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Glory Hole Lower Loops

Over the weekend I had a nearly averted disaster at work, I was upgrading a server I maintain and there was a problem which caused the machine to fail completely. I couldn't even restore from the backup I had made. Eventually IBM came to the rescue and got the system back in order and I was able to restore the backup tape I had made earlier in the day. 22 Hours after I started this upgrade I was at the exact same point I was when I started (shy about 5 hours sleep).

So on Monday I was exhausted and took a short day. I packed up the kids as soon as I got home and headed for Glory Hole.

Glory Hole is one of my favorite 'local' trails, local being within about 45 minutes drive. There are about 20 miles of rideable trails and most of the trails have at least partial shading. The grasses tend to dry out along the trail but there are many of shrubs (manzanita and scrub oak) along the path that stay green for most of the year. For most of the trails you have excellent views of the lake and there is plenty of wildlife in the area.

The lower trails (Frontier Trail, Angels Creek Trail, and Buckbrush Loop) are 100% singletrack, generally smooth with a few technical spots, and some small rolling hills. The Buckbrush Loop is probably the rockiest section at Glory Hole. If you are looking for some climbing the Tower climb is a series of switchbacks up the hillside, I would guess the climb is about 700' vertical, perhaps a little more.

I had my three girls with me (plus wife in car) so I stuck to the lower loops + Frontier. My younger daughters quit after the 4 mile Angels Creek loop, Liz, my oldest, added Buckbrush Loop, and I soloed Frontier and took the Gold Rush trail over to where my wife was waiting with dinner.

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