Santiago Oaks Regional Park - Chutes Trail Work Starting

I'm happy with how the new trail rides, but it sure seems like Bellfree uses a bulldozer to do a shovel's job. I'm not the trailbuilding expert, but to the untrained eye that looks like a huge environmental impact. If technically feasible, I'd much rather have 4 miles of 1.5 foot wide trail than this 1 mile of 6 foot wide trail.

Oh, and can we give the trail a name? Is there a name in general use yet? "Chutes B" is on the map, but that's no good. I vote for "Ladders." Would that cause too much confusion with the Fruita fans?

 

I am no trail building expert either but much like goat I think it we ride it like singletrack in a year or so it will be singletrack. I know goat is not the narrowest trail out there but it has thinned out since it was first cut.

 

give it a season or two of growth and it will be a singletrack again

 

I'm speaking more to the amount of earth moved rather than to the eventual width of the tread.

 

And when you run into a horse coming up, what do you do?

 

Spook the horse so that they throw the rider, and pass right through...just like it says in my Junior Freerider Merit Badge handbook.

Actually, you mean what if I run into a horse coming down...I'm the one going up. (Ladders go up, Chutes go down, see how the names would send a soft subliminal message?) And in that case I find a nice spot for a rest and let the horsie go by...I don't need a 6 lane superhighway road cut to make room for that.

I'm more afraid that Ladders will attract the Peters Canyon Sunday crowd of deaf grandmothers that walk 8 across.

 

That's fun. In the absence of any better suggestions I'd vote for "Ladders". It's certainly better than "Ties" that someone might suggest to go with "Zips".

Oh, and I think the benching has to be as wide as they did to account for expected erosion as the new work settles down for the long term. Given the number of times fire fighting bulldozers have rumbled through all that area I doubt if this is any worse than past abuse.

 

Good point. I'll remember that point when someone tells us that building trails is destroying too much valuable habitat. Call it a fire break, and MTB is providing a valuable public service!

 

Has anyone checked out the new Chutes Trail after all this rain? Wondering if the loose powdery dirt has firmed up.

 

We rode it last Sunday. That new trail is awesome, IMO. It's a nice mellow climb and is graded really well. The week of "moisture" really tacked it down and it's seen some traffic now. This is definitely going to be my "go to" trail for getting up to the top of Chutes.

 

I rode it on Sunday and it was in fantastic shape, dirt-wise.

I'm planning to head there again this weekend. I'm new to the park, what's the best route? When I was at the top of Goat it was like looking across a ski-slope, all sorts of runs down that valley behind.

From my research it looks like:

Up the Left side of the Park and over the Dam
Up Two B's
A right "somewhere" to Yucca Ridge
Down Yucca to Bumble Bee (is this Single Track?)
Bumble Bee to Mountain Goat
Up Mountain Goat (fun climb last weekend)
Down Chutes (think I prefer the ridge, at least up top, too many slow switchbacks)
Single Track in river bed below Chutes
Horseshoe Loop around park, single track options where available

Seem good?

Is there a better connector between the B's and Chutes? Or avoid B's altogether, do Mountain Goat from the Damn and back down Whiplash or one of those, then reclimb Goat to Chutes?

 

I haven't ridden santiago oaks in a really long time... make me want to go out there again.

 

No need to climb the B's anymore if you're starting from Albertsons. Go up Ladders (chutes b), and access the rest of the park from the ridgeline. Only reason to climb the B's anymore is to get to Peralta/El Camino from the bottom of the canyon.

 

Was out there Tuesday afternoon......the trails are in excellent condition...new Chutes trail is hard packed and should stay that way for a while, until people start skidding into the switchbacks again....yes I followed a group down 2 weeks ago and they felt the need to lock up rue brakes and skid into ever swithcback...totally unnecessary.

Good news is the greenery is starting to grow back on new Chutes trail off the main line, so it will return to singletrack pretty quickly.

 

Nice, the greenery will make it easier to follow the original Chutes line.

 

I meant in the new line, it will be singletrack instead of the 6' trail that it us now.

 

I still climb the first 2 B's for quick access to Hawk, which is one of the best trails in the park. :bang:

 

That's the way to go if you're doing laps on Hawk for sure, or if you're parking in the park. I've taken to accessing Hawk by coming up Bumblebee from Barham Ridge. Here's the way I do it--

Up "Chutes B"
Up Barham Ridge
Down Deer
Up Anaheim Hills
Down B.R.
Down Cactus Canyon
Up Bumblebee
Down Hawk
Up Goat
Down Chutes

only backtracks for a little bit on Barham Ridge, and hit most of Oaks' highlights. If I'm short on time I cut out Deer or Hawk. If I'm really really short on time I can cut out both...

 

I like this route might have to try this one

 

This looks great for my weekend ride. How much climbing does that work out to be? Are the trails all fairly well marked back there? Have a geoladders I could download?

Thanks man.