Montana de Oro

Central Coast Riding

February 18, 2002

Ahhh, the start of the trip. Russ and I start unpacking the car, loading up the camelbaks (mmmm... water..), and start heading off to the trail.

So, I picked up this trail guide, and it said that it's a 6.6 mile loop (2 miles on the road, bleh..), and once we park, head down this fireroad then climb out of the canyon. The climb up the canyon initially isn't too bad. Then we get to this relativitely steep section compared to the rest of the trail. It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for the waterbars. I know the point of them, and I'm glad to see waterbars down a trail that runs parallel to the fall line, but what a pain (in the legs) up. Once we get a nice bench and work tools section, we look down at the trail. Ok, hopefully the worst is over.

It was a beautiful ride through the canyon to the top, even though it was a lot of walking for us. After this point, the riding looks as though it's improving.

Some sections were definitely hike-a-bike with all the loose shale, but overall it was somewhat ridable at this point. When we did make it to the top, we took a long photo break, including the one of me looking out past the bikes (which Russ took without me paying attention :-).

Now, looking down the trail, you can see another view of the Pacific as well as some interesting ways the trail goes.

For the fun part. Downhill! Weeee! At the top, the downhill is a little more technical (more rocks than sand) at the top. However, downhills provide the best photo ops for mountain bike action shots for mere mortals. (I'm still getting the hang of action shots with the digital camera..)

Russ, on the other hand, is much better with the digital camera.. (He's got a black and white of me going downhill that I'll add later..)

Downhills are always too short. I can't wait until summer starts and we can bring out bikes up to the mountains and ride the lifts. Back to our trail, we finished our downhill and then the "gradual" uphill on road back to the car. The worst of the this was the traffic, the best part was some of the
ocean views.