so I'm taking my wife to Annadel tomorrow...

i would do warren richarson to the lake nice place then to marsh all the way to the ledson an back that not techncal at all

I don't know the place like Lawndale does but nonetheless take some advice from a wiser Sparky.
If it's her first ride. You may want go for short and sweet with a beautiful destination. Throw in a picnic at the destination and your golden.
People who aren't into mtn biking tend to miss the point of the ride without a destination. If you want her to have a fun positive experience that makes her want to ride again, make it fun for her with as little exertion and speed as possible.

Maybe you'll succeed where i failed. I took my wife to china camp and made her climb all the way to the top. Then out down the steep route and the long way home (12 miles, 1000+ft climbing) i thought it was a cake walk!
5 years later, she still hates mountain biking but has the nicest dust covered "garage ornament" in the neighborhood. Shoot for no more than 400 ft climbing and downhills that aren't too fast. fire roads are good.

Richardson has some steep in sections, but then again so does Shultz/Pig Flat. Or you can go Shultz directly to Ridge. But then that first section on ridge is a bit technical and steeper than you think.

boy can i relate to the china camp story....took my wife and son there a few years back to to the normal front side loop.....she was pretty scared in spots and generally thought it was too difficult for her. now my daughter has my wife's bike!!

Ride up Lawndale, then take a right on Marsh all the way til you get to the bench on the far side of Buick Meadow. Reverse the route to get back to the car. You can have a mini-picnic there and will meet lots of folks taking a break at that juncture.

Lawndale is a pretty easy ride, relatively-speaking. After all, we're talking Annadel here and there really isnt too much easy around. That section of Marsh is also, from what I recall, rather mild. The intersection at the bench is South Burma, I believe.

If it seems she's doing very well, I recommend going down Marsh and doing the Ridge loop back to Lawndale and then down Lawndale. Otherwise, just go back the way you came.

If it is her first ride I would err on the easy side. Park at Howarth Park. Go up Canyon, around the lake (a little singletrack there on the north side), down Richardson and then take the Channel Dr. Singletrack (she might be ready for it by then). back to Spring Lake and then Howarth.
Unless she is an Amazon. In which case, anything goes. Turn her loose on S. Burma and race her to the bottom.

Oh God, don't take her up Schultz for a first ride.

Tim is not wrong this time. make it real easy. Probably up canyon, around the lake, then around again, up Richardson then down Richardson. Channel trail at the end if she has the legs, but those quick ups and downs could ruin an otherwise sweet ride. Maybe some Howard Park trails for more easy ST.

wait, that is exactly the route Tim said. :thumbsup:

go up lawndale if you think she has the stamina.

Deja Vu

I brought my ex GF to Annadel for her very first MTB ride a couple years ago, brand new mountain bike we had just bought her a few weeks earlier.

Started up that fireroad on Channel, quarter mile in, she couldn't stay on the bike, kept losing her balance. She was in tears "Why did you bring me here???" We pack up, go back south to Sausilito and ride the bike path. She was happy.

What a disaster

Good luck

Hard to know, but you might be asking for trouble taking anyone to Annadel for their first ride. Is your wife a strong cyclist, but just her first mountain bike ride? Maybe just Howarth and Spring Lake area!

Don't know that I agree......

w00t! said:

it'll be her first mtb ride.

I'd like to avoid overly-grueling climbs and rock gardens while maximizing the flow, so I'm thinking about either one of these two routes:

Schultz > Ridge > Marsh > Lawndale...or,

Channel > Warren Richardson > Canyon > Marsh > Lawndale.

Click to expand...

....with most of the routes, specially yours!:nono: You may be back already (hope you had a good time:thumbsup: ) but your 2 picks were quite extreme.

You said this is her first mtb ride, if she's a strong road rider, then maybe either would have been fine. I think back to when I seriously started riding 6-7 years ago getting spanked going up WP to the lake. But I know from experience starting out up Schultz, even if you stop and take in the valley views at the bench, would mean certain doom for the rest of your ride. Keeping in mind I'm not taking anything away from your SO's riding prowess. I've been on some newbie rides, with guys and gals, having some surprising results.

Hope you didn't scare her off dirt, like some other poor souls mentioned above, and went
up Canyon, around on Lake Trail and down WP Rich for a leisure ride back down Channel Dr. Channel Trail is a challenge for next time maybe......

There's no easy route in Annadel for a beginner. Everything involves climbing. Stick with Howarth Park trails, Spring Lake trails, have a picnic, and then maybe go to the frog pond near the end of Cobblestone (you can get there via a fire road from the spring lake entrance).

last month we brought a relative newb to annadel. she is in good shape and not afriad to climb, and had been on maybe 4 mountain bike rides previously, including a tandem offroad ride, but nothing really technical.....we went up schultz and down lawndale. She did remarkably well but she still walked quite a bit of stuff. She had a good time.

I think for her very first ride it woudl have been a bit much. I woudl have suggested going up the fireroad past spring lake and down spring creek for a first go.

I while back, I posted here asking for suggestions on Annadel routes for newer riders. The route that was recommended here was Canyon > Lake > Richardson > Channel drive.

Thanks for the suggestions. We'll probably hit up some of those in the near future.

We got a much later start than we'd hoped for so we just did Channel Drive up to Warren Richardson Fire Road, stopped for a photo at the vista point, then came down North Burma and took Channel Trail/Drive back to the car.

Trails were hella wet and sloppy, but a good time was had and she now "gets it", so I accomplished my goal. Her other bike is a SS and she's kind of a shredbetty in general, although she did do some walking.

Picnic? heh, picnics are for third dates.