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There’s something unmistakably Pacific Northwest about a ribbon of trail disappearing into a dark forest of towering evergreens. Add a cedar bridge, wooden ramp, or elevated feature cutting through the trees, and you’re looking at a scene deeply connected to the origins of modern freeride mountain biking.

 

Long before purpose-built bike parks and machine-shaped jump lines, riders and trail builders in the Pacific Northwest were experimenting in the woods. They used the terrain around them, and one material in particular, to imagine a different way to ride a mountain bike.

 

The new Cedar Fever trail on Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, Washington, pays tribute to that history while pushing the idea forward. Built through a collaboration between Transition Bikes, the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition (WMBC), Treelines, and SHIMANO Trail Born, Cedar Fever takes inspiration from the wooden features of early North Shore freeride and reimagines them for a faster, more flowing, more progressive style of riding.

 

In SHIMANO’s newest Trail Born film, Cedar Fever, we take a look back at where freeride came from and get a glimpse at where it can go next.

Shimano trail Born Cedar Fever MTB trail
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Cedar 

In the Pacific Northwest, cedar has long been one of the defining materials of trail building. The region’s wet fall and winter climate demands materials capable of handling prolonged exposure to moisture. Cedar is particularly well suited to those conditions, which made it a natural choice for generations of trail builders constructing bridges, ramps, skinnies, and other wooden features through the forest.

 

But over time, cedar became more than simply a useful building material. It became part of the visual language of Pacific Northwest mountain biking. When freeride mountain biking began taking shape on Vancouver’s North Shore in the early 1990s, riders and builders started using cedar to negotiate the region’s steep, technical terrain. Wooden bridges crossed impossible-looking sections of forest. Narrow skinnies hovered above the ground. Ramps connected natural features and opened lines that otherwise couldn’t be ridden.

 

The builders weren’t necessarily trying to invent a new discipline. They were finding creative ways to ride their bikes through difficult terrain, and in the process, they helped create an entirely new style of mountain biking.

 

Those cedar structures became synonymous with the North Shore and with the early freeride movement that would influence riders, trail builders, bike design, and mountain bike culture far beyond the Pacific Northwest.

Shimano Trail Born trail Cedar Fever Bellingham Washington
Shimano Trail Born trail Cedar Fever Bellingham Washington

Bringing the Idea Forward

Cedar Fever isn’t an attempt to recreate a 1990s North Shore trail. It’s the progression of the idea. The project began in the summer of 2025 when Transition Bikes, with support from WMBC, approached SHIMANO Trail Born about collaborating on a new trail project on Galbraith Mountain. The goal was to create something different from what already existed on Galbraith.

 

The concept began developing around wooden features as a nod to the North Shore freeride trails of the past. But rather than reproducing the slower, highly technical wooden features that characterized much of early freeride, the team began exploring how cedar could work within a modern trail that was built around speed, flow, jumps, and progression.

 

Construction began in the fall of 2025, bringing together the resources of SHIMANO Trail Born with countless hours of work from Transition, WMBC, and Treelines. The result is a black technical jump trail punctuated by wooden features that feel distinctly Pacific Northwest, yet designed around the way riders are pushing mountain bikes today.

 

The result is an example of what can happen when local trail organizations, bike brands, professional builders, and programs like SHIMANO Trail Born work together. The goal isn’t simply to add another trail to the map. It’s to create something distinctive to its place, its community, and the history of riding that came before it. Cedar Fever is spreading.

 

See how Transition Bikes, WMBC, Treelines, and SHIMANO Trail Born brought a piece of Pacific Northwest freeride history into the modern era with the new Trail Born “Cedar Fever” and experience Galbraith Mountain’s latest freeride evolution.

Shimano Trail Born Cedar Fever Bellingham Washington MTB trail
Shimano Trail Born Cedar Fever Bellingham Washington MTB trail
Shimano Trail Born Cedar Fever MTB bike trail Washington Bellingham
Shimano Trail Born Cedar Fever MTB bike trail Washington Bellingham
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