Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park offers riding opportunities from beginner through advanced routes on a combination of easy fire road climbs and great single track descents. Continue reading
Blog Archives
Aliso and Wood Canyons
Tags: aliso viejo, beginner, fall, fire roads, flowy, half day, intermediate, laguna beach, laguna hills, laguna niguel, loop, ocean views, OCPARKS, orange county, quarter day, rocky, scenic, single tracks, smooth, spring, strong beginner, summer, winter, xc
Cahuilla Hills Figure 8 Loop
If you don’t have all day to ride the Palm Canyon EPIC and are looking for something a little easier than the Art Smith Trail, then this figure eight loop may be just what you need. Intermediate level riders should be able to finish this ride in about four hours.
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Tags: advanced, half day, intermediate, loop, palm springs, rocky, scenic, single tracks, strong intermediate, technical, winter, xc
Caspers Wilderness Park
Caspers Wilderness Park contains 25 miles of possible mountain biking rides ranging from short, relatively flat rides to steep technical inclines and descents. Continue reading
Tags: creek crossings, cross country, fall, fire roads, half day, intermediate, loop, meadows, orange county, remote, rocky, scenic, spring, stream crossings, summer, technical, winter
Chantry to Mt Zion Loop
The Chantry Flats / Mt. Zion / Gabrielino trail loop is not for people who are afraid of heights nor those who don’t enjoy hiking. Continue reading
Chilao / Charlton Area
The Chilao / Charlton area ride consists of easy fire road climbs and single track descents down mostly smooth terrain. It can be done all year round so long as long as there is no snow. Even in the hottest days of summer, the temperatures here are typically 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else.
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Chino Hills State Park
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you.
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Chino Hills: East Side Loop
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you.
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Chino Hills: Green River to Rolling M Ranch via Lower Aliso Canyon
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you.
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Chino Hills: North Ridge and South Ridge
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you. In Chino Hills you’ll find classic California terrain: beautiful rolling hills,
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Chino Hills: Rimcrest Loop
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you.
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Chino Hills: Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners
XEN MTB provides mountain biking tours throughout Chino Hills State Park for riders at all experience and fitness levels. Whether you’re interested in a quick and easy ride up Telegraph Canyon to Four Corners, or a grand tour of the entire park, there’s a ride for you.
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Chiquito Trail via Blue Jay Campground
The Chiquito Trail may seem like a short route down from Blue Jay campground, but don’t let the mileage fool you. And don’t think that just because this a shuttle ride that it’s going to be an easy downhill ride. It’s not! This trail has some of the most Advanced technical features of the entire area.
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Chiquito Trail via the Upper San Juan Loop
This route combines the upper section of the San Juan trail with the Viejo Tie and Chiquito trails. Although only 14 miles, it will feel like double that. This route for Advanced and Expert riders only. Count on 3-4+ hours of riding on 100% single track trails with plenty of rocks and some cliff exposure.
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Crystal Cove State Park
With scenic coastal views and deep canyons, Crystal Cove State Park is a classic California ride. This park is a climber’s delight with some some seriously steep fire roads and offers up a few fun single tracks as well. Combine this with the neighboring areas of Laguna Coast Wilderness,
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Cuyamaca Rancho Singletrack
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park features a blend of singletrack trails and fire roads meandering through deep canyons and panoramic views. Continue reading
Eaton Saddle > Mt Lowe > Sunset Trail
This is a downhill ride requiring a shuttle service to get you to the Eaton Saddle near the top of Mt Wilson. It’s a nice alternative to the Mt Lowe Loop that cuts out most of the climbing of that ride that you would otherwise.
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Laguna Coast Wilderness
Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is part of the Orange County coastal region, seated between Aliso and Wood Canyons to the east, Crystal Cove State Park to the west and Bommer Canyon areas to the north. Per square mile of territory, it features a greater variety of single track trails compared to its neighbors,
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Laguna Meadows to Noble Canyon
This ride begins with a flowy singletrack through meadows and pine trees, includes an EPIC level singletrack through oak trees and sycamores and ends with a desert like terrain with jagged rocks, cactus plants and cliff edges over the canyon floor. Continue reading
Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park features beautiful California grasslands, oaks, and impressive panoramic views of the coast from 2400′ above sea level. It’s also a historical site where you might see signs of native indians that lived here and more recently, the remnants of the M.A.S.H.
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Tags: cross country, fall, fire roads, half day, intermediate, loop, los angeles county, ocean views, scenic, single tracks, spring, state park, summer, winter
Maple Springs
Maple Springs is the Silverado Canyon gateway to the Santa Ana Mountains. Popular destinations from this entry include the Maple Springs to Four Corners out and back ride, Santiago Peak, and for the ultra long distance riders, connections to Harding Truck Trail, Joplin, and Holy Jim.
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Mt Lowe Loop
If you like climbing up steep fire roads and descending on sweet technical single tracks, this is the loop for you. XEN MTB loves this ride! You pay for the fun first with a 2,500′ climb up a fire road. From there nearly all of the rest of the way down is single track.
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Mt Wilson Area
XEN MTB provides guided mountain biking tours all around the Mount Wilson area. There are many mountain bike rides to enjoy in the Mt Wilson area. Some, like the Mount Lowe Loop can be climbed as up and backs and some can be done as loops.
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Tags: advanced, altadena, angeles forest, cliff exposure, cross country, downhill, expert, fire roads, flowy, half day, intermediate, limited cell service, loop, los angeles county, pasadena, poison oak, poodle dog bush, remote, rocky, roots, scenic, shuttle, sierra madre, single tracks, smooth, stream crossings, strong intermediate, tree cover, xc
Noble Canyon
If you’re going all the way to Pine Valley, California you may as well get the most you can out of one day of riding. And that’s why XEN MTB suggests starting Noble Canyon with a gentle ride through the Laguna Meadows. You’ll dodge cow pies on the trail and absorb the beautiful high country views and air.
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Point Mugu State Park
The first three miles of this route are a gentle fire road as we go into Sycamore Canyon. The next couple miles we climb up a single track, somewhat steep at times. At about 5.5 miles, the trail turns into an easy paved road climb for about 1 mile.
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Quail Hill to Bommer Canyon Loop
A great loop comprised of publicly accessible trails meandering through Irvine, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach with sweeping vista views of the ocean and surrounding mountains.
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Tags: cross country, fall, fire roads, half day, intermediate, loop, meadows, ocean views, orange county, scenic, smooth, spring, summer, winter
Redbox to JPL via Gabrielino
San Clemente Singletracks
The San Clemente Single tracks, also known as “The Weed Patch” are official part of the San Onofre State Park system. So many people visit San Onofre for camping and surfing year round that the wait list for camp spots opens up in February for late summer camping and is sold out within an hour.
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San Juan Trail
Whether you ride up San Juan trail or down as a shuttle option, there’s plenty of steady technical riding to be had here. This trail surface is smooth in most parts and extremely fast. The dirt grips amazingly well to your tires,
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San Juan Trail: Up, Around and Down
For most people, this is the traditional San Juan Trail route. You ride up to “cocktail rock”, then around the upper loop in either direction (each way has its advantages and disadvantages), and then come right back down the way you came. Getting to the rock is the easy part to navigate.
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San Juan Upper Loop via Blue Jay Campground
Please note: This is NOT a shuttle-assisted ride. You start at the top, drop down, climb a hill, go down again and then back up what you started at the end. This cuts about half the climbing of starting from the bottom of the San Juan trail and effectively doubles the climbing of the shuttle-assisted option.
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Santa Ana River Trail
This ride will give you a great workout even on the way down and features spectacular views of the San Bernardino Forest. With XEN MTB as your mountain biking tour guide, you’ll know when to push hard up those climbs, when take it easy, and when to let go of the brakes and fly!
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Santiago Oaks
Santiago Oaks Regional Park and adjacent Irvine Regional Park are a couple areas within a broader region of open spaces on the border of residential areas. Passing through both parks is the Santiago Creek which is fed from the nearby Santa Ana mountain range which is typically dry most of the year.
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Tags: anaheim, beginner, creek crossings, cross country, fall, flowy, half day, loop, meadows, OCPARKS, orange, orange county, quarter day, scenic, single tracks, spring, strong beginner, summer, switchbacks, tustin, winter, xc
Santiago Truck Trail
Santiago Truck Trail to the Luge is a Beginner level ride just outside Foothill Ranch that begins with a moderate single/double track climb, and ends with a very narrow, twisty and fun single track to reward your efforts. It is one of the few places that can also be ridden at night.
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Santiago Truck Trail and O’Neill Park Loop
A beautiful ride with great views and the most Oak Trees you’ll likely see in one area of Orange County.
Photos of this route:
http://photos.3fbc.com/Santa_Ana_Mountains/20131129_STT_to_Luge_Plus_ONeill/
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Tags: cross country, fire roads, flowy, half day, intermediate, loop, orange county, scenic, single tracks, spring, switchbacks, winter
Strawberry Peak Loop
A very strenuous and steep climb combined with technical sections and steep cliff edges makes this a rewarding, but very dangerous half-day loop recommended only for those in excellent shape and without a fear of heights. Continue reading
Trabuco to Holy Jim
The Trabuco trail is a narrow, steep and rocky climb with cliff edges in some parts that is challenging even to the most fit riders.
There’s an optional hike-a-bike short cut (West Horsethief) but XEN MTB recommends doing the whole route. Once at the Main Divide,
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Tags: advanced, cleveland national forest, cliff exposure, creek crossings, cross country, fall, flowy, half day, limited cell service, loop, orange county, out and back, poison oak, rancho santa margarita, remote, rocky, scenic, single tracks, spring, stream crossings, switchbacks, technical, trabuco canyon, winter, xc
Turnbull Canyon
Turnbull Canyon is a popular spot both for mountain bikers and hikers between Whittier and Hacienda Heights. Continue reading
Tags: cross country, fall, fire roads, flowy, half day, intermediate, loop, los angeles county, meadows, scenic, single tracks, spring, strong beginner, winter, xc
Whiting Ranch > Santiago Truck > Luge > O’Neill Park
The “grand tour” of the foothills, on this Intermediate level ride covering 20 miles of local terrain, you’ll see everything that the Santiago Truck Trail has to offer, plus Whiting Ranch and O’Neill Regional Parks. There will be plenty of Oak lined trails and if you’re lucky enough to visit here in the winter or spring,
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Whiting Ranch to the Luge
This is a combination of two areas to ride: Whiting Ranch and the Santiago Truck Trail. Individually, both are great and could be done by themselves for a shorter ride. Together, they make up an endurance-testing combination that will leave you exhausted and thrilled at the same time.
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