The Santa Ana River Trail (SART) is one of the most popular singletrack escapes from the heat of the Los Angeles basin. Many begin their SART journey at Loch Leven, Angelus Oaks, or South Fork campground. Push a little further east on Highway 38, however, and you enter a realm of San Bernardino National Forest that sees relatively few people, let alone bicycles. I started my day at the Wildhorse Trailhead off Highway 38, a few miles past South Fork campground, where temps were still in the 50s. My ride began with a couple miles of pavement to warm up. At 2N93, I began the gentle climb up to Wildhorse Meadows. The grade is perfect for a singlespeed. The morning provided views of San Gorgonio in the distance, and after a few miles I could see Sugarloaf looming ahead. I hadn't been on the trail up to Sugarloaf but was planning to check it out later in the day. Wildhorse Meadow is a beautiful gem in the San Bernardino National Forest that awards your climbing with a green sea of ferns, corn lilies, and plenty of wildflowers. Free, yellow-post campsites dot the area and you can make it up the road with a high clearance vehicle. Definitely a place I'd like to come spend a night or two away from the city. I continued on past Wildhorse Meadow and the fireroad picked up speed, affording plentiful views of Bear Valley spread out below. I almost passed my junction, an inconspicuous spur with a small sign for Sugarloaf Mountain. Upon seeing the beginning of the road, I began to think the singlespeed was not the right bike for this trail. Oh well, what's a little hiking? The trail was rideable in a few sections, but most of it was too steep for my 32x20 gearing and the loose surface of scree/babyheads was the icing on the cake. I walked, a lot. This would actually be kinda fun with some easier gears. A couple miles below Sugarloaf Mountain, you hit a junction with the top of the Wildhorse singletrack. I could see the surface only got worse up ahead, but decided to push on a little further and see if it got better closer to the peak. Yeah, it didn't get any better. I made it to the smaller, false summit just before the actual peak, and decided to turn around. I was purely hiking by this point, and knew that my descent wasn't going to be easy with a full rigid bike, so decided to save Sugarloaf for another day. The descent down Wildhorse was very fun. You have about 5 miles of singletrack to reach the trailhead off Highway 38, and it has a very Sierra-esque feel. More than once I felt transported up to Kernville and thought I could've been riding the Cannell Plunge. There's a small group campground called Wildhorse Camp, about half-way down the trail. A bit of a climb out of the campground, then fun singletrack all the way back to the trailhead. Another beautiful day in the San Bernardino National Forest. Stats for the day around 25 miles and 4500' climbing. Click the topo map below for a bigger view of the area.
Best kept secret in big bear. I ride up 2N93 from the bb side to wild horse and come down the sugarloaf trail quite often.
I don't go up Sugarloaf National Recreation Trail to get to Wildhorse Trail I drop in at Horse Meadows...once was enough no real payoff. How is the deadfall above Horse Camp? I have been waiting to climb the trail from the Highway to Horse Camp and back...I don't think it would be that bad. I would be cool if the trail still followed the old topo maps, my understanding is that they rerouted lower section Wildhorse some years back. Dean
Dean, We like to camp at Heart Bar and I have climbed the trail several times from the highway, and it's not bad at all. I've done it on a hardtail and full suspension and was able to ride 99% of it, including the rock fields. Almost as fun going up as coming down. Can't beat the views and the back-country feel, definitely one of my favorites.
Deadfall was not bad at all -- I think there were 1-2 sections where downed trees blocked the trail and I had to get off the bike, otherwise it was passable the whole way. I'd like to check out the trail from a climbing perspective too, but as far as fireroads go 2N93 is one of the more pleasant ones I have come across. I read something about the new lower section, below Horse Camp, being the old pack trail and the original trail running along the creek. While at Horse Camp I looked for remnants of the old trail but didn't see much. Maybe something to check out from the bottom one day...
