Ride Wish List

Past Rides

Henry Coe An almost completely singletrack ride in the enormous Henry Coe. Ali and I had attempted a simpler version of this ride, but aborted due to tick infestation. Staying away from the May-to-August tick season when doing this ride should be enough the avoid that problem next time. The ride traverses at least a couple of intereting trails that follow the bottoms of steep valleys. There's also a nice and long singletrack descent on Middle Ridge, which should be pretty sweet. The route is a bit on the ambitious side (with 19 miles and 3000+ feet of total climb), but we can shorten it to as little as 13 miles if we need to. Distance 19 miles Total Climb 3700 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Repack Road This ride is to get those of us who haven't tried it yet to experience riding the Repack Road. This is "the place". It's mountain biking hallowed ground. It's where it all started. This is the course for the Repack Race started by a bunch of local biker kids and run between 1976 and 1979 that sparked the beginning of mountain biking, after which most of those kids turned into some of the most well-known brands and legends of mountain biking. The ride itself starts with Camp Tamarancho and traverses about half of that loop before diverting uphill and heading toward the peak of Pine Mountain, after which the Repack Road fun begins. Only about three miles of the ride is on pavement (the approach and return portions). Other than the part in Camp Tamarancho, I don't expect there's much singletrack. Repack Road itself is a steep, fairly smooth, fast, two-mile fireroad downhill. The thrill (other than the historic significance) is in the speeds it allows. There are a number of off-camber turns that are pretty scary when taken at speed. But, you don't have to be riding at life-endangering speeds in order to enjoy it; it's enough to descend at your own pace, taking in its "sacred mountain biking air" and imagining the history that was made there. Repack course map Distance 14 miles Total Climb 2500 ft Duration 4 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Shell Ridge This is an all-trail ride meandering through the rolling East Bay hills, following mostly fire roads. Still, there is at least one segment that traverses a newly built singletrack. The highlight of this ride is the beautiful velvety looking greenness of the hills and the sprinkled oak trees that look like a model railroad setup. Therefore, the ride should be done between January and when the grass turns yellow (around April). Another reason for doing this ride in that season is because the second highlight of this ride is a short section of trail where it follows a stream. Not along a stream. In the stream bed! There is an option to shorten the ride to 11 miles, if we need to. We still get to ride the stream and see the same beautiful green hills if we do that. Distance 17.5 miles Total Climb 3000 ft Duration 5 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Skyline Wilderness The book in which I found this ride calls this a "singlespeeder's delight". It can't be just hype, because this happens to be where Single Speed World Championships were held in 2008. In fact, the course shown below is the race course of that event. The book goes on to call this place one of the top five mountain biking destinations in the Bay Area, as well. So, it appears that this is a sure shot for being a first class ride. It's an all-trail ride. Mostly singletrack. I suppose what makes a course ideal for singletrack is the capability to carry speed without hitting long climbs and overly technical sections. That might be true for most of this course, but it still has significant climbs in a few places, the most notable of which is about a half-mile stretch that averages close to 15% grade. Still, the remainder should be nothing but singletrack pleasure. The suggested ride in the book also included a climb and descent Sugarloaf Mountain. I've left it out of the route below in order to stay true to the championship course and keep it more of a singlespeed-friendly ride, but we can double back and do that part too, if we feel like we have time and energy left. Distance 9.5 miles Total Climb 1900 ft Duration 3 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Pleasanton Ridge An out-of-the-way ride, though still a popular one (judging by its occurrence in two of the books I have). It's a fairly typical East Bay ride: mostly fireroads (though about 25% of this one should be singletrack), steep climbs, some cows, and trails that are too pockmarked and impassable if we go in the wrong season. While technically not an out-and-back ride because of all the alternate trails, it still basically traverses the same ridge back and forth. The attractions of this ride include getting to sample some of the rare East Bay singletrack trails, a grove of olive trees (a rarity anywhere in the US, never mind the Bay Area), and views to velvety green rolling East Bay hills if we do this in the right season. Distance 15 miles Total Climb 3500 ft Duration 5 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Aptos to Demonstration Forest Epic ride starting from Aptos, near Santa Cruz, climbing all the way to Soquel Demonstration Forest, doing a loop down Braille Trail and up Sulphur Springs Road, and returning to Aptos. The "real" ride is about 22 miles. The rest is the flat part of the approach from Aptos. Some of this flat part may be eliminated if we can park somewhere further inside than I anticipate; I'm not too clear on what's the furthest place we can park. Don't be fooled by the total elevation gain indicated on the elevation profile screenshot. That's a gross overestimate due to map inaccuracies and sampling error. My more reasonable (but conservative) guesstimate is the value below. Distance 31 miles Total Climb 3500 ft Duration 8 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Santa Teresa County Park This is a ride that's in a curious location in relation to most rides that we do. It's in South San Jose. The ride is a mix of fire roads and singletrack. This route is described as traversing all of the park's singletrack trails. (At least those that are legal for bikes.) By a rough estimate, I would say that two to three miles of the 10-mile ride is singletrack. Distance 10 miles Total Climb 1800 ft Duration 3 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Mount Hamilton This is an out-and-back road climb to the peak of Mount Hamilton. The ride starts from Joseph D. Grant County Park and follows Route 130 all the way. It's a constant and even climb all the way, with the exception of a one-mile section that descends a little (which becomes a one-mile climb during the return of the ride, of course.) As a bike ride, this is like "a longer version of Route 9". It's much longer, but it's also less steep. (The average climbing grade is less than 6%.) The road is pretty narrow; probably narrower than Route 9. But it should have very light traffic; easily much lighter than Route 9. Distance 22 miles Total Climb 2800 ft Duration 5 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Bolinas Ridge Combination road and fire road ride (about a 70% - 30% split). Starts from Stinson Beach. Climbs Panoramic Highway to Ridgecrest Boulevard. Traverses Ridgecrest Boulevard--a ridgetop road so pretty and scenic that it's used in many US car commercials. Traverses all of Bolinas Ridge fire road--one of the most well-known mountain bike rides in Marin. And returns to Stinson Beach via Highway 1. The beauty of this ride is that you do a reasonable climb (the same grade as, but shorter than, Route 9), and then almost never have any significant climb for the remaining 29+ miles of the ride and traverse very scenic roads and a seaside portion of Highway 1, among other things, in the process. Distance 35 miles Total Climb 3100 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Annadel (Ridge Trail) This ride contains 11 miles of all-singletrack riding in what must be one of the top-three mountain biking destinations in the North Bay. (About one mile is on pavement.) This park is described as lacking any tall mountains and grueling climbs, but as being a mountain biking playground. Distance 12 miles Total Climb 1300 ft Duration 4 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Annadel (Rough Go Trail) Another ride in Annadel. The name of Rough Go Trail speaks for itself. It's described as a very technical trail. (So, it should be very worthwhile to try out.) Distance 10 miles Total Climb 1200 ft Duration 3 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Annadel (Two Quarry Trail) Yet another ride in Annadel. The book from which I got this route describes it as "the big-daddy loop" of the park, though it's still only 12 miles long. The Two Quarry Trail is a technical singletrack that's reportedly challenging. Meanwhile, the Ridge Trail, which this ride also partially traverses, is described as a true gem of "the new school of trail building." I can't wait to see the trail to understand what that means exactly. The parking place for this ride is a little unclear. The book shows a short dead-end spur leading to the trailhead and the parking place is marked right there, but Google Maps doesn't show it. In any case, we can figure it out when we get there. The red arrow in the map below basically points at the trailhead, rather than where I'm sure the parking will be. Distance 12 miles Total Climb 1400 ft Duration 4 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Mount Diablo This is a climb of Mount Diablo from 600 feet all the way to its peak around 3850 feet. It's a route that follows the maximum possible amount of unpaved trails; only a little less than a quarter of the route is on paved road (right near the peak, and only out of necessity). Most of the rest is on fire roads. Only a one-mile section of the route is shown as singletrack on trail maps. The total climb amount of 3800 feet is just an educated guess. The map actually estimates it around 4200, and that may be correct. The climb will be brutal. The climbing portion (of which there is about six miles) averages 9% grade. But there are killer stretches. One stretch longer than a mile averages 13%, and there even seems to be a quarter-mile portion averaging 25%. (The latter might be a map error.) This ride definitely needs to be done during cool weather. So, probably not during the summer. Distance 14.5 miles Total Climb 3800 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Big Basin Boulder Creek Loop A long road ride. Starts at the trailhead of Saratog Gap, takes Route 9 into the center of Big Basin Park, then to Boulder Creek, and then back via Bear Creek road and Skyline Boulevard. No killer climbs. (Nothing worse than Route 9.) Just a long road tour and some giant redwood viewing in the mountains. Distance 43.5 miles Total Climb 4400 ft Duration 7 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Helen Putnam This is easily the shortest ride ever to be on this list. It's an all-trail ride in a small park near Petaluma. It's very short, but the book I got this from described it with phrases like "five-inch-wide singletrack, tight turns, no extended climbs, rapidly changing scenery" and used the tag line "don't stop 'til you get enough!" So, the idea is to do multiple loops here. (The numbers below are for a single loop.) In addition to repeating the loop shown below, the park has about 3.5 more miles of trails in its modest web, almost all of them singletrack. It looks like this park is a hidden little gem of our area that we should all be familiar with. Distance 2.1 miles Total Climb 300 ft Duration 0:30 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Oat Hill Mine Road Known as a tough and very technical mountain bike ride, this road used to be the supply road to a mine, as its name suggests, back in the 19th century. Nominally, it's an all-fire-road ride. But, if there ever was a technical fire road, this is it. For those familiar with Eldridge Grade, my guess is that this is like "Eldridge Grade x 2". The climb is about 4.5 miles long and the average grade, being pretty even, comes to about 8%. But, don't let that number cloud your assessment of the trail's difficulty without seeing the photos and videos: The Ogre's Guide (don't miss the other pages of photos and videos, accessible under "Links") Don't let the most radical photos scare you, though. I'm pretty sure the worst ones are likely to have been taken on obstacles and stunts that are near the road. (Concrete stairs? Oh, come on! This road was used by horse carriages!) The ride shown below is actually the typical minimum that people seem to do. This can be extended to 12 or 23 miles by just delaying our turnaround point, moving even closer to where the actual Oat Hill Mine used to be. We can continue on for as far as we feel like on this ride, but there isn't much serious climbing after the portion shown below. My time estimate below factors in the technical difficulty of the climb and attempts to account for the "let me try that section again" allowances. Distance 9 miles Total Climb 1900 ft Duration 5 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Woodside to the Coast Loop This ride is to fulfill Han's idea of starting out on the Bay side, crossing the Santa Cruz Mountains all the way to the sea, and crossing them back again to get back. This seems to be the shortest and easiest route that would achieve that. It's completely a road ride. Distance 39 miles Total Climb 4000 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map

Downieville Downhill This one is more of a trip idea than a ride idea, because it's really only practical with an overnight stay (or two). It's more than a four-hour drive from Mountain View. This is the course of the famed Downiehill Classic downhill race. Downieville Downhill Race This is a shuttle ride, with only about 1000 feet of total climb along 14 miles of advanced singletrack descending (reportedly) more than 5000 feet. Information on the shuttles (and other logistics) can be found here: Downieville Outfitters We need to be comfortable with the technical level of the ride before we attempt this. Some sense can be obtained from this YouTube video (or others that can be found there): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NyvFXaUV3c The Ogre has a very detailed description of the ride at the following address, which is the best written one I've found anywhere in terms of giving an idea of what to expect: Downieville Downhill in The Ogre's Guide Distance 14 miles Total Climb 1000 ft Duration 3 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map

Flume Trail This is another ride that requires an overnight stay. Flume Trail is arguably the most famous mountain biking trail in the Lake Tahoe area, though it's not because of its technical merit or challenge, but more for its setting and scenery. It's roughly a four-mile trail carved almost perfectly horizontally into the face of a steep hillside overlooking Lake Tahoe. (The topographic map seems to imply that it used to be an aqueduct.) I've encountered the difficulty of Flume Trail itself described as "can be handled by any 13-year-old". That must be as long as you don't mind the risk of your 13-year-old tumbling a few hundreed feet down if he veers of by more than a few feet along some stretches. This is not a shuttle ride; it ends where it starts. It initially climbs about 1600 feet in eight miles, making a loop around Marlette Lake (a reservoir that's "just over the ridge" from Lake Tahoe). Flume Trail is traversed on the return half of the loop around Marlette Lake. There's also about a one-mile stretch that follows right along the edge of the Marlette Lake coast. So, this won't be a ride where our mountain biking skills will be challenged or improved, but it's likely to be the most scenic ride we've ever done. You can find a zillion photos of the trail and its views if you do a Google image search for "flume trail", but the following photos are some of the better ones in terms of showing the general area traversed by this ride (the smaller body of water in all photos is Marlette Lake, which is looped during this ride): Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 A general park map showing the trails along with some more details of what else is around and the amenities along the way, is here: Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park map Distance 22 miles Total Climb 3700 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map

Old Coast Road The Old Coast Road follows the course that Highway 1 used to take (up to 1932) until the Bixby Bridge was built. (Bixby Bridge, for those who may not be familiar, is the most iconic sight on the stretch of Highway 1 along the Central California coast.) The portion of the ride on Old Coast Road is all fire road with no shortage of climbing. A little less than half of the ride is the return on the pavement of Highway 1 back to the starting point. This ride is widely described as very scenic, but don't expect the inland half of the ride to have constant views to the ocean (though it does have some occasionally). It's not a very interesting ride from a technical viewpoint, but it's a reasonable choice for a first ride to try near the Big Sur area, and is among the widely known mountain biking routes near the Bay Area. The selling points are the scenic mountains, valleys, and forests; the views to the ocean; the remoteness (real wilderness); and a long stretch of riding on curvy Highway 1. If you need more information to convince yourself about this ride, there are links below to two other sources where it is described. Both of these describe a counter-clockwise loop, though. I prefer the clockwise loop, because the climbs are a little milder. (We'll be going against the prevailing winds on part of the stretch on Highway 1 this way, but I'd rather take some headwind while pedaling on a 2% average grade, rather than having to reach the highest point of the ride on a 12% average grade instead of an 8% average...) Pedal! Damn it! blog posting  (tons of photos) Northern California Biking book excerpt Distance 19 miles Total Climb 3100 ft Duration 6 hours Map and Profile Location Google Map Parking and Meeting Google Map