My Fiance is trying to get into Mountain Biking and wants to start with some mellow ridding. I'm looking for some good not-paved trails however flat and along the water if possible to ride on? Name a few... Just trying to get her used to the bike while enjoying the area..
T.I.A.
Is Aptos close enough? You could take her up Nisene Marks until she's not having fun, then just point towards the ocean and cruise back. And there's some mellow s/t at the bottom.
When she gets some basic skills might enjoy one of Krista's (San Jose Mountain Biking) rides at Delaveaga.
If he takes her to Prewitt they are never getting married....EVER!
One option is the Old Coast Road, start at Bixby Bridge and pedal south, it has a few views and some redwoods...it is open to cars though. Previously mentioned Andrew Molera works too.
I'm camping down there later this summer, wife gave me a day to go and play on the bike. I was hoping to do Skyline to Sea but apparently most of it is off limits :nono: :madmax:
anyway I'll be watching this thread. Delaveaga? I've been discgolfing there, didn't know you could ride it though.
DOH! I'll be in Big Basin, not Big Sur... idiot...
The vast majority of trails in the Big Sur area are in the Ventana Wilderness and off limits to bikes. They are also too much for a beginner. Maybe the Santa Cruz folks have something interesting over there, no The Demo doesn't count, but there are no decent beginner trails in the South SF Bay except maybe Hunting Hallow in Coe State Park out of Gilroy.
I can't think of any around Monterey / Carmel either unless there are some trails in Fort Ord well to the north of Highway 68. I haven't rode that area. If she is a little athletic and wouldn't mind some climbing on a dirt road then Trail 41 there is a fun flow trail that has only a few challenges. She should learn early that hiking a bike is an honorable form of exercise and access to good riding.
I took my wife to Moab to learn to ride. We only had the Slick Rock Trail to practice on then but there are absolutely incredible beginner / intermediate rides there with amazing scenery. Teach her there and she'll get hooked.
Excluding riding around in camp grounds and a couple spots mentioned above big sur is not ideal for a beginner rider. More north of big sur are good beginner spots..
1) paved bike trail Monterey to pacific grove along coast...40 min north of big sur
2) Nicene Marks park fire road and easy single track along bottom...90 minute north big sur, aptos
3) Wilder Ranch easy single track along coast + fire roads etc ...90 min north big sur, in sant Cruz ...
Waddell Creek up to Berry Creek Falls trail is one of the better beginner rides in the SC area. It's beautiful back there as well. Big Sur is not beginner friendly I would not recommend riding there to anyone your trying to lure into MTB.
Andrew Molera is pretty much your only option down there. If she is truly beginner she might enjoy just tooling around on some of the flatter trails. It's a beautiful spot.
Are you introducing her to mountain biking or cycling in general? If the goal is mountain biking and she know how to ride a bike then take her to dirt single track trails.
I taught an 11 year old girl from Moscow how to mountain bike last summer. The summer before she biked for about 2 hours on the beginner Moab Brand Trails so she had a clue but had never been on a bike before and she is NOT a brave athletic girl.
We did one paved trail, the Los Gatos Creek Trail near San Jose, so she could work on shifting and then moved up to the Long Ridge Trail and the Peters Creek Trail switchbacks. She loved the downhill single track enough to tolerate hiking the bike back up. A few weeks later she was on the Downieville Downhill. Search Polina Downieville Downhill on YouTube for the memorable ride.
My wife was in her 20's and the first time on a bike on the forest roads in WA. She hated it. Sometime later I brought her to single track (Victor Falls) and now she mountain bikes advanced trails as an intermediate all over the SW U.S. She even fearlessly biked the Portal Trail on a cliff 400 feet above the Colorado River during a sand storm and wants to go back.
Introduce her to mountain biking. Trail 41 in Fort Ord is where I would take her. Downieville by fall.
Cool. Sounds like Andrew Molera will do. She's not necessarily trying to Mountain Bike this weekend, we're just spending the weekend there and she wants to ride her bike. She's more into the views than anything else. Hopefully this will give her a good intro into the biking scene and get her to ride more.
As long as the trails are more flat than anything else, she'll be ok. I wasn't able to find info on their website about bike trail though, do you guys have any info?
Views are amazing...check out the map here Beach, Headlands Trails Map
You can ride the bluff trail, creamery meadow and river trails, but not the panorama trail i believe...good flat ride with views
After I like to go to the big sur river inn and have a beer and grub out on the patio outside...the big sur river is right there and they have chairs in the river where you can sit and soak your feet...good times
Forgot to add...if you are the adventurous free-spirit type I highly recommend the night bathing in the esalen institute hot springs...right on the cliffs...$25/person opens from 1-3am...truly a magical norcal experience...
^^ Good call! I'm not sure if the statute of limitations has passed on this, so I'll just say that I may have poached the tubs during regular hours while going to Cal Poly. It's an incredible spot.
Across the street, literally across the highway, from Easlan, there is a gate, and a foot path leading up some stairs. Up those stairs is the spring. Ever notice the massive pipe that runs from there? My guess is that is the feed line for the tubs down below.
anyway, there's a tub up there as well.
Sykes on the other hand.. That's a mission-and-a-half.
10.5 miles in, 10.5 miles out. 100% bad ass.
minus the thrasher d-bags that destroy the place constantly.
I noticed you mentioned you'll be in Big Basin, not in Big Sur.
Big Basin has plenty of riding, but all of it is on fireroads. An out and back to Chalk Mountain from park head quarter is a nice ride. None of it is technical, but there are a few short steep sections. The only section of Skyline-to the-sea trail you're allowed to bike on is between Hwy1 and just before Berry Creek Falls. You need to hike the last 0.6 miles to see the falls, but they are worth it. You have to drive all the way around to get to the trail head from HQ.
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