Do you ever feel like you’re just riding in circles on your local singletrack? If so, a guided mountain bike tour in a far away place is just what you need in 2012. Aside from getting to shred new dirt, most multi-day guided trips allow you to focus on riding while leaving boring details like eating and sleeping to someone else.

There are dozens upon dozens of guided mountain bikes trips and tours available all across the planet! If you want to do a little research to find the trip that is right for you, spend some time with The Google, or just go to our mountain bike trips page.

But to whet your whistle for adventure and give you a small taste of what sort of guided mountain biking opportunities are out there, here are six dream-worthy expeditions that you could take this year.

Inca Trail: Sacred Rides

Photo: Sacred Rides.

One of the keys to Incan domination was their extensive network of roads and trails they built throughout the Andes. According to some estimates, the Incas left behind over 10,000 km of trails and roads. Thousands of those kilometers still remain, making Peru possibly “the world’s best undiscovered mountain bike destination,” according to Sacred Rides.

That claim doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch, either. The Olleros trail, for instance, is hailed as the world’s longest downhill, dropping 11,000 vertical feet from the tops of the mountains all the way down to sea level! This trip incorporates many other epic trails, as well as some historical exposure including a visit to the famous city of Machu Picchu (not included in trip price).

For more information on this trip, check out the Sacred Rides website and a ride report that was previously posted here on the Singletracks blog. Also, there’s a version of this same trip that’s much more freeride-oriented that you can learn more about here.

Cost for this 10-day adventure: $2,495 CAD.

Durango to Moab: Hermosa Tours

Photo: trek7k.

Durango and Moab are two very well-known mountain bike destinations–you’ve all definitely heard of them. What you may not know is that between Durango and Moab lies some of the best singletrack that the famous Colorado Trail and La Sal mountains have to offer!

Hermosa Tours offers a 6-day guided trip from Durango to Moab that includes more pristine singletrack than you can shake a pedal wrench at!

In addition to its remoteness, one of the most appealing aspects of the trip is the numerous climate zones that you will travel through: everything from high-alpine to desert.

Cost for 6 days: $1,295

Trek7k did a similar trip a couple of years ago with a group of friends, except they did it without guides by using the San Juan hut-to-hut system. Cost for a 7 day hut-to-hut journey with San Juan is $850.

You can read about trek7k’s journey here:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

The Ultimate BC Adventure: Sacred Rides

Photo: Sacred Rides.

Who hasn’t dreamt of riding in British Columbia? BC is basically the best place on earth to ride a mountain bike, and over the course of this 13-day trip, Sacred Rides will guide you on some of the best singletrack BC has to offer.

You may have not heard, or at least not paid much attention to, some of these towns before: Fernie, Rossland, Revelstoke, New Denver, and Golden. As Sacred Rides puts it: “Leave Whistler and the North Shore to the tourist hordes – interior BC has all the goods, with a tiny fraction of the crowds. On many of the trails we’ll ride on this trip, we’ll be the only ones out there. . .”

From shuttle run repeats to all-day epics, this trip will deliver up the BC goods to you on a silver platter!

Cost for 13 days: $2,995 CAD.

Sawtooth Singletrack: Western Spirit

Photo: Western Spirit.

This trip is your ticket to the sweet stash of singletrack in Idaho’s Sawtooth Range. Starting in Sun Valley and then heading deep into the mountains, you will be surrounded by hundreds of miles of singletrack trails… and you’ll have a chance to sample about as much as you can handle! Get ready for many miles of technical riding at elevations of 6,000-9,000 feet.

Cost for 5 days: $1,225

Treasures of the Himalaya: Sacred Rides

Photo: Sacred Rides.

The Himalayas.

Just the name of this mountain range conjures up mental images of the perpetually snow-covered peaks towering high in the sky, higher than any other mountains on the planet. This trip will take you near some of these massive peaks on historic trails that have been traveled for hundreds of years. You will see two valleys with astonishingly different ecology, one of which is the deepest valley in the world. In addition to the epic Himalayan riding, you’ll also get to experience the rich culture and history of the region.

Cost for 12 days: $2,895 CAD

Sedona: Hermosa Tours

Photo: Hermosa Tours.

By the time February, March, and April roll around, it has been a long winter in many parts of the country. What better way to spring back into the mountain biking season with an early-season trip to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona? With miles upon miles of singletrack ranging from historic routes to purpose-built trails, Sedona is guaranteed to make the memories of those wet, snowy months fade from your mind.

Cost for 5 days: $1,795

Of course this is just a sampling of the multi-day mountain bike trips out there so tell us, what one mountain bike trip would you love to go on this year?

With just a few days left until the Sacred Rides Trail Review contest wraps up we thought we’d sweeten the pot a bit. Although the current leaders have each earned 700+ points, singletracks is giving away free t-shirts to any member who earns at least 50 points by March 31, 2010 and isn’t one of the top 3 finishers. And don’t forget, everyone with at least 1 point gets free stickers (113 members and counting).

Anyone can earn points by adding new trails, reviews, photos, video links, and GPS data. And those points start to add up, particularly when you add new trails to singletracks! Check this out: add just two new trails with a photo, review, and GPS data and you’ve got 50 points. Or add GPS data for just 5 trails. Or find 25 YouTube videos of mountain bike trails and send us the links (the contest leaders seem to have figured this one out quickly).

We’re working hard to moderate all the videos and map data we’ve received so far and we’re stoked to see who will walk away with the free MTB trip for two in BC!

For contest rules and leaderboard, click here.

by Mike Brcic, Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Adventures

Warning: This ride report will make you very jealous.

I ride my bike a lot, all over the world in fact. As the owner of Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Adventures, not only do I get to ride on our existing trips in some of the most spectacular locations on the planet, I also scope out new rides every year in the search of something amazing to add to our roster.

So it takes a lot to impress me. Not that I’m jaded – every minute on my mountain bike is a minute perfectly spent and I’m always grateful to be riding – but when you ride so many amazing trails it takes a lot for one trail to stand out from the bunch.

The Olleros trail in Peru is one of those trails. It’s always an exercise in futility to try and put into words that which can’t possibly be put into words, but I’ll try anyway.

The last time I rode this trail was in late 2007 while we were filming an episode of Ride Guide TV with pro riders Richie Schley and Robbie Bourdon. It was a day that is permanently etched into my memory.

The day started with a wake-up call at the un-vacation-like hour of 6:30am. Riding Olleros is an all-day commitment, so unless you want to be riding in the dark you have to get up early. After a yummy breakfast of eggs and pastries, we loaded up the van, slapped a few good morning high fives with our trusty driver Pablo (“best driver in all of Peru,” our guide Wayo calls him, and I concur), and were soon out of Lima’s traffic and chaos.

The road to Olleros is one of those classic South America highways in the Andes: impossibly narrow, windy, and with a 2,000-foot drop on one side. There was zero traffic on the road up to Olleros; nonetheless I was still nervous. I asked Pablo how many times he had driven this road. “500 times, mas o menos,’ he replied, grinning as he steered our red beast around another hairpin switchback. He was a cool cucumber, that Pablo.

We reached the town of Olleros 3 spectacular hours later. We’d just ascended over 11,000 feet into the Andes and I could taste the difference in the air. Olleros is a tiny village, of just a few hundred souls, surrounded by massive peaks and a whole lot of wilderness. After a hearty traditional Peruvian lunch, we bid Pablo adios, hopped onto our steeds, and began pedaling to the start of the trail. What followed were the most exciting, intense, soul-affirming 3 hours of my life.

To say we rode the Olleros trail would be a misnomer; we surfed, glided, flew over, danced with and made love to the Olleros trail. We engaged in an intimate affair with the Olleros trail. To simply ride the Olleros trail is to do it an egregious disservice. The Olleros trail is one of the most sublime, flowy and beautiful pieces of trail I’ve ever been on; it is a trail ride-turned-religious experience.  Each turn is like a beautiful waltz; each spectacular Andean vista a glorious affirmation of life on planet Earth.

We rode the 28 km of ridge line in under 45 minutes; those 45 minutes could have just as easily been 4 minutes or 4 days – time ceased to have meaning as we descended, seemingly forever. As the ridge line ended, we spilled out in a wide, dry riverbed valley, with a gentle downslope that required no pedaling but which rewarded each pedal stroke with plenty of speed to maximize the fun of the terrain features.

We took our time in the riverbed, marveling at the dazzling scenery and the glory of being on our mountain bikes in a remote valley in the Andes as the sun galloped toward the horizon.  We got back to our van just as the sun disappeared behind the Pacific Ocean, with Pablo grinning his cool grin, a cooler of cold cervezas waiting in the back, and the sound of the surf providing the coda to the most incredible day of riding any of us had ever had.

Want to ride the Olleros trail? Visit sacredrides.com/tours/peru to start planning your epic mountain bike adventure in Peru.

Spring is just around the corner and with Daylight Saving time kicking in over the weekend, we’re ready to hit the trails! Singletracks has teamed up with Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Adventures to offer an incredible 3-day mountain bike trip for two in Fernie, British Columbia to the top trail content contributor from now until the end of this month.

Full contest details can be found here but this is the jist of it: we’ll award points for trail information, reviews, photos, videos, and GPS data submitted through March 31, 2011. Some content (like videos and GPS data) will be moderated before points are awarded; other items like trail info, reviews, and photos will be moderated after the contest period ends. To ensure your content is approved, make sure it’s original (not copied from another website) and it’s helpful to other mountain bikers.

The top point-getter scores the BC bike trip; second place is a Garmin GPS package and third is a $100 gift card from HuckNRoll. Be sure to check in at the contest leaderboard and official forum thread during the contest to get the latest!

Get stoked for mountain biking season and share your expert trail knowledge!

We’re cleaning out our blog queue this month to get ready for summer and we realized we never announced two new features that have been lurking on the site for several months now.

Photo from Sacred Rides’ Awesome Andes Tour.

MTB Tour Reviews: Most of us have never been on a commercial mountain biking tour but if you’re thinking about doing one you’ll want to do your homework. That’s why we added a section where you can find out about the various tours and tour operators, view pics, and even review tours you’ve taken.There are currently 40 MTB tours listed from Asia to North & South America to Europe.

We haven’t had much action on the review side yet (probably since we haven’t promoted the section and only a few dozen riders complete each tour annually) but we hope to get some good tour feedback this summer. Anyone can add tours, pics, and reviews plus you can even create a MTB tour wishlist.

MTB Club Links: Finding local mountain biking clubs can be hit or miss depending on where you live so we recently created a list of MTB clubs around the world. Clubs are organized by state and you’ll find links to the club website and information on which areas the club serves. Anyone can submit a club website for inclusion but all submissions will be moderated to keep the riff-raff out. Dot-org websites are preferred

We’re also still collecting trailhead locations for our Google Map project (we’re at 36% for those keeping track) and we hope to have something up before summer. And don’t forget: singletracks t-shirts are back in stock and are still available for the rock bottom price of $10 each.