Thunder Creek Trail in Washington State
 

The trail is between Newhalem to Stehekin, and the web page seems to indicate that it is bikeable. Can anyone confirm that this is true and/or advise on how hard/technical this ride is? The climbing looks very tough, but we could probably handle that. I'm more concerned with the technical difficulty, especially for moderately loaded touring bikes.

Background: all of us go on multi-week tours every year (last year Jasper/Banff/going-to-the-sun-road/missoula), but none of us is a mountain biker. We would be riding 29ers: no suspension, just 2" tires.

Thanks,
pete

Thunder Creek Trail appears to be in North Cascades National Park - - which is all designated Wilderness outside of the few developed ranger stations/campsites/etc. The NPS page on the trail indicates that the only uses are hiking and equestrian. Without coming right out and saying it, the Bicycles page seems to indicate that bikes are only allowed in campgrounds and on the highway/roads. They also steer mountain bikers to pages on the Methow and the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. I think you're out of luck on that one.

We were reading the following quote as bikes allowed everywhere past MP 20. Or maybe that meant only during the winter?
[h=4]Cascade River Road Winter Closure MP 20[/h]Cascade River Road is gated for the winter at milepost 20, three miles before the trailhead. Foot and bicycle traffic is permitted beyond the gate

I am pretty sure that they are referring to the three miles of road between the gate and the trailhead. More guidance on the issue here:

Biking on the Pacific Northwest Trail

Look under Prohibitions. Most of or all the trail lies inside the Stephen Mather Wilderness. There is an outside possibility bikes are allowed from the trailhead to Thunder Campground but I have my doubts.

More:

http://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisi...e%2009_web.pdf

Look on page 2: "Mountain biking is not permitted on park or forest trails except where developed for that use. However, riding is allowed on roads."