13 November 2007
Mountain Biking in Santa Barbara?
I ventured down to Santa Barbara for the weekend on a quest for new mountain bike trails to ride. An hour North of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara has the aire of "Shee-Shee" that many of the rich and famous flock to. But it is also a beautiful area with mountains to climb that give you amazing views.
However, trying to find local single track without a local guide was no easy task. Regardless, I think we did pretty darn well overall. It seems that the San Ynez mountains divide the mountain bike trails into downhill on the seaside and cross-country on the backside. We camped out in the San Ynez Los Padres Park at the Upper Oso campsite, which gives great access to the backside of the mountain range. LOTS of mountains ... high mountains ... It appears that, front or backside, most of the Mt Biking around Santa Barbara consists of LONG climbs up fire roads, followed by either super technical downs, which seem to be ridden by many others, or overgrown and/or fire-burnt single track downs, which tend to get less traffic. But in either case, the views that you get by all that climbing are phenomenal, giving great rewards by getting to overlook this truly picturesque, gorgeous place.
It was a bit rainy on Saturday, so we loitered around town hoping that the sun might come out. On State Street are loads of designer shops, lots of variety in cuisine, and interesting people watching. We ate breakfast, made some bike repairs at the shop, and even did a bit of shopping and acquired some of the hip locally-made clothing. Finally, we meandered through town to the start of the Romero Canyon Trail around 3pm. Despite the spitting rain all day, our late departure turned out to be perfect timing. We climbed up the sea-side of the mountain range for about 7-8 miles, which got us above the clouds and rain, and we watched the sun set over the clouds, mountains, and ocean. It was absolutely stunning. After donning our lights, we started on our way down an unkown singletrack, only to find that this particular section hadnt been ridden or hiked in a LONG time. After hike-a-biking and getting our shins scratched to bits for as long as we could withstand, we turned around and scooted back down the fire road a few miles to a portion of the single track we KNEW was rideable. This turn-around was fortunate, as we got a view of the moon over the sea, which was lit bright red by the sun that was well set below the Pacific horizon (sorry, no camera....). It was a sliver of moon, painted bright red that seemed to float over the horizon. It was gorgeous! The rest of the single track down was rocky and technical. Not steep, but in the dark, navigating the boulders took alot of commitment, which was not on board for me that night. So I ended up pushing my bike downhill for some of it (SO WRONG!) but in the end, had a great, semi-epic ride!
The other rides we went on were on the backside of the Santa Ynez mountains and we could bike to these trails right from our campsite. On this (non-sea) side, you dont get the ocean vistas, but the mountain vistas are just as breathtaking. These rides were on sunny days, which made the extensive climbing even hotter! Luckily we managed to get some shade on one climb, and went late enough in the day that the other climb, to avoid some of the heat. If you come riding here, be prepared for quite a bit of climbing either up winding fireroads or ledgy single track. The out-and-back ride on the Santa Cruz Trail offered a challenging but rideable climb and a really fun downhill (but super ledgy, with some areas that are eroding away pretty quickly). The Portrero-Mathias-Red Rock single track was loads of fun - but at times we were riding through shoulder high grass due to lack of use (so get out there and ride you Santa Barbarans!). We managed to find one river to take a dip in, but most of it was pretty dried out this time of year (mid-November). Next time, we hope to hit the hot springs dotted around the place! Feel free to check out the other photos.
However, trying to find local single track without a local guide was no easy task. Regardless, I think we did pretty darn well overall. It seems that the San Ynez mountains divide the mountain bike trails into downhill on the seaside and cross-country on the backside. We camped out in the San Ynez Los Padres Park at the Upper Oso campsite, which gives great access to the backside of the mountain range. LOTS of mountains ... high mountains ... It appears that, front or backside, most of the Mt Biking around Santa Barbara consists of LONG climbs up fire roads, followed by either super technical downs, which seem to be ridden by many others, or overgrown and/or fire-burnt single track downs, which tend to get less traffic. But in either case, the views that you get by all that climbing are phenomenal, giving great rewards by getting to overlook this truly picturesque, gorgeous place.
It was a bit rainy on Saturday, so we loitered around town hoping that the sun might come out. On State Street are loads of designer shops, lots of variety in cuisine, and interesting people watching. We ate breakfast, made some bike repairs at the shop, and even did a bit of shopping and acquired some of the hip locally-made clothing. Finally, we meandered through town to the start of the Romero Canyon Trail around 3pm. Despite the spitting rain all day, our late departure turned out to be perfect timing. We climbed up the sea-side of the mountain range for about 7-8 miles, which got us above the clouds and rain, and we watched the sun set over the clouds, mountains, and ocean. It was absolutely stunning. After donning our lights, we started on our way down an unkown singletrack, only to find that this particular section hadnt been ridden or hiked in a LONG time. After hike-a-biking and getting our shins scratched to bits for as long as we could withstand, we turned around and scooted back down the fire road a few miles to a portion of the single track we KNEW was rideable. This turn-around was fortunate, as we got a view of the moon over the sea, which was lit bright red by the sun that was well set below the Pacific horizon (sorry, no camera....). It was a sliver of moon, painted bright red that seemed to float over the horizon. It was gorgeous! The rest of the single track down was rocky and technical. Not steep, but in the dark, navigating the boulders took alot of commitment, which was not on board for me that night. So I ended up pushing my bike downhill for some of it (SO WRONG!) but in the end, had a great, semi-epic ride!
The other rides we went on were on the backside of the Santa Ynez mountains and we could bike to these trails right from our campsite. On this (non-sea) side, you dont get the ocean vistas, but the mountain vistas are just as breathtaking. These rides were on sunny days, which made the extensive climbing even hotter! Luckily we managed to get some shade on one climb, and went late enough in the day that the other climb, to avoid some of the heat. If you come riding here, be prepared for quite a bit of climbing either up winding fireroads or ledgy single track. The out-and-back ride on the Santa Cruz Trail offered a challenging but rideable climb and a really fun downhill (but super ledgy, with some areas that are eroding away pretty quickly). The Portrero-Mathias-Red Rock single track was loads of fun - but at times we were riding through shoulder high grass due to lack of use (so get out there and ride you Santa Barbarans!). We managed to find one river to take a dip in, but most of it was pretty dried out this time of year (mid-November). Next time, we hope to hit the hot springs dotted around the place! Feel free to check out the other photos.
Labels: autumn, mountain bike
# posted by Nicole @ 1:44 PM 
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