Anybody has some suggestions for some good rides in the mountains above UCSB? It looks like there has to be some good trails in the area. There seems to be a long fire road a top the ridge, and I'm assuming there must be some good single track descents into the canyons...
Maybe Buckhorn Trail. It's an IMBA Epic Trail. Don't know anything about it. Just saw it in another thread. http://www.imba.com/epics/buckhorn-trail
The Romero Road climb and single track descent is classic SB front country riding. There are several options for descents from the top of Romero.
Tunnel and Cold Springs are up that a way, and San Jeseta or sumthing like that! You going to school at UCSB?
Go, Gauchos! You may want to PM Chewyeti; I remember that he posted a pretty good RR a couple of years ago. There's plenty of good riding up there.
I will second the Romero Trail. Depending on how long you have, you can either climb up 1/2 way and come down a singletrack back to where you started. Or, you can climb all the way to the top, go to the right and hike a bike up a hill, then come down a singletrack that will meet up with the lower singletrack. The lower singletrack crosses a stream a couple of times and gets pretty chunky and techy in several spots. The upper singletrack is pretty loose with some good exposure in a few areas. The lower singletrack is definitely more fun.
Cold Springs can be reached from the top of Romero. Tunnel leads down into Jesusita. One way to learn more about our local trails, and meet other riders, are trail work days with the Santa Barbara Mountain Trail Volunteers (www.sbmtv.org). We are doing a trail work event this Saturday on the Cold Springs trail. See the announcement on the sbmtv.org website. I'll be there.
I'd do the Tunnel Trail down to Jesusita ride first. Great trail but I highly recommend some suspension. A few guys have ridden it ridgid and ss but you'll have tons more fun on a squishy. Then if you still got time you could shuttle Cold Springs, it's a very fast descent so you might beat the shuttle vehicle back.
Thanks to all of you for your responses. My son is a freshman at UCSB. I figure that I will visit the area often, and I love exploring new trails ...
Thier are bell boxes get one, too many weekend warriors to crash into at least give em a heads up. Congrats on inspiring your kid into college.
If you want something that's fun and not stupidly epic, try going up the Little Pine Mountain fire road and then descending Camuesa Connector trail. The climb is all fire road and the descent is all really sweet single track. There is a short road ride to get back to the car. It's something like 10 miles. Give or take. If you do want something stupidly epic, you can take the Little Pine Mountain fire road all the way to the top (I think it's a 9 mile climb??) and go down the Santa Cruz trail. There are a couple of intersections on the upper portion of the fire road, though. So make sure you look at a ride description before attempting this one. Imo..the Camuesa Connector descent is more fun than the Santa Cruz trail descent. But I guess if you want a big ol' workout, you gotta go to the top....
I agree stay west, Romero is too far east from Isla Vista, Romero is right above Carp, Summerland. Happy view trails above the So Cal Bight.
I'll be looking to do more riding in SB, too. My son is a freshman at UCSB as well. Tunnel/ Jesusita. You'll have much more fun on a big bike. Camuesa connector is pretty short but good if you don't have much time.
