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hi there,
We’lll travell the west starting september 06th in L.A..
I know there are plenty oportunities to ride some nice trails along the west coast as well as in the above mentioned states.I’m with my wife but she won’t go biking with me. So, i’m limited in time because I have to take care not to keep here alone for too long and risking a divorce.
We have not planed an excat route yet. Roughly it is going to be highway 1, to SFA, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Moab, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, L.A.
Where shall I spend my time biking? Moab is out of question and a must; but where else can I have a good time? Which trails are marked properly and can be found wihout GPS and green beret map reading skills?
Also important: I do not take my bike with me. So at which places are bike shops offering good solid trail bikes for a reasonable price?What I found so far:
Santa Cruz
Kings Beach(Lake Tahoe)
Downieville
Mammoth
Boulder City
whats your opinion?Thank you in advance for helping me with so many questions!
Cheers!
Jörg -
Downieville is a must. There are a few different options you can do besides the normal famous Downieville Downhill. Riding Pauley Creek and Big Boulder instead of the traditional Butcher Ranch start are great alternative. Note that Big Boulder is an IMBA epic trail.
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gar, thanks for the hint!
we just decided to add downieville to the musts.
Are those trails ridable for "normal" skilled riders?
I am not much into big jumps and huge gaps and want to rent a trail bike with approx 12cm travel.what about demo forest santa cruz? what I found about braille trail sounds pretty good.
Some more info anyone?
Starting in Santa Cruz would fit our route perfectly.once more, thanks a lot!
Jörg -
Hi Jorge, there are no gaps or huge jumps at Downieville. It is listed as expert, but I would think it really is more of an intermediate trail. It is just very remote, make sure you bring along enough water. When you go, Yuba Expediations is a great shuttle company. I have used the 2 shuttle services there, and have never had any issue with Yuba Expeditions. They have good vehicles, friendly and very knowledgeable. They rent Santa Cruz Nomads if you want to rent there. For your suspension travel, that is the travel I ride up there, and I’ve noticed most everyone else is riding the same. I even see hard tails, but by the end, they are pretty beat up!
I haven’t ridden Demo Forest, but I hear it is great!
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Hey man,
I just did a road trip through most of these areas last year! You can check out my recap, links to all 26 blog posts that I wrote from the trip, and links to all the trails I rode, here: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-tr … 012-recap/
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When you are traveling from Lake Tahoe to Utah, it might be worth your time to hit Park City on the way through to Moab. Park City has some of the best trails in the west, Mid Mountain is beautiful, and White Pine Touring has some good bikes or try this site, [url:7k7g8bdf]http://mountainbikingparkcity.com/bike-rentals.php[/url:7k7g8bdf]. Just a suggestion and only if you have the time. Another is to hit Fruita, Colorado on your way out of Moab.
Otherwise it looked to me like you have a pretty solid schedule. Also, here is a mapping site of all the trails in Park City, Moab and some areas of Colorado. [url:7k7g8bdf]http://www.skidmap.com/[/url:7k7g8bdf] -
hi gar,
thanks! yuba also rent tallboy 29" whats great because I got used to ride a 29er. I ride a rocky mountain instinct.
one more question: you used the shuttle to get to Pauley Creek or to ride the downhill only?
can’t wait to ride!"gar29" wroteHi Jorge, there are no gaps or huge jumps at Downieville. It is listed as expert, but I would think it really is more of an intermediate trail. It is just very remote, make sure you bring along enough water. When you go, Yuba Expediations is a great shuttle company. I have used the 2 shuttle services there, and have never had any issue with Yuba Expeditions. They have good vehicles, friendly and very knowledgeable. They rent Santa Cruz Nomads if you want to rent there. For your suspension travel, that is the travel I ride up there, and I’ve noticed most everyone else is riding the same. I even see hard tails, but by the end, they are pretty beat up!
I haven’t ridden Demo Forest, but I hear it is great!
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Hi Greg,
thanks for the very detailed information.
perfect for my planing.How did you find all those trails? are they so easy to find and clearly marked?
Here it is often a pain in the a## to find trails without a local who guides you. Almost no signs and if too few or placed badly."mtbgreg1" wroteHey man,
I just did a road trip through most of these areas last year! You can check out my recap, links to all 26 blog posts that I wrote from the trip, and links to all the trails I rode, here: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-tr … 012-recap/
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Hi,
as you wrote, it is pretty solid. thanks for the map anyway. I have to see how my wife thinks about it.
Colorado will carry us too far east. We also want to spend some time in some of the national parks.If it would just be me the route would defenetely look different.
thanks for the map!cheers
"trixxer" wroteWhen you are traveling from Lake Tahoe to Utah, it might be worth your time to hit Park City on the way through to Moab. Park City has some of the best trails in the west, Mid Mountain is beautiful, and White Pine Touring has some good bikes or try this site, [url:21vr3ctf]http://mountainbikingparkcity.com/bike-rentals.php[/url:21vr3ctf]. Just a suggestion and only if you have the time. Another is to hit Fruita, Colorado on your way out of Moab.
Otherwise it looked to me like you have a pretty solid schedule. Also, here is a mapping site of all the trails in Park City, Moab and some areas of Colorado. [url:21vr3ctf]http://www.skidmap.com/[/url:21vr3ctf] -
"Leo_Johnson" wrote
Hi Greg,
thanks for the very detailed information.
perfect for my planing.How did you find all those trails? are they so easy to find and clearly marked?
Here it is often a pain in the a## to find trails without a local who guides you. Almost no signs and if too few or placed badly.[quote="mtbgreg1":3urchsku]Hey man,
I just did a road trip through most of these areas last year! You can check out my recap, links to all 26 blog posts that I wrote from the trip, and links to all the trails I rode, here: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-tr … 012-recap/
[/quote:3urchsku]
Well, now that I’ve done the hard work for you, all of those trails are in the Singletracks database! 😀 You can easily navigate to the trailheads and navigate the trails themselves using our mobile app, and/or our online data. For more information, check out this article: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/single … tb-trails/
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For Pauley Creek, you take the shuttle to the dropoff point for the normal ride, which is the Sunrise Trail. The Sunrise Trail is 1.9 miles of buff singletrack that is a great warmup for the rest of the day. Sunrise Trail takes you to the start point for Butcher Ranch. Instead of taking Butcher Ranch, you turn right and continue on the fire road for about 5 miles (easy climb, not hard) and you will come to Pauley Creek trailhead. Pauley Creek starts off as a jeep road, then you have a short but steep downhill on pavers. After that it turns into sweet single track. I really love the trail!
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Up at Lake Tahoe the Flume Tail is always a great ride. You can start at Spooner Lake and then catch a shuttle back. The views are fantastic.
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If you’re in Las Vegas you should check out some the of Blue Diamond area trails. A little more XC-oriented the Demo forest or Downieville but worth the stop. Cool shop there, and you can ride the trail network right from the parking lot.
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hi,
everythig is fixed now.
I’ll go biking in Santa Cruz, Downieville and Moab.
In case my wife is cool with me biking another day I might check out Vegas or the vicinity of LA. We’ll see…Thanks a lot for your help!
First beer is on meI’ll let you know how things worked out.
cheers
Jörg -
Downieville should be great right now. Been getting a few showers, which really helps with the dust. If you ask the shuttle people, they’ll tell you September/October is the best time to ride the area.
Have a great trip! You will have to tell us what you think when you get done!
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Have a fun time!!
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home sweet home, last Thursday was our last day in the states, now I have to deal with 15°C less and the normal 9 to 5 pain in the a##.
Demo Forrest was great, i ran into some guys from the monterey area, they’ve been so nice to guide me a bit. It was pretty hot up there and I had some problems to cope with the dust and the dry air there.
We did braille first, although I’d liked to do sawpit as well I was running out of time and also pretty beaten up. next time…Downieville was awesome! Yuba had sold the reserved tallboy so I had a brand new SC Heckler, ok but not the jackpot.
I took the shuttle twice that day. First ride was Pauley Creek, 2nd and 1st divide. Second ride was Butcher, 3rd and 1st devide. I got hurt on butcher and it started to rain so i missed big boulder.
It is hard to make out a favorite because all trails there are simply awesome!Moab was also good. I did Kokopelli, whole enchilada and a small part of slickrock.
the yeti sb95 I had there was pretty worn out!
after riding kokopelli the first day I understood why. Moab is also worn out. Lots of bumbs, lots of stones; in comparrison to D’ville the trails are in worse shape. ok, obviously way more frequentedThe whole enchilade is a goody, landscape and the fact of it’s length and descent is simply breathtaking (going up the first 1000feet at 10.000+ elevation as well)
slickrock was lame imo, I need the dirt and mud; SR was like riding on concrete.To keep it simple biking in the States was f##king A!
This was definitely not the last time.Thanks for all the good advice and help; I really appreciate that!
cheers
Jörg -
Glad you enjoyed your trip! Downieville is a blast, isn’t it? Where did you crash on Butcher? There are definitely some spots that can bite you! My challenges are that deep gully at the beginning and the big rock garden not to long after that.
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I crashed somewhere in the middle. Due to the rain some of the rocks were more slippy than I expected.
After that I walked the rock garden.
I envy you guys to have a spot like Downieville in the neighborhood!"gar29" wroteGlad you enjoyed your trip! Downieville is a blast, isn’t it? Where did you crash on Butcher? There are definitely some spots that can bite you! My challenges are that deep gully at the beginning and the big rock garden not to long after that.
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