[XC62701]

Hey guys, I'm looking at possibly doing a little spring break trip and am looking for an area to ride with a lot of trails that will keep me busy for a week. I'm looking for sweet singletrack XC trails if possible. I don't mind insane climbing or epic rides. I love em. Tell me where you think would be good for early april. April 6th through the 15th is what I have off. I love east coast riding but want to sample the west coast stuff too. I've been riding in NJ, NY, ME, GA, NC, CO, UT, VT and want to add CA to my list. Where would be a good choice to get away to? I'd need a pretty extensive network of trails. My ideal getaway is riding up to 6 hours a day for most of the days I'd be away.

Ryan H.

 

[Attornre1]

Fellow NJian

Hi Ryan,

I am heading to San Diego in March and want to explore some mtb trials too. I hope you don't mind if I take advantage of your thread. Are you bringing your bike, renting, borrowing, demo?? That's my hang-up right now. If any locals have info on renting a decent bike in the san diego area that would be great.

Stacey

 

[HarryCallahan]

Henry Coe State Park

Check out Henry Coe S.P. Lots of info in the Norcal forum. It's big, remote, and allows back country camping. There are miles of trails. Summer at Coe is very hot, but April ought to be gorgeous.

April will likely be too early for most of the higher areas in the Sierras. Not too much snow up there this year, but we've still got 3 more months of likely precipitation.

Down in SoCal, you could check out Orange county or the Santa Monica Mountains in LA and Ventura counties. In either case, you'd probably end up hitting more than one area in a week, but could probably operate out of one spot as a base.

 

[XC62701]

Hi Ryan,

I am heading to San Diego in March and want to explore some mtb trials too. I hope you don't mind if I take advantage of your thread. Are you bringing your bike, renting, borrowing, demo?? That's my hang-up right now. If any locals have info on renting a decent bike in the san diego area that would be great.

Stacey

No problem hijacking the thread ;-) I'm looking for any info I or anyone else can dig up. I'll be bringing my bike - no question. The big debate will be which one - my FS or hardtail. Probably the FS since I'll be riding so much. The ultimate deal would be to find an inexpensive place to say while I can hit up a few parks within short driving distance.

Ryan H.

 

[XC62701]

Check out Henry Coe S.P. Lots of info in the Norcal forum. It's big, remote, and allows back country camping. There are miles of trails. Summer at Coe is very hot, but April ought to be gorgeous.

April will likely be too early for most of the higher areas in the Sierras. Not too much snow up there this year, but we've still got 3 more months of likely precipitation.

Down in SoCal, you could check out Orange county or the Santa Monica Mountains in LA and Ventura counties. In either case, you'd probably end up hitting more than one area in a week, but could probably operate out of one spot as a base.

That sounds awesome but if I'm flying out I doubt I'd be able to bring my camping stuff so it's going to have to be an inexpensive place to stay for the trip. I'm sure there's a few options. Yea I want to find out where the best base area or areas would be for a trip like this. Where will conditions be nice? I'm sure so cal will be sweet but how is norcal? I'm hoping for conditions over 60 degrees.

Ryan H.

 

[amor587]

Attornre1... you can try Adam's Ave bike shop for bike rentals. I'm not sure about the rental prices, but I believe that they rent out some pretty good demo bikes. Just look them up in the San Diego region yello pages and give them a call.

 

[XC62701]

Hi Ryan,

I am heading to San Diego in March and want to explore some mtb trials too. I hope you don't mind if I take advantage of your thread. Are you bringing your bike, renting, borrowing, demo?? That's my hang-up right now. If any locals have info on renting a decent bike in the san diego area that would be great.

Stacey

Please let me know whatever you find out, especially after you ride. Let me know what's good.

Ryan H.

 

[amor587]

In april... socal should have temps in that area you are expecting... over 60 degrees. Here in San Diego our High is about 60 degrees (and it's still January).

 

[XC62701]

In april... socal should have temps in that area you are expecting... over 60 degrees. Here in San Diego our High is about 60 degrees (and it's still January).

WOW I wish I had those temps here. That would make my training a lot easier than riding in sub 30 degree weather and flurries.

Ryan H.

 

[tunaboyyy]

You guys should try to book a one day fishing trip out of san diego as well. check out sportfishingreport.com and bloodydecks.com for more info. I am still a newbee out here still exploring the trails myself.

 

[XC62701]

You guys should try to book a one day fishing trip out of san diego as well. check out sportfishingreport.com and bloodydecks.com for more info. I am still a newbee out here still exploring the trails myself.

Hell if I make it to San Diego I'd like to do that for sure, maybe see Tijuana, and I'd love to see the parks like Joshua Tree and Yosimite although I know that's a far drive.

Ryan H.

 

[Andy aka Rut]

Hey guys, I'm looking at possibly doing a little spring break trip and am looking for an area to ride with a lot of trails that will keep me busy for a week. I'm looking for sweet singletrack XC trails if possible. I don't mind insane climbing or epic rides. I love em. Tell me where you think would be good for early april. April 6th through the 15th is what I have off. I love east coast riding but want to sample the west coast stuff too. I've been riding in NJ, NY, ME, GA, NC, CO, UT, VT and want to add CA to my list. Where would be a good choice to get away to? I'd need a pretty extensive network of trails. My ideal getaway is riding up to 6 hours a day for most of the days I'd be away.

Ryan H.

Ryan,
Well Sea Otter is during that week. It starts on Thurs the 12th through Sun the 15th. I plan on heading up Thurs night or Friday and camping. It's in Monterey.
Other than that... OC has a ton of riding. 6 hours a day for a week would probably not be a problem. New trails every day. We have www.geoladders.com that can give you locations and details about the rides. It's a pretty *****'n sight (not nearly as cool as MTBR of course.) OC parks to consider are... Santa Ana Mountains (part of Cleveland Nat Park) including well over 100 miles of sick riding, O'Neil Park, Whiting Ranch, Aliso and Woods Canyons, Laguna Wilderness Park and El Moro State Park. I'm sure there are others, but that is off the top of my head. If you would like more info, PM me and we can start emailing.
andy

 

[XC62701]

Ryan,
Well Sea Otter is during that week. It starts on Thurs the 12th through Sun the 15th. I plan on heading up Thurs night or Friday and camping. It's in Monterey.
Other than that... OC has a ton of riding. 6 hours a day for a week would probably not be a problem. New trails every day. We have www.geoladders.com that can give you locations and details about the rides. It's a pretty *****'n sight (not nearly as cool as MTBR of course.) OC parks to consider are... Santa Ana Mountains (part of Cleveland Nat Park) including well over 100 miles of sick riding, O'Neil Park, Whiting Ranch, Aliso and Woods Canyons, Laguna Wilderness Park and El Moro State Park. I'm sure there are others, but that is off the top of my head. If you would like more info, PM me and we can start emailing.
andy

That is an awesome site and looks like a great area. What are the best techy singletrack rides?

Ryan H.

 

[Attornre1]

Shipping bike

No problem hijacking the thread ;-) I'm looking for any info I or anyone else can dig up. I'll be bringing my bike - no question. The big debate will be which one - my FS or hardtail. Probably the FS since I'll be riding so much. The ultimate deal would be to find an inexpensive place to say while I can hit up a few parks within short driving distance.

Ryan H.

Hey Ryan,

Looks like I'm leaning towards bringing my Ellsworth Truth. To rent a demo is $150/day and they can't guarantee me a bike in March! I would definately be more comfy on my own bike anyway. So how are you shipping your bike? Are you checking it on the plane or shipping it Fedex?

Check out this cool video from Noble Canyon. Looks like a lot of fun!


Stacey

 

[XC62701]

Hey Ryan,

Looks like I'm leaning towards bringing my Ellsworth Truth. To rent a demo is $150/day and they can't guarantee me a bike in March! I would definately be more comfy on my own bike anyway. So how are you shipping your bike? Are you checking it on the plane or shipping it Fedex?

Check out this cool video from Noble Canyon. Looks like a lot of fun!


Stacey

Sweet. I take it with me on the plane most times it works out cheaper believe it or not and you don't have to worry about shipping it out days in advance. My Klein Palomino has been disassembled a few times to accomodate this. It loves foreign dirt!

Ryan H.

 

[XC62701]

Hey Ryan,

Looks like I'm leaning towards bringing my Ellsworth Truth. To rent a demo is $150/day and they can't guarantee me a bike in March! I would definately be more comfy on my own bike anyway. So how are you shipping your bike? Are you checking it on the plane or shipping it Fedex?

Check out this cool video from Noble Canyon. Looks like a lot of fun!


Stacey

That looks like some fun. Where's all the climbs?

 

[amor587]

Guys.... Here is a pretty good site for your reference.

www.mountainbikebill.com

Lots of information and photos.

 

[lazybeaner]

If you really want EPIC rides. Other wise Mt. Bike Bill is the best for San Diego.

 

[aword4you]

Bill's site definitely has some good rides, and you may be able to find additional info on Geoladders relating to some of the rides (including point by point directions).

If you like climbing and descents, a lot of good rides from OC/Santa Ana's include Holy Jim (and Upper Holy Jim), Trabuco, and San Juan Trail. You can climb/descend Holy Jim (all singletrack), same as San Juan Trail, or add in extra fire road climbing to hit up Trabuco, etc. Trabuco is one of my favorite descents in So Cal. I wouldn't climb up it, but others do.

If you can manage it, definitely drive down to San Diego and head east to ride Noble. There's plenty of technical climbing (Indian Creek/Noble) in addition to a nice road climb near the beginning that is referred to as "Alpe d'Wheez".

Additionally, Whiting/Santiago Truck Trail/Luge is a great loop, and Aliso Woods has a lot of trails to offer for a few hours.

 

[HarryCallahan]

That sounds awesome but if I'm flying out I doubt I'd be able to bring my camping stuff so it's going to have to be an inexpensive place to stay for the trip. I'm sure there's a few options. Yea I want to find out where the best base area or areas would be for a trip like this. Where will conditions be nice? I'm sure so cal will be sweet but how is norcal? I'm hoping for conditions over 60 degrees.

Ryan H.

Gotcha. I mentioned Coe because it has most of the things you mentioned in your first post. It is a really huge park. You don't have to camp; it's just big enough that you could. Coe is near Gilroy and Morgan Hill, so south of San Jose and east of Monterey.

You could stay in Gilroy and hit Coe, Fort Ord, Santa Cruz, and all of the MROSD preserves south of San Francisco, and ride different trails every day for two weeks, easily.

You could do that same thing out of other bases in this region, of course. I just mention Gilroy because it is not seen as a tourist destination, unlike say Monterey or Santa Cruz.

Norcal weather is more variable than Socal, but April is usually pretty nice at least through the central part of the state and up as far as the bay area. (It did rain almost every day in April last year, but that was really weird and it had never happened before.) It tends to rain more north of San Francisco, and more right on the coast than inland, because of the coastal mountains. Daytime temps tend to be in the 60's or above; evenings are cooler than Socal.

Oh yeah: The post just above mine here looks pretty interesting. I used to live in SoCal and that's an interesting area. I"ve hiked, camped and picnicked in some of those areas, but never hit them up with the bike. April would be a good time. Summer would be pretty hot and dry.