Green Mountain - Wildcat Lake Trail - Seabeck/Silverdale/Bremerton, Washington

Directions: Holly Road NW, Bremerton - Take Newberry Hill exit off Highway 3; head west; turn left onto Seabeck Holly Road. Turn right onto Holly Road; drive approx. two miles just past Wildcat Lake Park (on your left), the parking lot to the trails is just a bit further on your left.

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On many mountain-biking sites this is marked as "intermediate" and it actually has some very steep uphill climbs that you may have to get off your bike and walk up if you're 1) out of shape 2) not used to steep climbs 3) it's a dry dry day-- even with my bike which is made for this, my wheels were skidding in the dry dirt at certain points 4) it's too rocky for you

The bike winds it way through the wood. The first section is perfect! Lots of turns minor hills and valleys, lots of rollercoastering, some roots, but nothing that should stop you. You then cross over a gravel logging road to part two. It's either part 2 or part three that has this crazy steep hill with "log steps" in place every so often. Even the hikers who were walking back down this said to us as we passed, "We were just talking about how bikes could even get up here..." And um, yes, we walked our bikes up this steep steep part.

If you want to skip this harder part, you can actually just ride up the gravel log road. You'll go right (I believe) there's an old water pump (very cool photo op if you like old things) and there may be a manure smell from the barns, but RIGHT after the old water pump, turn right and you're back on the trail.

Partway through this trail there is a wonko bench at a terrible angle that you can sit on and have a snack. It was way too angled down for me (it's at the top of a hill) and I felt as if I was going to fall off it, so I sat on a rock. Interesting graffiti on the bench.

Going up takes 2 to 3 times longer than going down. Going back down was so much fun! If you have good tires and a mountain bike, you'll make it over the rocks (and there are places with a lot of them) no prob. I went down on my Norco Bushpilot and was fine and felt safe and confident the whole time. My friend who was on a Trek that wasn't hers, didn't feel as safe as the brakes on her bikes were tweaked so they were extremely touchy. She crashed once (no injuries) while learning the sensitivity of the brakes. We ended up switching bikes, and I was fine on that bike (it was muhc lighter than mine and just whipped up the hills, so I loved it.)

Other than that, if you're a beginning to intermediate ride, expect to have to walk your bikes up some parts of this. I would love to know if anyone could ride this whole trail without getting off their bike. I'm sure someone could, just know though, this isn't your Stottlemeyer trail or your beginner trail. The whole trail is mostly uphill and has areas with lots of rocks.

It was highly satisfying, even though I have to admit, we turned back before we hit the vista (supposedly the reason for enduring all this pain up this mountain...) I heard on a sunny day, it's a gorgeous view! Oh and most of the ride is in the shade. It was turning into one of those really warm 90 degree day, but we were able to go until about 2ish when it just got too hot and I needed to make it back home.

Here's a link to more reviews (it gets great reviews on the mountain biker site),



We will definitely be back to master this trail. I think just a little practice is all we need (and cooler weather!)

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