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Ride hard and relax….while laughing at Old Man Winter!
The mountain biking in and around Southern California is world class. Intense, Turner, Ellsworth, Crank Brothers, Manitou, Oakley…there’s a reason so many top cycling industry names call SoCal home. Read any major US cycling publication and chances are many of the gear tests and photographic spreads were shot right on the very trails we’ll be riding. Only here can you feel like you’re in the backcountry, but be so close to a major city and the sandy shores of the Pacific Ocean. The best part? The warm weather here allows you to extend your riding season when your area is settling into winter, or start your season early and shake off that winter cabin fever. Heck, we designed this trip so we could do that ourselves!
With these seasons in mind, we’ve picked riding that’s a bit easier physically. We’ve found that our guests enjoy “winding down” at the end of the season, or starting easy to begin their riding season. Either way, we know you’ll enjoy the terrific chaparral-lined trails and moderate temperatures.
After a relaxed arrival day in seaside Santa Monica, we’ll move our base camp to Old Town Pasadena at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. Once we’ve conquered the best of the San Gabes, we’ll move south to Orange County’s network of Santa Ana singletrack. The Laguna Beach area will serve as our beach-front getaway. Nestled right on the Pacific Coast, we’ll start and end each day with ocean front meals, and close out our evenings with stunning Pacific Ocean sunsets.
Our staff will greet you at your gate at Los Angeles International Airport, take charge of your luggage, and shuttle you the short drive north to the seaside community of Santa Monica, where your beach front hotel will be waiting. Santa Monica is the quintessential beach town with plenty to see and do. Situated literally steps from the sand, you are free to explore on your own, while the staff attends to last minute preparations and takes care of guests arriving throughout the day. A miles-long beach path, a vibrant shopping and dining scene, and the world-famous Santa Monica Pier will get your vacation off to a great start. Join a beach volleyball game, grab a beer and watch the surfers do their thing, or rent a board and try your hand in the waves yourself.
While this is not an “official” ride day, we’ll offer the option of a short afternoon ride to stretch the legs from your travels and make sure your bike is completely dialed. We can head south along the beach path and ride to Venice Beach to explore the various vendors and attractions. In the evening, we’ll check in with the entire group at the hotel, to make sure you are comfortable, your bike and gear are tuned and ready to go and all your needs are being met.
After breakfast we’ll shuttle up the Angeles Crest Highway to the Redbox Ranger Station and start your riding tour with a SoCal classic: the Gabrielino Trail….or “The Gab” as the locals call it. The first 5 miles of The Gab are fast and fun with a few rock gardens thrown in. The terrain here begins as dry, pine forest, but quickly turns to the standard mix of chaparral and other coastal foliage. Once we reach Switzer’s Campground area we’ll change gears and ride on a mix of stream crossings and some portaging over dry streambeds of smooth boulders. After a short steep climb, riders will break into open views of the surrounding mountains and ride on narrow, crushed granite singletrack. The riding here is exposed, but a little caution will guide you safely down the trail. Soon we will duck back under tree cover for some of the best riding on the entire trail. The final stretch of The Gab takes through numerous streambed crossings; a short and scenic climb and a final section of stream crossings before cruising gently back to the parking lot where the shuttle van will be waiting. Ride length is about 16 miles.
Today we shuttle back up into the San Gabriel Mountain high country for our ride on the Chilao Flat/Silver Moccasin “Figure 8” Loop. The ride begins with a gentle climb up a fireroad with long views north of the San Gabriel Mountains. We soon turn onto singletrack and short but steep grunt up top the top of Mt. Hillyer. We’ll stop to catch our breath and take in the views from atop one of the many granite boulders in the area. The reward for our climbing begins as we weave between granite boulders down the Mt Hillyer Trail. The technical sections here are all very rideable. “Creative” riders may want to stop and try these sections several times; picking and choosing between the numerous adventurous lines. The fun continues as we swing onto Silver Moccasin Trail which throws a little of everything at us: water bars, bulging granite, pine needle-laden singletrack and a few short climbs. If we’ve made good time throughout the day and the group has its climbing legs on, we have the option to tackle the climb up Brown Mountain which leads to a rollicking, narrow descent down the Ken Burton Trail before heading back to the hotel today. Ride length is between 16 and 23 miles depending on ride choices.
Once back at Westin Old Town, showered and rested, you’ll have the option of a quiet dinner at the hotel, or, heading in to thriving Old Town Pasadena, one of the most eclectic nightlife centers in greater Los Angeles. Gourmet restaurants, live music, and microbreweries abound.
Stretch out your forearms before we start– you’ll need limber braking muscles for all the downhill today. Today riders have the option of shutting to the top or climbing to the top of the mountain before we all meet up and enjoy the descent. We’ll start out by climbing up the remnants of the Mt Lowe Railway, which includes a short pedal through an old railway tunnel at the top. Thaddeus Lowe was an early 1900s visionary who dreamed of bringing nature-minded city residents high into the mountains along a narrow gauge railway, and spent a life’s fortune chasing those dreams. The railway is long gone, but in its tracks remains one of the epic climbs in all of California. Once topped out, the terrain changes quickly to rolling singletrack with some fun technical challenges. We’ll take our time up here and enjoy our final views from the San Gabriel Mountains, which often include vistas all the way to downtown LA and the Pacific Ocean. Smiles intact, we’ll swing off this singletrack and roll over to Inspiration Point for a snack and some more views from the sheltered picnic area. Next up is the Middle Merrill Trail, a winding singletrack descent littered with its fair share of challenging rock gardens and steep chutes. Like our first day, riders will start to notice the terrain and vegetation changing as we lose elevation. After a short traverse on the Sunset Connector doubletrack, we’ll hop on the Sunset Trail and continue our downhill bonanza. The vegetation is slightly denser here due to this trail’s position out of the direct sun. The highlight of the Sunset Trail is its famous switchbacks that will challenge every rider. One more mellow traverse and we’re onto the final descent down El Prieto Trail. Surprisingly lush given its elevation, El Prieto will make you forget you’re in coastal desert terrain. El Prieto’s singletrack is definitely an area classic and a great way to end our tour of the San Gabriel Mountains before heading south to Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains. We’ll transfer to our new accommodations this evening, arriving just in time to enjoy the setting sun touching down over the Pacific surf. Ride length is between 18 and 28 miles depending on ride choices.
After getting into Laguna Beach last night, this morning’s breakfast will be a pleasant ocean side experience. No rush today; we’ll give you plenty of time to loiter at breakfast and maybe walk the beach a little. We’ll roll out mid-morning and shuttle inland to the Santa Ana Mountains in the Cleveland National Forest. Today’s ride will be the most physically demanding, climbing a switchbacking singletrack trail, with the payoff being a long singletrack descent. We’ll start our ride on the Holy Jim Trail; a 6-mile singletrack climb that will change terrain types several times before we top out at Main Divide Road. Easing into the day, the initial grades are more relaxed and include several riverbed crossings. Halfway up, we encounter some picture perfect switchbacks, all rideable if your skills are sharp. Near the top, we’ll roll gradually upward, ducking under tree canopies before hitting the ridge line at Main Divide Road. We have a bit of climbing left as we traverse the crest of the Santa Ana Mountains, but the variety of vistas will keep you engaged. At nearly 5,000 feet elevation, the views stretch west to the Pacific and east to the larger 10,000 foot peaks of SoCal’s ski resorts. The final portion of today’s ride takes us down the Trabuco Trail. This 5 mile descent on mostly singletrack dishes out a mountain biker’s buffet: buff singletrack, twisty singletrack, stream crossings and rock gardens before finally cruising a ½ mile on dirt road back to our shuttle van. Ride length is about 17 miles.
The SoCal Tour ends with a crescendo on the mighty San Juan Trail. The SJT is a 12-mile singletrack climbing 3500 feet into the Santa Ana Mountains. Did someone say climbing? I think not (unless you really want to!). We’ll shuttle you up to Blue Jay Campground so you can spend your last day whizzing through chaparral, past yucca plants, through a few rock gardens and down innumerable switchbacks. We can’t remember anyone not enjoying the San Juan Trail. It’s so fun we’ll shuttle you back up for a second run if there’s time, which is almost always the case, for a total of 24 miles and 7000 feet descending. For the more adventurous, we’ll break off with one of the guides for an alternate route down that will stretch your technical riding skills to the limit. Ride length is 12-24 miles.
After the ride, we’ll head back to our beachfront hideaway to conclude our epic week and toast our guests with a celebratory dinner. Take a few hours to clean up and rest, then we’ll meet up again that evening for our final dinner celebration in Laguna Beach. This is a great time for everyone to reflect on their experiences and tell war stories accumulated from the many great miles of singletrack. Hermosa Tours thank our guests tonight with some goofy awards and some unique gift bags. Cheers!
If you are leaving the next day Hermosa Tours will shuttle you to the airport for your flight home.
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