Ride Wish List

Past Rides

For many more ride descriptions, check out my main website: Bay Area Mountain Bike 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 to avoid that problem next time. The ride traverses at least a couple of interesting 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

Pipeline Trail This is a new singletrack trail that has been recently built in Toro Regional Park near Salinas. You can read a little bit about it on this MTBR thread: New Trail - Toro Park Monterey In a nutshell, this is a 2.5-mile narrow downhill singletrack that follows close to the bottom of a tight ravine. The thread above contains a number of photos (as well as a YouTube video) that might give a good sense of what to expect. The ride as a whole is possibly the shortest loop in this park that would take us up to the beginning of Pipeline Trail and returns to the parking lot to finish the ride after that trail is over. I assume the climbing part will consist of a fire road, but I don't know for certain. Distance 8.5 miles Total Climb 1800 ft Duration 3 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

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

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 (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

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

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

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