One of my favorite trail rides in Marin, Camp Tamarancho has a sweet network of trails on land owned by the Boy Scouts. It has an incredible variety of terrain for a relatively short loop. It is classic technical singletrack, not much in the way of jumps or other man-made stuff but super fun. I was out there Saturday on a solo ride, so I decided to bring my camera and play around with it. (I am a total novice photog, so give me a break eh?)
Local mtb/trail organizations worked closely with the Boy Scouts to develop this network with the intent that, unlike much of Marin, bikes would be allowed on the tight singletrack. In a land where bikes are usually kept off the singletrack, the irony of this sign is not lost:
The network is basically a large loop with a few different ways to connect in and out. The route most people do starts with a road climb out of Fairfax, then you hit the Alchemist trailhead and continue climbing through a series of tight switchbacks until you reach the main loop. Once there you can go in either direction. On saturday I had plenty of time so I did the loop one way, then turned around and did it the other way before heading back down Alchemist and back to Fairfax. When we do this as a night ride, we go about 3/4 of the way around before heading up to some clandestine singletrack that eventually dumps out at the bottom of the Repack trail.
Heading up, just off the road:
After climbing/rolling under tree cover for a while the trail opens onto an exposed area. It's usually pretty hot and dry out there - although it's only May, the grass that was bright green a month ago is already brown:
After that you shoot down a fun, loose descent back into the canyon, then climb back out. At this point the trail gets a bit rocky:
Next, the trail turns back to hardpack and climbs up the flanks of White's Hill. If today was your lucky day, I would have climbed up to the top of White's Hill and taken some pictures of the great views up there. Today is not your lucky day, so you get this view instead:
After White's, the loop turns into buff wooded singetrack, punctuated by lots of steep switchbacks and overhanging trees, together with a gorgeous section in and out of some fern-lined redwoods. Then there is another climb (more switchbacks) before you get a super tasty descent back down to the road. It is very tight and super fun to rail this stuff, many great opportunities to drift and practice turns. Here is just one of the switchbacks on one of the descents:
And lastly, a couple of shots heading towards the redwoods:
Local mtb/trail organizations worked closely with the Boy Scouts to develop this network with the intent that, unlike much of Marin, bikes would be allowed on the tight singletrack. In a land where bikes are usually kept off the singletrack, the irony of this sign is not lost:
The network is basically a large loop with a few different ways to connect in and out. The route most people do starts with a road climb out of Fairfax, then you hit the Alchemist trailhead and continue climbing through a series of tight switchbacks until you reach the main loop. Once there you can go in either direction. On saturday I had plenty of time so I did the loop one way, then turned around and did it the other way before heading back down Alchemist and back to Fairfax. When we do this as a night ride, we go about 3/4 of the way around before heading up to some clandestine singletrack that eventually dumps out at the bottom of the Repack trail.
Heading up, just off the road:
After climbing/rolling under tree cover for a while the trail opens onto an exposed area. It's usually pretty hot and dry out there - although it's only May, the grass that was bright green a month ago is already brown:
After that you shoot down a fun, loose descent back into the canyon, then climb back out. At this point the trail gets a bit rocky:
Next, the trail turns back to hardpack and climbs up the flanks of White's Hill. If today was your lucky day, I would have climbed up to the top of White's Hill and taken some pictures of the great views up there. Today is not your lucky day, so you get this view instead:
After White's, the loop turns into buff wooded singetrack, punctuated by lots of steep switchbacks and overhanging trees, together with a gorgeous section in and out of some fern-lined redwoods. Then there is another climb (more switchbacks) before you get a super tasty descent back down to the road. It is very tight and super fun to rail this stuff, many great opportunities to drift and practice turns. Here is just one of the switchbacks on one of the descents:
And lastly, a couple of shots heading towards the redwoods:
