Our
first Mountain Bike ride...Arastradero Preserve in the Palo
Alto foothills. This park is suitable for riders of nearly
all abilities, although it's not flat, so it may be mildly
challenging to some. However, it's easy to avoid the
steepest and most-technical parts if you wish, and the main
service road (Corte Madera Trail) is well suited to families.
There are no places to get water in the park, so
please make sure you've got full water bottles before starting!
To get there, take 280 to the Page Mill exit,
head west on Page Mill and turn right on Arastradero. The
parking lot will be about 1/2 mile up the road, on the right-hand
side. Please note the parking lot doesn't open until 8am,
and there are no other convenient places to park nearby.
Click here for the official pdf map of Arastradero Preserve.
For more info on local mountain biking, check
out the ROMP (Responsible Off-road Mountain Pedalers) website at
http://www.romp.org.
This is a wonderful group that has done a great job of
maintaining, and even increasing, trail access on the
Peninsula. Their volunteer work is legendary and they preach
(and practice) peaceful coexistence. We highly recommend you
consider joining!
09/01/03-
SO WHY DOESN'T MIKE RIDE A MOUNTAIN BIKE MORE OFTEN?
The question comes up quite often; seems like all I ever do is road
biking. Well, a couple of reasons for that-
I've got very little time to ride, often just two
days/week, in the mornings before work. With a road bike, you
just ride away from your house, while for mountain biking, you're
going to lose a bunch of quality time on the bike while driving to
wherever you're going to ride (between 15-30 minutes each way).
I almost never crash or otherwise injure myself
on a road bike (at least not for quite a few years); the same cannot
be said for my off-road endeavors!
I can spend 8 hours comfortably on a road bike,
but on a mountain bike, even with all the resources I have at my
disposal (product & fit expertise), I can't ride more than half an
hour before my hands hurt.
Having said all that, I should confess that I
went out on not just a mountain bike ride today, but two
of them... the first one at Skegg's/El Corte Madera with a bunch of
guys from the shop (Todd, Jason, Jarvis, Brian, Scott, Michael & Bruno.. did
I leave anybody out?), and then after I got back home went out again
with the wife & kids to Arastradero.
The high-point of the two rides? That's easy... the rattlesnake
that lay clear across the train on the afternoon run at Arastradero.
I believe it was on the section of Meadowlark between Ohlone and Acorn
trails; I was just riding along, at the front of the group, and came
to a very rapid stop because there was a very fat snake sprawled all
the way across the trail. It was only after stopping, maybe four
feet ahead of it, that I noticed this guy had a very
interesting-looking tail and yes, as it slithered into the bushes,
there was a faint (barely discernible) rattling noise. This was
the real thing, first time I'd seen one outside of a zoo.
Unfortunately, it was gone too quickly for a photo. Dang!
Strange as it may seem, that encounter probably inspired me to want to
ride off-road more often. Go figure.
Chain Reaction sells bicycles & accessories
from Trek, Gary Fisher, BikeFriday,Shimano, Pearl Izumi, Continental, Descente,
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Our
first Mountain Bike ride...Arastradero Preserve in the Palo
Alto foothills. This park is suitable for riders of nearly
all abilities, although it's not flat, so it may be mildly
challenging to some. However, it's easy to avoid the
steepest and most-technical parts if you wish, and the main
service road (Corte Madera Trail) is well suited to families.
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