Gooseberry Mesa & Little Creek

While imagery of Moab pops into mind when talking about Utah bike trails, Gooseberry Mesa is another amazing gem in the Utah mountain biking world. The surrounding area, near St. George in southwestern Utah, is filled with singletrack and slickrock trails. With Zion National Park as the backdrop, high quality trails weave along the mesa cliffs of both Gooseberry Mesa or Little Creek Mesa at about 5,000 feet above sea level.

Much of the riding is technical and challenging - more so on Gooseberry - but, there are several different loop options for all levels of riding. From 20+ mile loops to short slickrock practice loops, most riders will find something they love. Also, the nearby JEM Trail, which starts below Gooseberry and drops down to the town of Hurricane, can be shuttled or ridden as an out and back.



In the above picture, Gooseberry Mesa is on the left, Little Creek in the rear right, and the top of JEM trail in the lower right.

For GPS users, here's a GPX File (right click to save) that includes Gooseberry Mesa Trails, a shorter 10 mile version of Little Creek, and the beggining of JEM Trail. For more information and guided tours, check out Rim Tours.

Freeridin' Black Rock Trails in Falls City

Awhile ago, we wrote about the IMBA article on the legally sanctioned Black Rock Trails. Sooo, we decided to go up and check it out for ourselves! This is what we found:



This place rocks! Trails like Ganny's Kitchen are almost unbelievable in terms of flow and air time. Being from California (where rides with stunts are quite limited), it just seemed like it couldn't actually be an "open" trail. Throughout the 1200 feet of vertical drop, the amount of high-quality stunts, jumps, gaps, drops, and skinnies was amazing. The park also included a 'practice/skills area' with an excellent variety of features for every level of rider.



The weather was great in July, cool enough to self-shuttle/climb a few laps on the smooth low-dust trails. Black Rock bike park is a 'must hit' destination on the freeride route north. (Just a couple hours north is Post Canyon, on the way to Whistler!) Sept 15-16 2007 is the first annual Black Rock Bike Fest, which includes shuttles and camping.

Download the GPX file of our rides here.

Logistics:
Falls City is in northern Oregon west of Salem. The only bummer about the area is the lack of accessible public land and camping. Luckily, we ended up finding private land to camp on. If interested call Dawn or Bruce, 503-787-1010, for reservations for tent camping and RV parking. They are super nice people with a great chunk of property only minutes from the riding area.
Another place to stay is the newly opened Black Rock Inn with 3 units.

XC Ride in the Southern Sierras

The Kern Canyon Trail is a preeminent cross country bike ride in the Southern Sierras. Its located in the trail epicenter of Kern River Valley, close to Lake Isabella and about 15 minutes south of Kernville.

This scenic trail is fast, flowy, smooth, fun......and certainly gets the heart pounding. With plenty of mountain views and an occasional glimpses of the river, you'll pass some small creeks, meadows and oak groves along the way.

The ride is great all year long, but can be very hot in the summer. It is simply amazing in the spring, as the wildflowers are in bloom and everything is green.

Although there's several variations of the ride, the most popular version starts from Keyesville and roughly contours the rolling oak-covered mountains above the lower Kern River to Delonegha Bridge.

GPX file of our ride here.

The ride begins starts on a section of the Keyesville Classic cross country race course and then contours the mountains and scenic look-outs for the next 21 miles. Most of the ride is smooth singletrack with lots of ups and downs, and ends with a great rolling descent. If you shuttle (the popular option) you'll climb 2800 feet up and drop 3400. Have fun!