Mount Rainier dominates the skyline through much of western Washington State, with its 14,410’ summit standing high above its surroundings. 

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Rainier has the most glaciated peak in the contiguous United States with 28 major glaciers scattered across its summit. 5 major rivers are spawned from the iconic Cascade volcano as well, helping make this one of the Pacific Northwest’s most important landmarks for outdoor recreation. Further west in the “Evergreen State” lies the Olympic Peninsula, a 3,600 square mile swath of mountainous terrain bounded to the west by the Pacific Ocean and to the North by the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

The Olympics are the second largest mountain range in the state, topping out at Mount Olympus’ 7,980’ summit. Mount Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula are staggeringly beautiful landmarks, compounded by the fact that they share the same skyline. While there are several spots along the Interstate 6 corridor to catch some lovely views of these natural wonders, perhaps no place offers up a better view of both at the same time than that of Capitol Forest.

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Capitol Forest is located just outside of the capital city of Olympia, with nearly 110,000 acres managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. It has 166 miles of singletrack and a further 575 miles of gravel and forest service roads throughout. Its proximity to the Puget Sound helps to keep the year-round climate relatively mild, helping to keep the forest lush and the dirt loamy. Its proximity to the population center of Olympia helps to provide it with a steady volunteer stream in addition to the DNR. Capitol Forest is a working forest and one of the DNR's highest timber-yielding forests; conveniently located near where the department's replanting effort seedlings are grown, at Webster Forest Nursery.

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Access to the trails is a quick 20-minute drive from downtown Olympia but once you’re inside the glowing green walls of the dense PNW forest, you truly are a world away. The history of the trails here, like so many in this and other parts of the world, is a combination of coordinated “above board” efforts along with a heaping helping of clandestine shreddery. The early work from Friends of Capitol Forest, the area’s 501(c)3 non-profit trail org, were largely centered around the XC friendly trails scattered throughout the Fall Creek area, which make good use of the undulating terrain and hundreds of miles of forest service roads that call this place home. The North Slope represents the other side of the spectrum, and for quite a long time, the trails that dropped down the precipitous northern aspect of Capitol State Forest did so under decidedly…different…circumstances.
 

Kat, Kevin, and Ryan talk about the history of North Slope:
 

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“The North Slope is an area that had a lot of rogue trail building for a long time,” Ryan McCord tells me from the North Slope parking lot. Ryan is the board president for FOCF, and is flanked on either side by Kat Parks, FOCF membership and communications director, as well as DNR recreation technician Kevin Kelly. “My understanding is that the 'Down n Rowdy' trail was built about 30 years ago. It’s a cool trail and managed to fly under the radar for quite a while. DNR knew about it for sure, and every once in a while they’d fell some trees across the trail to prevent use." But people kept building here, and in 2017 FOCF partnered with a really talented guy named Andrew Claiborne, and he put a proposal together for the first legal trail out here called Scoby.
 

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"So we had this Scoby proposal ready and at the very same time, the Department of Natural Resources was like, ‘Hey, we know about all of these other trails over there. Maybe it’s time to think about bringing them into the fold as well’. That was really the turning point for us in 2017, and that seemed to turn a page for DNR going from this paradigm of trails needing to follow certain standards, which included no features, no gaps, and trails needing to adhere to limited pitches. That was how they really managed land for a while. 2017 represented this turning point where the DNR seemed to embrace mountain biking more,” added Ryan.

Hear Kat talk about a women's dig day:
 

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What Ryan is talking about is clearly visible throughout the state. A trip up the I-90 corridor will confirm this-from Olympia, to Tiger Mountain and all of the way up to Bellingham, Washington State has become the poster child for steep, deep, and loamy fun on two wheels. While it’s certainly not as simple as everyone coming together at once, the efforts to bridge the divide between the FOCF and the original builders of the North Slope were not only well intentioned, but have resulted in some bonafide PNW gems. Olympia might not be top of mind in the way Bellingham or Tiger Mountain are, but FOCF have been putting in the requisite legwork and the results are most certainly showing.

Hear Kevin talk about a particular catch berm on the trail:
 

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“Evergreen is the statewide advocacy org,” Ryan continues, “And they were a big part of the shift in how the DNR sees mountain biking. They carry a lot of weight when it comes to state legislation and we’re incredibly thankful for that. We’ve just remained independent so that we can be a bit more responsive here at Capitol Forest. One of the things we’re really fortunate to have down here is Race Cascadia, which organizes the regional Cascadia Dirt Cup. The owner, Cam Sloan, has been a huge supporter of ours, and they even directly supported the building of one of our trails here, Slick Jimmy. Keeping everything local-from the board members to the businesses that support us-has just been nice. Now we’re seeing people come from all over to shuttle our trails, so it’s been really cool to see the growth.”
 

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