California Riding

Looking to do some riding in CA this Xmas. DH/FR and epic XC (not hike a bike though) are all good (a mix would be nice). Any recommendations? Northern/Southern/Mid CA?

Thanx

I would say Downieville/Tahoe, but at that time it will be covered in snow.

Auburn is fun (near Sacramento), a few good DH trails, and some awesome XC, but if you're coming all the way from Canada, I would have to say it is not worth it.

Hopefully others can chime in with some riding that is comparable to the Shore/PNW.

personally, I've always liked Big Sur. Not so much for the riding (although there's tons of good xc) but mostly just for the vibe. And the giant Redwood forests up in Northern Cali are pretty amazing too. Never been a huge fan of Socal but at X-mas time it probably has the best climate. Santa Barbara has lots of riding

Lots of good riding in the Santa Cruz area!!!

Just moved up here from San Jose (30 min from SC) a few months ago and am really missing all the buff/flowy singletrack out there… Just don't go expecting to find shore-like stuff, because I don't think you'll find anything as steep/tech anywhere in Cali. Or most places in the world for that matter..

But the rainy season in the Bay Area usually lasts from… January to February.. sometimes March. haha
I mean, there'll be days of rain here and there in Nov/Dec, but it never gets grey for weeks on end like it does here.

So there's a bit of DH in Santa Cruz, most of which isn't entirely legal but not hard to find (ask any SC riders and they'll point you in the right direction). Then there's Soquel Demonstration forest, which has suuuuper fun all-mountain riding. To a shore rider, it'd seem like xc, but the downhills are so flowy that my 6" enduro is perfect on them, as would be a 5" all-mountain bike. An xc bike can have lots of fun too, as could a DH bike. In fact, I think if I had a DH bike and there were a way to shuttle (there isn't though) the downs would be even more fun! That's how flowy and sweet they are.
There're 3-4 really fun descents that can be close to 2000' vertical, and you can mix and match and loop to your heart's content. I usually do days with about 4500 of climbing/descent in about 20-25 miles.

Also there's great XC down near Monterrey at Fort Ord, which the Sea Otter XC race goes on (but there's wayyy more than that race encompasses). It's great in the "wet season" because the soil (sandy) drains really well.

Anyway, that's definitely one option. I hear there's good riding in San Diego, but lots of land-use battles in SoCal.
Oh and of course there's Santa Barbara. I gather you've heard a bit about the DH there? It's ridiculous! Really rocky and sometimes exposed, and super fun and steep and fast. Have only unicycled it before, never biked, but you see tons of full-on DH rigs out there. And if you shuttle you can get 3000' ft. at a time, over and over.

Just some food for thought!

Almost forgot: more great AM riding at Skeggs, Henry Coe (for more epic xc), etc. etc. All within 30-40 min drive if you stay in San Jose area. or 15 min - 1 hr. from SC

Yeah, you might want to post up on the NorCal forum of MTBR.com and ask if there are any locals to show ya around.

There is some really good riding in the Napa Valley. At the site of the Napa Valley Dirt classic.

Fort Ord is nice, Soquel Demo forest is good.

PM me for more.

I used to live in Sacramento and agree with the Auburn suggestion. It wouldn't be worth driving all the way to CA just to ride Auburn, but if you're heading down the I-5, it's less than an hour off the I-5 once you hit Sacramento. There's really good XC (Salmon Falls, Forest Hill Divide trail), and some DH-ish stuff. There's also pretty good riding in the northern bay area (China Camp). Auburn, Napa, Marin, Santa Cruz, etc., are all within an hour or two of each other, so you could hit all these riding spots pretty easily.

believe it or not, LA or orange county 1 hour south is prime that time of year, pretty warm and sunny just about every day. OC has very steep riding in laguna beach (dozens of trails, technical, as steep as almost anything in whistler/shore) and also has long backcountry riding in the santa ana mountains (trails with ~3500 of descent). to me santa barbera does have 2 fun rocky trails, but not alot that much variety(to the posted recommending SB trails, what trails are steep there?? i'm referring to tunnel, coldsprings, hardly steep). LA also has many longer rides/descents in the san gabrial mountains