Mountain Biking Tsalteshi and Slikok

With biking exploding in Alaska, every major population center now has bike trails, including Soldotna!  Not generally considered a mountain biking town, the Tsalteshi and Slikok singletrack trail networks are super fun flow trails and a totally worthy stop on any road trip down the peninsula!

From Makenzie Jorgensen, “Interwoven amongst Nordic ski trails, what I like most about Tsalteshi and Slikok is they remind me of a mini Kincaid. Tsalteshi is a mix of old school rooty trails, and fast and flowy machine built Singletrack with a few different few minute sustained downhill options. Slikok has less elevation to it but has a few awesome jump trails and a fairly gnarly rock roll/drop if you feel like getting adventurous!”

Both Tsalteshi and Slikok have approximately 3.5 miles of trail.  Tsalteshi was built first, intermixed with the main trails and Slikok was built as a phase 2 in adjacent forest.  The easiest place to park is probably at Skyview Middle School (it’s between the 2 networks), although using Trailforks to navigate to parking will also work – just trust it, even if it’s sending you to someplace that looks kinda sketch because singletrack emerges from the woods right where they say it will (Slikok parking lot).

I spent about 2 hours riding and was able to ride most of the network – I did lots of laps on Depth Charge, the jump line in Slikok because it was SO FUN.  It flows extremely smooth and is a great place to practice laying off the brakes and flowing without terrifying yourself to death!  The whole network reminds me a lot of Kincaid Phase 1 mixed with Mirror Lake – trails winding through the woods, pretty much every corner is banked, fun jumps interspersed, but nothing huge or terrifying.  Where this network differentiates is that it has tech features scattered throughout – big rocks with rideable lines – easy to session and practice, but the main trail completely avoids them!

I’ve heard about mountain biking Tsalteshi and Slikok for awhile and never really taken the time to stop – big mistake!  I definitely encourage everyone to check them out!

For more trail guides and inspiration for biking Alaska, check out the full guide at www.AlaskaMTB.com!

I had so much fun riding, this is the only photo I took! As you can see, trails are well marked and easy to find!