Duluth Traverse
Runs the length of Duluth's hillside, from the Spirit Mountain and far west end northeast to Lester Park, MN
About Duluth Traverse
The Duluth Traverse is the spine of the city's mountain bike network, a singletrack route running most of the length of the hillside and stitching together the local systems at Lester Park, Hartley, Piedmont, Mission Creek, and Spirit Mountain. It is the reason Duluth turns up on national lists of American mountain bike towns despite being a working port city in northern Minnesota.
The trail is designed as an all-abilities backbone: mostly intermediate, largely flowing, with steeper and more technical options branching off it at each cluster. Its eastern end is at Lester Park, which makes far east Duluth the one part of the city where you can ride from a residential driveway onto the system without loading a bike.
The scale is the thing people underestimate. The spine runs about 40 miles, from Chambers Grove in the far west to Lester Park in the east, and connects five main trail centers within a network exceeding 90 total miles, ranging from the smooth flow lines at Mission Creek to the technical rocky descents at Piedmont (COGGS, accessed 2026-08-14).
COGGS, the local trail nonprofit, builds and maintains most of it with volunteer labor and city partnership. Winter grooming turns much of the network into fat bike terrain. Check trail status after rain, since riding wet dirt here does real damage and closures are posted.
Good to know: flow trail, technical rock sections, climbing, fat biking in winter, connections to Hartley, Piedmont, Lester, Mission Creek.
Access: Lester Park, Hartley Park, Piedmont, Mission Creek, Spirit Mountain
Neighborhoods it serves
Nine miles of trail, two rivers, and a waterfall you can hear from the driveway.
LakesideDuluth's dry-town-turned-walkable-village, three blocks from the big lake.
Congdon ParkOld money, old elms, and a creek out the back door.
WoodlandThe streetcar suburb that grew into Duluth's university neighborhood.
Hunter's ParkTurrets, curving streets, and Hartley Park at the end of the block.
PiedmontRocky singletrack out the back door, harbor views out the front.
Spirit ValleyWest Duluth's main street, with a ski hill at the end of it.
Where these facts come from
- COGGS, Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores, trails overview accessed 2026-08-14
Last reviewed 2026-08-14 by Guide editorial.