San Luis Obispo/ Santa Cruz trails?

[rmb socal]

Need a little help.

I'm up in Nor Cal for the next few days and I need some trails to ride on my downtime. Anyone recommend any good trails in these territories? I don't need any all day epics, just something to spin my legs for 3-4 hrs. Was thinking of hitting Montana de Oro? in SLO. Whats a good one in SC?

Gracias

[g-dub]

MdO is nice, but I had a SLO local show me around, and for a great 1-hour ride, try Rock Garden on Madonna Mountain. It starts right next to the 101, so it can be easily fit into a busy day. The other ride we did, which I understand is also pretty typical and very nice, was to go up Shooters to TV Tower Rd, and down Morning Glory. MG is kinda loose up top, but when you link it up with the sweet singletrack cow trails down into Poly Canyon, it makes for a sweet ride. It does require a few miles of road to link up the two ends of the trail, for a 30 mile total if I recall.

Also, I'm sending a PM.

[ericfoltz]

If you go to Montana de Oro, Ridge Trail has had a major reroute.

Most of the locals are now going up Ridge then down either Barranca or East Boundary. East Boundary seems to have gotten some serious horse traffic this year and is a silty mess if you are going up.

I'm going to be riding in the Santa Cruz area over the next couple of days and plan on hitting Wilder Ranch for sure and either Fort Ord or Forest of the Nisene.

[Jutty]

I was just up in Morro Bay last weekend and hit Madonna twice. Very very fun ride! I will try to get my pics and handle bar cam vids up this week hopefully. You can do it twice in the 3-4 hours

[CalEpic]

I usually do this loop at Montana de Oro. Great scenery, enough climbing to get in a good workout without killing too much time.

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=262

[art23rockpile]

Kurt, you may want to check-out Cabrillo Peaks Loop. Here's a link to the RR I did earlier this year:

RR: Morro Bay weekend 4/12-14

Wherever you end up riding, have a great time!

[rmb socal]

Thanks for the advice everyone, looks like its Montana de Oro or shooters today, any good recommendations for Santa Cruz? Its nice to get some riding in between appointments.

[kanga]

Lots of good stuff in Santa Cruz. I've ridden there twice this year. Soquel Demo Forest is some fantastic riding, but it's a bit out of the way from the city (45 min drive).

In Santa Cruz itself you can ride Wilder State Park and then go exploring from there. Nothing technical inside the park, but some sweet single track nonetheless. http://www.mbosc.org/resources/maps/index.html If you have a GPS I can send you some tracks.

[bigpete61]

I say check out DEMO in Santa Cruz, I live in the bay area (San Jose) and these be my stompping grounds. Wilder Ranch is over-rated. Don't waste your time there, head over to DEMO. To get there from the 17 Exit Summit Rd and head south, summit rd turns into Highland Way, about 4 miles into Highland you will see a bridge on your right with a sign "Demonstration Forest". IFf you want additional ridding head up to the UC campus and ask the locals where to ride.
Enjoy, if you are ridding on the weekend contact me and I will show you around.

[lil__missy]

Originally Posted by rmb socal

Thanks for the advice everyone, looks like its Montana de Oro or shooters today, any good recommendations for Santa Cruz? Its nice to get some riding in between appointments.

I was born & raised in SC and now live in So Cal. Soquel forest is good like the one dude said you can take old san jose road back there. Also Nisene Marks and the college (UCSC) has great trails too.

[VTVic]

Originally Posted by lil__missy

Soquel forest is good like the one dude said you can take old san jose road back there. Also Nisene Marks and the college (UCSC) has great trails too.

What he said, both these areas are awesome.

[Bryguy17]

+1 to ericfoltz for his advice on MDO. the ridge reroute kinda killed a lot of the fun of the trail. up ridge down barranca would be my choice for a good loop.

madonna to rock garden is also really good. it's shorter, but easily loopable so you can do a few laps.

poly canyon to shooters to morning glory is also a great loop. just about 17.5 miles round trip from Cal Poly's campus, and around 2500' climbing. shooters to Pick and Shovel to Dairy Creek is also a great ride, but you probably need a local guide to show you where it is. I think this is where g-dub went, since it ends up dropping you by Cuesta College and the Nat'l Guard base. I think it'd be hard to get 30 miles out of one trip up/down the grade otherwise.

for Santa Cruz, I hear good things about the Soquel Demo Forest. I've never ridden up there though, so

[reflux]

As I'm sure you know, the Ibis guys are near Santa Cruz and ride fairly often. Shoot them a call to see if they're riding DEMO.

[dirtvert]

for something different, although mellow, try big basin state park. it's mostly fireroads, but a great place to cruise through the redwoods.

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by dirtvert

for something different, although mellow, try big basin state park. it's mostly fireroads, but a great place to cruise through the redwoods.

+1 - nothing tech but a scenic ride.

Originally Posted by kanga

In Santa Cruz itself you can ride Wilder State Park and then go exploring from there. Nothing technical inside the park, but some sweet single track nonetheless. http://www.mbosc.org/resources/maps/index.html If you have a GPS I can send you some tracks.

+1 for wilder

Originally Posted by CalEpic

I usually do this loop at Montana de Oro. Great scenery, enough climbing to get in a good workout without killing too much time.

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=262

another +1 some good stuff up there

[g-dub]

Originally Posted by Bryguy17

poly canyon to shooters to morning glory is also a great loop. just about 17.5 miles round trip from Cal Poly's campus, and around 2500' climbing. shooters to Pick and Shovel to Dairy Creek is also a great ride, but you probably need a local guide to show you where it is. I think this is where g-dub went,

We rode out from a bagel shop near Madonna Mtn. and hooked up with Shooters from a canyon north of Poly, and came out Poly Canyon and back into town, so there was a considerable amount of road mileage in that ~30.

[Bryguy17]

Originally Posted by g-dub

We rode out from a bagel shop near Madonna Mtn. and hooked up with Shooters from a canyon north of Poly, and came out Poly Canyon and back into town, so there was a considerable amount of road mileage in that ~30.

depending on where the bagel shop is, that would probably work out to just short of 30. who cares, it's all good riding anyway

you could always do the giro de SLO. up madonna, down rock garden, up poly canyon, up shooters, down morning glory, up shooters, up TV tower, down pick n shovel to what?, up what?, down tv tower to cerro alto, ride cerro alto, down the 41 to morro bay, ride black hill, ride cabrillo peaks, road ride to MDO, ride MDO, and find a way back to SLO from there.

Absolutely epic ride, which pretty much takes you on every good trail in the san luis area. it's a solid 50 miles though, so maybe not a good 3-4 hour ride