Month: July 2004

I just got an email and I thought it was an excellent question so I figured I would put it up here to share.

>Mr. Ogre, (I actually prefer just Ogre or Dennis)
> Great site! I love your trails descriptions… I was wondering if you could recommend your favorite summer trails.. I live in downtown sacramento and Salmon Falls, Granite Bay and Auburn are getting waaay too hot to ride this time of year.
> Can you recommend a cooler summer trail, temperature-wise? I don’t mind making a long drive.
> Also, what trails are the best to see some Redwoods?
> Any help is appreciated.
> Thanks!
> – Chris

Chris, you should head towards the coast, look on my website under North Bay or South Bay (East Bay is still pretty warm). Annadel is a great place to ride and has lots of shade. A lot of people really like China Camp, I don’t have a ride report but it’s a fun place to ride if you stick to the singletrack. Skyline Park is also a bit cooler than it is in the Central Valley. Since you want to see some redwoods, consider heading to Skeggs Point (AKA El Corte de Madera/ ECdM) or the Saratoga Gap Trail, or any of the South Bay Rides

In the other direction is the Sierras, Sly Park offers some good riding and there are tons of rides in the Lake Tahoe Area (I don’t have many Tahoe rides on my site but there are plenty out there). One trail in the Sierras that I really enjoy is Elicott’s Crossing, which takes you along the Rubicon River near Georgetown. Another great place to look is MTBSingletrack.com which has lots of Nevada City Area rides. I haven’t been able to explore that area much but it should be cooler than the Auburn Ravine.

Hope that gives you a few summertime options.

— Ogre

A simple trip with the family, we took Liz and Sylvia up to Lyon’s Lake for a short warm up ride before our Washington Vacation. Not many pictures, but it’s a ride report. It’s not that I haven’t been riding, I have been riding a lot, it’s that I’ve been lazy.
On top of this I rode two great new trails in the Sonora area, Pinball and Hammil Canyon to Pinecrest Peak Downhill. I didn’t bring my camera so the links point to pictures which George da trog took (trogs).
Over the next couple of weeks I will be riding the “Iron Horse Trail” in Washington. In case you can’t guess from the name it’s a Rails-to-Trails type trail so it’s not very technical but it does have some cool factors.
In the first place the trail is 110 miles long. I hope to ride 50 miles with the kids but we shall see how that works. There are some railroad trestles, and several tunnels including the Snoqualamie Tunnel which is 2.3 miles long !! That’s 30 minutes plus of underground fun. We are bringing the lights for the bikes.
We are also certain to hit a lot of the touristy type places along the way so expect some of those sort of pictures as well.