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any good DH trails in northern CA?

oiswego

oiswego

Monkey
Oct 24, 2005
128
1
New Yawk
specifically around mountain view CA.

i'm used to riding trails like diablo & plattekill here in NY, but i may be moving soon to northern california . i know that downieville is nearby--but 3-4 hours drive is still quite a bit.

can anyone point out any good lift-assisted trails out there?
 
oiswego

oiswego

Monkey
Oct 24, 2005
128
1
New Yawk
i've heard of both, but what i know about northstar is that it's a good 3 hour+ trip to make---not something i'd like to do every weekend (maybe on occasion though).

santa cruz, i wasn't able to find a good lift-assisted park---are there any there you can point me to?
keep in mind, i'm in nyc for now---so the only way i check out trails etc out there right now is by the google.

if it helps, i'm pushing a racelink--so i don't think it would be much fun to have to ride that thing up a hill for a few minutes down one.

thanks for the suggestions so far though---it's a lot easier to search specific places than "lift assisted trails in northern california" which turns up garbage info.
 
gemini2k

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
oiswego said:
i've heard of both, but what i know about northstar is that it's a good 3 hour+ trip to make---not something i'd like to do every weekend (maybe on occasion though).

santa cruz, i wasn't able to find a good lift-assisted park---are there any there you can point me to?
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Get used to it. It's not like the east coast, stuff is spread out in CA. You won't find anything because there aren't any. It doesn't snow in most of CA except in the high mountains, thus no lifts in most areas. Pro tip if you don't wanna drive 3 hours to northstar, get a 6inch bike and go ride the trails in pacifica, they're pretty solid by the looks of it (never ridden those myself, will this summer). Downiville is perfect on a 6inch bike too. I don't think I would've preferred my DH bike there. There aren't that many lift access places in CA, but there is assloads of amazing shuttle/hike/pedal up trails. And trust me, soon a 3 hour drive will seem like nothing :). We do that each way to go to Mt. Baldy and back in a day sometimes. I'd kill to be able to drive 3 hours to Tahoe or Mammoth.
 
Brad23

Brad23

Monkey
Jan 9, 2004
236
0
West Oakland
no lifts till Northstar, but it's worth it. You can shuttle both Santa Cruz and Auburn. Pacifica is great for hiking or pedaling up, some of the best scenery and trails, and the main pedal up can be done slogging a big ring (36 or so)
 
oiswego

oiswego

Monkey
Oct 24, 2005
128
1
New Yawk
damn----i feel for you guys in cali!
all that uphill riding and all.

i do have a 6" bmw already, but i really love my racelink (which is very nearly impossible to pedal for too long, especially since i converted it to single speed).
i'll have to see what happens with this job interview before i start making plans to drive 6 hours every weekend---guess i'm just spoiled with the 40 min drive i can make to diablo.

thanks for the input, all---if you come up with anything else, let me know!
 
djjohnr

djjohnr

Turbo Monkey
Apr 21, 2002
3,052
1,767
Northern California
As others have stated it's 3 hours to get to lift assisted riding. However, there are plenty of spots to ride the big bike, where you can either shuttle, push or pedal. Most spots we can't talk about on the boards, however one very popular destination we can is Pacifica - which is actually much more of an 8" bike spot then a 6" bike spot, especially for riding the upper mountain. Go to Youtube and search for "pacifica crack" and "pacifica mile". Beyond that, once you're here make friends with locals to find out where the other stuff is.
 
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,292
4,648
gurp said:
As others have stated it's 3 hours to get to lift assisted riding. However, there are plenty of spots to ride the big bike, where you can either shuttle, push or pedal. Most spots we can't talk about on the boards, however one very popular destination we can is Pacifica - which is actually much more of an 8" bike spot then a 6" bike spot, especially for riding the upper mountain. Go to Youtube and search for "pacifica crack" and "pacifica mile". Beyond that, once you're here make friends with locals to find out where the other stuff is.
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Spot on.
 
C

Calibomber

Chimp
May 17, 2008
11
0
Sacramento
I rode auburn for the first time yesterday. A shuttle is a must for most those trails. luckily we hitched a ride in some guys work truck as he was on his way up. Nice Guy!! I demolished my xc bike on some of that crap though. super rocky in places. I'll have my downhiller soon though!
 
bdamschen

bdamschen

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2005
3,378
157
Spreckels, CA
kidwoo said:
You had your xc bike think a shuttle is a 'must?'
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Oh man. We stopped at our sister-in-law's dad's house on the way to northstar one time back when auburn was covered in smoke from all the fires. He got stoked at wanted to us ride the confluence with him before we left.

We stop at the top and then he says that the pedal back up the road is no big deal, so I volunteered to ride back up and get the truck with him rather than deal with the whole who drives what car where to shuttle. He was rocking an XC bike. I had a morewood izimu.

I thought I was either going to die from smoke inhalation or from getting run over by a car after I passed out in the middle of the road.

Worst climb I've ever done in my life. :rant:
 
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