Mirror Lake offers a welcome reprieve from the rooty, rough trails in other parts of Alaska. These singletrack trails have all been crafted by mountain bikers, for mountain bikers, and have been artfully machine-built to maximize swoop and flow throughout. You'll find a berm on almost every corner, with rolling trail grades, whoops, and optional jumps interspersed in between. There's very little challenge to be found here, aside from one or two short, steep descents that blast down rough, rooty tracks. These optional black diamond lines are well-marked and can easily be avoided.

The crisscrossing trails can be difficult to navigate for a first-time visitor, so for a recommended route, be sure to follow the track shown here! Even so, this track still includes some swooping around and doubling back to hit some of the fun trails in Maven's Maze and Fern Gully. If you don't want to deal with this complication, you can instead stay straight on Raven's Ridge and thereby eliminate many of the turns. However, that will eliminate several miles of riding, and there isn't a lot of mileage to be found here at Mirror Lake. The route as mapped only covers 4.8 miles as it is.

One complaint that some local riders lodge against Mirror Lake is that the turns are too sharp and abrupt, which unnecessarily limits your speed in an awkward way. This is definitely true on many of the trails, although accomplished riders can still make their own flow by jamming the rear wheel into corners and pushing out the other side. However, it is possible to overcook some of the berms with this technique, so use it sparingly.

At the time of this writing in 2022, a series of new jump lines have recently been completed at Mirror Lake, which also provides an answer to this complaint. Located on the far northern end of the trail system, these advanced jump tracks have been professionally built and provide gorgeous jumps and berms for short but fun downhill rips. There's nothing tight or speed-limiting about these trails! They haven't been included in the route here, but look for Bee Line just off the Hot Tamale trail.

Finally, the cherry on top of this great little trail system is the skills progression park at the trailhead. With easy, intermediate, and advanced skills lines, everyone from kids to adults will have fun playing on the small jumps and wooden features, and rolling through the berms before and after a fun singletrack ride!