If you’ve grown accustomed to huffing and puffing up your favorite dirt road or mountain biking trail and have been passed by someone who doesn’t seem to be working very hard at all, you may have been dusted by someone on an electronic bike, or e-bike for short.
The secret: Onboard batteries give pedalers a boost.
Agencies in and around the Wood River Valley are regulating these ubiquitous and increasingly popular machines, keeping them off limits on many trails prized by traditional cyclists, such as Fox Creek and Lake Creek and the single-track trails around Galena Lodge.
Other popular hiking and biking trails to the south, including the entire Croy Canyon trail system west of Hailey, are open to e-bikes.
The popular Harriman Trail north of Ketchum, which is as wide as a road, is also off-limits to e-bikes. With the exception of a portion through the Ketchum city limits, the same goes for the Wood River Trail, a paved bike path that stretches from Ketchum to Bellevue. (E-bikes are allowed in Ketchum and Sun Valley by city ordinance.)
These new regulations, established by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, with special attention given to the Sun Valley Resort and Blaine County Recreation District, mark the latest in a decades-long effort to negotiate potential conflicts between hikers, horses, motorized vehicles and bikes.
E-bikes are permitted on many single-track trails in the Wood River Valley that have historically been opened to dirt bikes.
“The history of motorcycle use here goes back further than mountain bikes, so we do have many miles of motorized trails for e-bikes,” said Jeff Wolter, an employee at Backwoods in Ketchum.
BLM areas, located predominantly in the south valley, provide for more e-Bike options than up north, which is predominantly administered by the Forest Service. The BCRD’s new 13.5-mile Quigley Loop Trail in Hailey is open to e-bikes, for example.
Farther to the north in the Sawtooth Valley, a popular e-bike accessible trail is the Fisher-Williams loop.
The Wood River Trails Coalition, BLM and Forest Service share notes on trail regulations and trail conditions throughout the summer and have compiled a website that combines them.
Sarah Gress, Executive Director of the Wood River Trails Coalition, said the ongoing regulation of e-bikes seems to have less to do with the impact these machines have on trails and more to do with philosophical ideas regarding trail use.
“Some people are concerned about the speed of e-bikes, but it also relates a lot to the wilderness ethic, whether or not people on e-bikes should have such easy access to the backcountry,” Gress said.
The Wilderness Act prohibits motorized machines of any kind in federally designated wilderness areas. But Gress said the anti-e-bike sentiment sometimes carries over more generally into less restricted areas.
“It might come down to the fear of losing the human-powered backcountry experiences,” she said.
Gress, who uses an e-bike in her work on trails with work crews, said e-bikes are pushing people to “reimagine” the significance of those really long rides in the woods and mountains.
“And they allow older people to extend their mountain biking careers,” she said. “They also allow those with physical disabilities to access the outdoors in ways they would not be otherwise able to.”
In general, the farther north you get in the Wood River Valley, the more likely you are to find e-bike restrictions on single-track trails. Get farther out into the designated wilderness areas and you will find some areas off limits even to horses, leaving you with a final transport option: your feet. 
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(11) comments
I believe the majority of people buying e-bikes are using them on pavement and not mountains. They travel so fast it's frightening. There is one pinhead I see on Warm Springs Rd every afternoon on an e-bike with his 2 small children on the rear and none of them wearing helmets. Most of the people I see riding around town are not peddling, just using the motor.
I’m out on the bike path early most days; for sure the commuter ebikes go way too fast and don’t warn of their passing. Also, there are plenty of kids on edirt bikes going at least 35mph. NO ebikes.
The article focuses on MTB trails. The real issue is safety not culture. Strangely, the ebikes I see illegally using single track trails are often young and moving fast. It’s annoying to have to pull over to let a fast ebike pass on a single track trail but the safety issue involves fast descending ebikes on trails used by uphill riders. Given speed and weight and often lack of bike handling skills the ability of a descending ebiker to stop to avoid hitting an uphill rider is limited. This is especially true on steep trails like Cold Springs on the mountain and other trails with steep longer sections. It’s just common sense to limit the possibility of a serious accident on those single track trails.
I too am surprised about the “no e-bikes from Ketchum to Bellevue. I’ve noticed what seems to be commuters going to work on e-bikes using the wood river trail. I hope this is stated wrong in the article. Commuters on e-bikes cut down on the traffic in town, less vehicles on the hi-way and frees up parking spaces. I’ve seen where Jackson Hole encourages this type of commuter transportation. In fact they have built secure storage with chargers for those who travel over the pass. They can park there cars in a free lot out of town. Get their bike out of storage and use the extensive bike path system to go to town and work etc.
I hope the statement in the article: "The same goes for the Wood River Trail, a paved path that stretches from Ketchum to Bellevue" is in error or just poorly phrased. I've not heard the BCRD has prohibited legal e-bikes on the Wood River Trail. (That's what the BCRD website shows.) If this statement is true, it would be most unfortunate. The majority of cyclists I see on the trail these days are riding an e-bike. The bike riders are typically age 50 - 70, and ride e-bikes due to physical limitations. Contrary to the myth and folklore promoted by a few, the e-bike cyclists I see on the Wood River Trail daily ride slowly (12- 15 mph) and cautiously. Legal e-bikes are limited in maximum speed and cannot consistently sustain a speed of more than about 18 mph. The cyclists I witness riding fast (20 - 25 mph) are riding high performance road bikes on skinny tires, or a very infrequently, a few ride an illegal electric motorcycle. I do agree that the opposition by a minority to e-bikes has nothing to do with safety or environmental impact, and has everything to do with the arrogance of a few to exclude those that are not elite athletes.
https://summertrailink.bcrd.org/?map_only
@Augsburg. . . There are two things that are indisputable. the electric bike is a motorized vehicle and many bike paths are really multi-use path ways. The Trail system from Kt to Bellevue is certainly multi-use. It's not uncommon to see groups of walker, dog walkers, mothers with stroller, groups of mothers, kids on scooters ect.. Allowing anything that jeopardizes their safety is a bad idea. "a few ride an illegal electric motorcycle", which is another description of an e-bikes, so their speed maybe in excess of 25mph.
The opposition to e-bikes is mainly predicated on safety and your arrogant to blame it on "elite athletes".
Yes the use of e-bikes to cut down congestion is a great idea but not if it compromises the general public's welfare. In Hailey, which is obsessed with bike paths, you often see cyclist of all types using the roads because the paths themself are crowded with pedestrians. Also, I've had road bikes and e-bike pass on the left with no warning, they just blaze on by. Factor in human selfishness and stupidity and motorized anything on multi-use paths is a bad idea.
I don't think E-bikes mix well on the bike paths for obvious reasons. As for the aged, why not limit E-bikes to folks over 65? Then enforce the law by using volunteers who are deputized specifically for this activity?
Looking at the BCRD trail map on their website, it looks to me like e-bikes are permitted on the paved Wood River trail and others like it (e.g. through Sun Valley). Am I reading it wrong? We ride our e-bikes there and it's great! We slow down obviously for pedestrians and other bikes. If people just take it easy, be considerate of other trail users, then I don't think it's a problem on that path. To me, the benefits of fewer cars, fresh air, a beautiful ride up the valley, and possibly stopping for a beer at Lefty's, outweigh the potential negatives.
Good luck enforcing people from riding e-bikes on trails which by definition are off limits. Who is going to police it and what are the penalties? As a frequent non-motorized rider on the bike path I have noticed a definite increase on e-bikes on the path. What I understand on the path it is okay for "pedal assisted" e-bikes but there is also an increasing number of e-bikes which have a throttles and don't need to be pedaled so they are basically electric motor cycles.
There's e-bikes on the path from Kt to Bellevue, flying past people at 25mph.
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