and a couple nice flowy climbing options to get you back up. The Misty Mountain Hop climbing trail is about a 8-10 minute spin at party-pace and is not very technical, just a lot of switchbacks. The Switchback Lullabuy climbing trail is a little more techy but also not a long climb. The downhill trails at Song Mountain range from flow to very technical rock slabs, table tops and small gap jumps if you descend either Dance Hall, Happy Birthday, or Wrong’em Boyo. These trails are great if you’re ready to start testing your body with bigger compressions, pumps and steeper terrain. If you want to get some smaller hits in to test the legs, try Voodoo Child or Ska Mother.
If you crushed Preddy Creek and Biscuit Run and want to test your climbing legs, you can try crossing the road and going up the Round Top Climbing Trail, Fun House Mirror, Little Round Top Climbing Trail and over to Skidmark to get back down.
Rivanna Trail Loop
If you’re more of an XC rider and feel your body is ready for a longer ride, the Rivanna Trail Loop is about a 3 hour ride, about 21 miles, with a little bit of everything. I use this loop to prep for longer XC races as there are a lot of small climbs thrown in and it’s easy to maintain a good pace through the whole loop. There is a little under 1400ft of climbing in total.
O’Hill (Observatory Hill)
In the heart of Charlottesville, owned by UVA, O’Hill has some aggressive trails to test your legs with climbing and descending. While the climbs and descents are not as long as those at Blue Ridge School, they can be very technical with steep, rocky terrain. If you warm up on the Reactor Trail or Poplar Ridge trail and love challenging downhill with steep turns and drops, try Space Loam, Japan, and Foot Fungus (I’d recommend those three only to advanced-expert riders).
Blue Ridge School
When you’re ready for longer climbs and descents, this is a gem of a trail system that BRS graciously leaves open to the public. There are options to stay lower on the whole trail system and avoid longer climbs. But if you’re feeling good, work your way up to Moonshine or Top Shelf for a semi-technical 40-50 minute (or longer) climb with a very rewarding descent. If you want a longer climb without the tech, navigate your way over to Brokenback Mountain Road for a fire road climb that will challenge you but also reward you. At the top you’ll find yourself at a property to the left leading you towards Ridgeline which will give you a feel for how your body handles faster downhill speeds.
Back to full health and ready for a challenge?
If you’re riding Blue Ridge School and O’Hill, you’re ready for Sherando Lake and the Western Slope of Massanutten. Both of these trail systems have a lot of technical terrain I would only recommend to a healthy body ready for a demanding ride. With Sherando, you’re a ways away from help if something were to go wrong. The same goes for the trails out in the George Washington National Forest. Again, great trails but good health is recommended due to the demand of the terrain.
Need help getting back to riding?
At Whole Strength Physical Therapy, we have had the pleasure of helping many people get back out on trails and also getting back to race shape. I also ride and race, and understand the demands of the sport. Having rehabbed my own injuries as well, I have many times experienced what it takes to get from being unable to ride to enjoying the most fun and difficult trails Virginia has to offer.
