Bay Area Overview & Weather
- The Bay Area
- Marin History
- Hot Spots
- Best Months
- Weather -
- Biking Links
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Gatetrails.com is mainly intended to offer directions and basic information for, eventually,
all places of significance were the public can legally ride off-road in the Bay Area.
It ends up being quite a number of trails and fire roads, which might seem like too much information
to somebody coming from outside of town.
To narrow your scope of choices, we say disregard those places that rank below an "8" in the comment
section.
Beyond that, here I will give a general overview of the area and mountain biking scene.
What is the "Bay Area"?
This is, admittedly, a rather unspecific term; but few bays have quite the size,
economic influence, or relevance to world geopolitics as this one: for here you find the
convergence of all the varied Pacific cultures.
Here the "Bay Area" is defined loosely as the counties in direct contact with the San Francisco Bay,
along the North-Central Pacific coast of California. This would include San Francisco County; and Marin County
just to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge where mountain biking as we know it began.
Further north along the bay are Sonoma and Napa Counties, which often are collectively referred to
as the "Wine Country," where vinyards crowd the fertile valleys and the surrounding ridges offer excellent riding.
On the arid inland side, where oaks dot the rolling hillsides beyond the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, the
area known as the "East Bay" consists of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties.
Rounding the southern tip of the bay are Santa Clara and San Mateo County, where the Santa
Cruz Range rises to the west, above San Jose and Stanford, and a system of trails follows the ridgeline
that overlooks the San Andreas fault.
This is the San Francisco Peninsula, jutting northward between the Pacific and the bay.
I have also included some of the better known rides in Santa Cruz and Monterey County to the south,
and Lake county to the north, which would be outside the Bay Area, but not by much,
and are still easily accessible for a day ride.
Marin County and Mountain Biking History
If you are from outside the bay area, and are as enthusiastic about mountain biking as we,
then perhaps you might be thinking of coming here to see where it all began.
The area you are thinking of is in Marin County, around San Anselmo and Fairfax, where Sir Francis Drake
Boulevard and Red Hill Boulevard meet. Many of the legal loops here are described in the
Mount Tamalpais
and Pine Mountain pages.
Of course, Marin County today is almost better known for closing off trails and political conflicts between
trail users, but still, there are so many places to ride here that it is the only county in the
Bay Area that I've divided into separate sections, and six different sections no less.
So be warned: almost all of the technical trails here are off-limits to bikes.
And these historical areas aren't necessarily the nicest
ones in the Bay Area, or really, even Marin County.
Certainly there are more scenic areas along the Pacific in the Marin Headlands,
or S.P. Taylor Park near Point Reyes.
Although the newly opened Big Rock Trail is somewhat out of the way,
I consider that to be one of the truly great rides in all of the Bay Area.
These are just some other places off the beaten path that you might want to consider,
and you might like them even better than Mount Tam or the watershed area.
Bay Area Biking Hot Spots
First off, if you are the kind of person who writes stuff on mtbREVIEW like
"this trail is PHAT if you dont know where it is you suk stay off the trail moron 50 mph minimum!!"
then just be aware that it was because of the vague and innacurate information you provided that
I started this web page to begin with--
and you probably already know that you and we are not on the same vibe.
So stick to places like Skegg's Point,
Soquel Demonstration Forest,
Annadel, Camp Tamarancho,
China Camp, Boggs Mountain,
or Rockville Park
and your little ritalin-starved brains should be okay.
If you are out of shape you might also like Saratoga Gap and possibly
Joaquin Miller, although if they
closed that last one down I don't think I would loose too much sleep.
Similar places that will be written up when we get around to riding them are Skyline in Napa,
and Water Dog Lake where 92 heads east from 280.
These are the areas of legal and technical singletrack.
So, is there one location in the Bay Area that truly stands out above the rest? Absolutely.
Is it Marin? Nope. Okay, then is it Santa Cruz? Uh uh.
The place is Henry Coe State Park,
which offers hard, world class riding for any kind of riding style,
where any loop you can put together ranges from pretty advanced to impossibly insane.
But the unspoiled quality of nature and abundant animal life offers an almost prehistoric feeling.
The park lies to the south, just east of Morgan Hill, which are the headquarters for the Specialized corporation
and no doubt their brand names and bike designs were inspired to some degree by rides throughout its many trails.
It covers an area of the northern coastal range roughly four times the acreage of San Francisco,
over ridge after ridge so impenetrable that we are probably never going to see all of it.
Loops listed on the Henry Coe page just begin to scratch the surface.
If you come here from out of town to go biking, and you are in good shape, you don't have to
go to Henry Coe, but you should at least briefly consider the possibility, particularly in the spring or fall.
By pretty much any measurement, for whatever you are looking for in mountain biking, Henry Coe prevails
against all other rides in the area.
Otherwise, each area has places that stand out as being enjoyable, scenic, aerobically challenging, and
requiring technical skill.
Big Rock Ridge
is the next highest peak in Marin County after Mount Tam, but the fire road
up is one of the hardest climbs around. Still, it is interesting, and scenic, and past the radio towers it
ends with a 1200 foot descent on enjoyable and pleasant singletrack.
In Napa County, Oat Hill Mine Road, is a fairly short
but classic ride in the area. It is still quite a challenging and technical ride with volcanic geology at the summit
almost reminiscent of the Colorado Plateau. The ride that stands out the most in the East Bay is a
Mount Diablo Loop, beginning in Mitchell Canyon, rising through Deer Park and Juniper Camp to the peak, and
at Devil's Elbow returning down the North Peak trail, Prospectors Gap, and Meridian Ridge to the start.
Among Midpeninsula rides, Sierra Azul is the hardest, not necessarily the best, but it does offer
a screaming fireroad descent from the summit down to Lexington Dam.
Also, epic rides atop the Santa Cruz rage can be had by combining trails through
multiple preserves around skyline
highway, where there is a good amount of mildly technical singletrack to be had.
These are some of the harder loops in the area. If you are looking for something a little easier,
but still want a fine, enjoyable ride, and I can't say I blame you if you come from faraway places,
then Angel Island and the
Sea-to-Sky Trail in Big Basin are the two
best date rides in the area, or Golden Gate Park
if you look around a little for the singletrack.
Point Reyes National Seashore offers several short out-and-back routes that
are very pretty and aren't too bad. Russian Ridge,
at the center of the Peninsula, also has awesome and fairly manageable loops,
and if you just ride the upper portion of Grant Ranch in the spring, a more scenic loop without a lot of climbing
would certainly be hard to find.
If you are looking for fire roads and maybe some singletrack that take you out into nature for a 10-20 mile escape,
then you're in luck, for the Bay Area has tons of these, as you can see by browsing
through the reviews. Just take your pick and it's all good.
Ten best months to visit the Bay Area for biking
1. April: wildflowers, green hillsides, lovely weather, and packed dry trails.
2. March: this is when the deciduous oak leaves unfurl, and you'll never see a richer green.
3. May: Most elements of spring can stll be found, but it's a just a little warmer and drier.
4. January: Swollen Creeks through wet coastal forests have their own unique beauty. We've had lots of good rides in Januaries past.
5. November: Rain isn't too freqent, yet, and dusty shades of Autumn colors can be found across the hillsides.
6. October: Pleasant riding, starting to cool off from summer, and Autumn is generally my favorite season.
7. February: On warmer weekends you can almost sense spring in the air
8. June: Summer is definately on its way, but still some remnants of spring.
9. September: Loose and bleak from summer, but starting to cool down.
10. December: Fine when it is not raining, but don't bet on it. Short dark days.
Note: August and July are #11 and #12 respectively, mostly because of the dead landscape, loose trails, and hot weather.
Stay by the coast if you come here then, which remains fairly cool with Pacific breezes, and AM or PM fog.
The East Bay sizzles, maybe not by Arizona standards, but you easily get used to the perfect weather here.
Weather Reports
"Maybe I should have listened to the 'please walk your bike' sign
at the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge... and the warnings from several riders coming back.
I had planned to go riding into the Headlands,
but once I hit the bike lane toward Marin I feared the eastward gusts would knock me into to the traffic.
Going around the first tower I got off, and hunching over had to push as hard as I could into the wind.
Walking around to the other side the wind blew my rear wheel airborne and would have gone
into the traffic had I not held the handlebars tight. The western face of the tower, standing directly
exposed to the tempest, quietly diverted the wind to
each side. After briefly pausing in the safety I tried to pass again. Same thing, and
I was afraid my helmet would be blown off my head.
At that point I decided to bag it and headed back." (b. April 14, 2002)
Weather Channel:
San Francisco -
Oakland -
Napa -
Palo Alto -
Santa Cruz -
Moab
Weather Underground:
San Francisco -
Oakland -
Napa -
Palo Alto -
Santa Cruz -
Moab
Weather around San Francisco is tricky business, given the wide
variety of microclimates in a very small area. The inlet to the Bay acts as a wind funnel,
so it gets particularly breezy around the Bridge
and over ridgetops in the Headlands. Except in the middle of summer, I usually regret it if I don't dress
warm and even then it's a judement call.
Clouds burn off early in Marin leaving hot and sunny weather so I always put on sunscreen at home even
if it's foggy in the city-- particularly going to the Headlands where there isn't any shade-- and bring a pack
to pull off excess layering.
Elsewhere the Bay Area tends to be warm, calm and sunny, except along the Pacific Coast where fog
often lasts late in the day.
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General Biking Links
The Android Nurse has been biking around these parts for awhile,
way back in the ol' days when you had to get trail information from bird watchers!
But he has some biking advice for beginners which I found succinct, specific, and right on the money.
Also are posted some high-protein recipes, marshmallow bunnies, and road bike routes coming soon.
We have been getting a number of junk emails lately (as of June '04)
saying this page has been included in various search engines, which I normally delete without a second thought.
I was nearly about to do the same for this one, on
realsportsnetwork.com,
but I took a look and found a number of mountain biking sites with some interesting and useful trail information,
mainly throughout the United States and England.
Well, dang, where has this link been all my mountain biking web page career?
It's the Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang,
and will help you to describe your crashes and other biking adversities in much more colorful detail!
Living in the Richmond district, foghorns can offer further useful information
about the weather around the Golden Gate Bridge.
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