Gonna be in San Fran in March, I have a couple of spare days. Anyone got any recommendation on where to ride in and around they vally? Happy to drive further afield. Looking for advanced and challenging trails.

Repack_Rider (Charlie Kelly) to the forum please 😉

There you go

Although not technically difficult it’s worth riding up Mount Tam & also riding the repack trail just to say you’ve done them.

Also China Camp might be worth a look for you.

I was there for a couple of weeks. Sausalito seems to be the start for all things MTB. Have a look for rides heading from Mikes Bikes. Disgracefully I stuck to the road bike as it was far easier just to head over the bridge and find all sorts of good stuff. Rider-friends of the guy I was staying with suggested that the best mtb riding was a good drive away. Be interested to know if that’s wrong as I’m back out in a few months.

Go south if you can. Skeggs is great and Saratoga Gap fun with great views. Soquel Demo Forest if you can get to Highway 9 into Santa Cruz. Jealous…

Hookup with Ceaser’s Cyclery in San Anselmo for bike rental, nice guys. They can provide the permit for riding Tamarcncho, which you can ride to from the shop through Fairfax. Iron Springs road will be a good warm up.
You’ll need to drive to China Camp or the guys in the shop will mark up a map with the good bits on Mt. Tam. Again Eldridge Grade to the top is a lung buster.

Done it twice this year while staying in SF as it’s not far north of the city, 101 across the GG bridge (no tolls at the moment) and get off for Larkspur Landing and west on St. Francis Drake.

Cheers guys, this is great! 🙂

See if you can hire a road bike and ride up and down Mt Diablo.

Will test the legs and lungs but fantastic views.

Takes you up to almost 4,000 ft if that works for you.

I did it from Danville which us a nice enough town.

IMO no one who calls themselves a mountainbiker can visit the city without gorging themselves on the trails and atmosphere of Marin, where, of course, our sport as we know it began.

Just over the bridge into Marin County once you do the road climb up past the famous vista point to the bridge you can drop onto some of the waymarked named bridleways (I think a few of the Marin bikes were named after them or vice versa). You can take them through the valleys all the way across to Sausalito, Mount Tam and Muirwoods beyond. None of it can be classed as mind blowing singletrack and when I did it there were a few signs prohibiting bikes if you did wander off the main bridleways.
There were a few decent climbs up and over the tops and it was all very easily navigable…..I spent a day riding them back in 2008. I hired a mountainbike down near the piers, rode along the river then across the bridge up onto the bridleways. The hire shop gave me a map with most of the way marked bridleways on there. There were a couple of nice spots to stop alongside the waterside as well. I managed to hire an entry level Trek complete with a basket on the front, did the job just fine.

@cynical-al, I take it you’ve been? Good riding not as accessible from SF as you might think. Lots of trail bans on Marin, although riding cheeky doesn’t look problematic. Tbh made me thankful for what I have on hand here in N.Wales. Very happy to be corrected as I’m back out next year.

Go see Chris at Roaring Mouse, they are on the presidio, will give you all the advice you need.

Make sure you cycle over the bridge it is a great experience

Sausalito is great Fairfax is great really enjoyed that part of the West Coast

Been 4 times I think since 1990.

Rode Bolinas Ridge least time (2007).

To comment on how techy the trails are is to miss the point of the place IMO. It’s about soaking up the hippy atmosphere that mtbing came alive in, stopping for pastries at Bolinas bakery or a meal in Fairfax or a lie down on Stinson beach. I would mix a lot of roads in too as they are beautiful thete.

Its about being in that place, not comparing the trails and wondering if your 4″ travel bike would have been better than the 5″ one you brought/hired or whatever bollocks.

As stated above, Soquel Demo Forest is absolutely cracking.

http://www.strava.com/activities/12664687

Apparently they’ve built some new flowy, bermy stuff which looks good too.

Saratoga Gap & Peters Creek is shorter, less technical but with some good views on the ridgeline.

http://www.strava.com/activities/184976477/segments/4331464930

Was out at the start of December, but some of the trails were shut for winter. Hopefully that shouldn’t be a problem come March.

Repack_Rider (Charlie Kelly) to the forum please

Hullo.

There is some great singletrack in Fairfax at the Tamarancho private MTB reserve. $5 gets you a day pass, well worth it. (I have the $50 annual, a permanent tag on my bike.) A nine mile loop has been augmented by the addition of “Endor,” the Flow Trail.

If nine miles isn’t enough, turn around and do the loop in the other direction. It’s totally different!

If you’re up for the climb, you can hit Repack from Tamarancho, about three miles of climbing from the trail called “B-17 Extension.” The B-17 trail is named for the wreckage of a WW II bomber.

By modern DH standards Repack is not technically challenging, but as my mate Mr. Fisher pointed out, it’s not the terrain, it’s the competition to get down it faster than anyone else.

I have hosted a dozen or so UK riders over the past few years, including a few from this site. Say hello, Leon.