Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: Video

The Alpine Trail – Video

Still catching up with the summer festivities. Here is a video from the Alpine Trail out of Oakridge Oregon. The video really does not do it justice. I have not toyed with one of those 360 degree action cameras yet but I think it would have been useful to try and capture some of the views of the huge trees.

One thing is for certain, it is better enjoyed than viewed through a screen. There are plenty of days of riding to had in this area and we barely scratched the surface.

This place is definitely on our return list I think I would like to do a vacation that includes some time here and Bend along with another jaunt out to the Mckenzie River Trail.

The McGill Trail – Video

Flow and Fall time goodness, what is not to like. The McGill trail located on Mt Pinos near Frazier Park well north of LA is pretty cool. Very nice if you and your buddies can shuttle it, but it is doable with a mild 8-mile road climb. You should put this trail on your list if you are going to be in the area.

I also did the the out and back route to the summit of Mt Pinos as well. If you made it that far up the mountain you might as well go all the way. Here is my route on this particular day where I started from the McGill Campground halfway up the mountain .

The Golden Eagle Trail – Video

The Golden Eagle trail is my outer limit for how far I will go on a day trip for a ride. I did this outing as an overnighter that included some other adventures in the general area. There are some autumn color making a showing which is alway nice to see in SoCal. Oh yeah and miles of nice flowy MTB goodness.

https://www.mountainbikebill.com/GoldenEagle.htm

Mills Peak Video

Here is another video from the Lost Sierras visit back in July. The Mills Peak trail. Doing this trail as loop would be a mofo but my lovely wife drove me to the top! This trail rocks with plenty of character and views. From the bottom of the trail it is an easy spin back into Greagle where tasty grub and beer and be had. It is certainly well worth a go!

Mount Hough – Quincy CA

Back in July and August I spent some time in NorCal, Oregon and Washington doing a combination of biking, hiking as well as taking care of some work work. Part of the adventures were in the Lost Sierras area of NorCal.

Mount Hough which is easily accessible from Quincy has some pretty awesome trails. I was able sample a nice little slice of them while there.

Check it Out!

Thunder Pass Video

During my summer vacation/road trip I spent some time in Colorado. I managed to catch up with my brother from another mother Jerry. Jerry took me out to American Lakes and Thunder Pass trail a fair ways out side of Fort Collins. It was a really cool trail that took us up above tree line to the backside border of Rocky Mountain National Park. The trails, the views and the hanging with an old friend made for a really awesome day.

Mountain Elden Playtime

Here is the first video from my August vacation. A bit of playtime on Mount Elden in Flagstaff. August is monsoon season and getting out early was part of the plan. You can see just how quickly things can change during a ride. I managed to get on quite a few new to me trails on this outing with the star of the outing being the Full Sail trail. Hats off to the builders who made this amazing flow trail that ends at the top of the Schultz Creek trail. The Broadside trail which is a dedicated for the climb back up to the top of Full Sail is awesome a great add to the expanding network of trails on the mountain. The advocates and builders out here have been doing a bang up job!

Sugarloaf Trail near Big Bear

Most conversations about the Sugarloaf trail among those adventurous enough to give it a go eventually have a component of is the juice worth the squeeze. You can’t shuttle it and it is a bunch of work to get up to the summit that will include some hike-a-bike. There is good easier riding all over the area so this trail does not see a lot of MTB action.

The nearly continual sounds of clanking and shifting rocks under your tires is a cool experience on this trail.

One of the reasons I like the trail is a its raw nature. It’s not a gnarly big rock chunkfest but something between micro-chunk and a blanket of scree almost always on a grade. Oh yeah, you also at 9,000 plus feet for most of your outing.

On this outing I did the short option of starting at Horseshoe Meadows and doing it as an out-and-back. If you really want to do something cool add the Wildhorse trail into the mix. For an epic adventure leave a vehicle at the bottom of the Mill Creek Road by the Santa Ana River and when you get to the bottom of the Wildhorse trail coast down HWY 38 for three miles and pick up the Santa Ana River Trail and take it back to your vehicle.

BIG BANG!

I thought I had lots a grip of footage from my August 2023 MTB vacation. Turns out I outsmarted myself and found my backup right where I had left it. I will get through most of that footage at some point. While in Flagstaff, I checked out a new to me trail (The trail is a newish legal trail) called Big Bang. I enjoy Flagstaff scene a great deal and this trail most likely is going to into the routine rotation.

The Cowboy Trails

So I have recently pushed out a couple of videos on the Cowboy Trails of Las Vegas. The first one was from the “Vintage” Vault of 2006 and the second one was from a ride from about a month ago. I have ridden the Cowboy trails a handful of times between the recording of these two videos and I had finally gotten through the three main down hills routes off of the ridge. I suppose you could do some laps out here and do more than one downhill in an outing but for me I have usually had my fill after one. There is a lot of MTB per mile out here.

For the downhills:

  • Boneshaker: Oh man this is a fun descent that will test your skills. There are some nice drops and other technical features that will keep you on your toes. This was featured in my vintage video of my first visit here.
  • Bomb Voyage: I consider this the most technically demanding route and has some squirrel moves coupled with some exposure. It feels the scariest.
  • Bob Gnarly: I heard this trail described as “90s Downhill Tech”. For those of you that are not of that vintage I would call it “On the Ground Tech”, It is often tight, twisty and narrow. Not bermy bike-park vanilla flow stuff. I consider this the easiest of the three descents but not easy.
  • Rock Garden: This is not only the list. While you could ride down it, the main traffic it sees is the the equestrian tourism traffic which I find the trails to typically be chewed up and riddled with horse poo.

No matter which route you take if you like rocky desert tech you should have a good time out here. If you need a bike, both the Trek and Giant stores in town typically have rental bike available.

The most recent video features the Bob Gnarly Trail
The vintage video that includes the Kibbles and Bits climb as well as the Boneshaker descent.