Ride Report: Bootleg Canyon XC Trails

Just some of the XC trails at Bootleg.

Las Vegas has some of the best winter riding in the country. Whether you like road or dirt, Vegas has it all.

On the west side of town, you have Red Rocks and the sweet singletrack of the Cottonwood Trails and on the east side of town you have Boulder City and the world famous trails of Bootleg Canyon.

While bootleg is primarily known for its downhill trails, It also has a good selection of XC trails including a new connector that accesses the network from Henderson.

The trails are good enough to get the system rated as an IMBA Epic. It is also the location for the Interbike demo area.

Bootleg is not for beginners and it is not for the faint of heart. It rewards aggressive riding as you negotiate a never ending series of rocks, drops and sheer cliffs in this volcanic wonderland.

I've spent some time riding these trails and have found that the best tactic is to just charge every obstacle. If you timidly approach the obstacles, the rocks will take control. Speed and momentum are your friends.

Mother's Trail

Most of the XC trails are on the west side of the road with the Caldera and Mother's Trails being the most XC friendly. Par None and POW are probably the easiest of the DH trails and can be accessed from Mother's.

There are great facilities at the trailhead with water and even showers. They don't allow camping in the parking area anymore but the Boulder bay CG at lake Mead is only five miles away (and a good warm up if you decide to ride).

If you're in town without a bike, All-Mountain Cyclery is right at the bottom of the hill and can help you out.

Bootleg is definitely one of my favorite places to ride. There is always something to challenge you and the obstacle that you didn't clear today will be waiting for you to give it another go on your next ride.

Great trail system.

One of the best in the country.

Riding from the campground: Mother's Loop from Lake Mead

MTB Ride Review: SARA Park (Lake Havasu)

You've got to give it up for the local riders/builders out here at Lake Havasu. They have done a good job putting together a really fun trail system.

Sara Park Trails

The route on the map is just about 25 miles and covers the Watershed Race Loop, Fun Fair (beginner trail), Beer Bottle, Blue Trail and some exploring on the north side of the park. There is still another 10-20 miles of trail out here that is not shown.

All of the trails are really fun with your typical wide open singletrack with swoopy turns in and out of drainages, over rocks etc... Really good stuff!

There are also at least two trails that go all the way to the lake giving you the opportunity to take a swim mid-way through your ride to cool off. This may be welcome as it does get hot out here. Today, it was 84 degrees at noon and I'm here in February.

Lake Havasu has pretty much anything you need. Plenty of lodging, restaurants and other activities to keep you entertained.

There are a couple of bike shops, River Cyclery & Sport (www.rivercyclery.com) and AZBuilt. River is more MTB oriented and Tony Beck (Owner) can give you some tips on the trails.

One great thing about this area is the bike trail that goes from town all the way to the trailhead so you don't have to deal with the limited parking on the weekends. You can also expect lots of hikers on the Red, Yellow & Blue trails on the weekends but if you head for the outer loops you'll pretty much have the trails to yourself.

Overall, I really liked this area. There is probably enough here to keep you entertained for at least a week. Combined with some interesting road riding this is almost a winter vacation destination.

Ride stats: Sara Park Loops

Sunset at Lake Havasu.

Ride Review: Joshua Tree National Park

I've been going to Joshua Tree for as long as I can remember.

Most of those trips were to go rock climbing but I have brought my mountain bike a couple of times to ride the Geology Tour Road route. This was the first time I've brought both bikes and really explored what the park has to offer cyclists.

Joshua Tree National Park showing my rides.

The best thing about riding in any of the National Parks is the scenery. Being able to ride in these spectacular places is always a treat. However, I think that for the most part the Park Service has done a horrible job with making cycling a viable option for seeing the park. There are exceptions to this. Zion, Grand Teton and Redwood have created bike trails and other facilities for cyclists.

Joshua Tree is a good example of what is bad about the parks. The roads are narrow with no paved shoulder even though the ground has been graded on both sides of the pavement. Combined with the twisty road, limited visibility and the fact that for some reason about 90% of people seem to completely lose their minds as soon as they enter any of the parks, this makes for a pretty dangerous ride. I honestly felt safer when I was out on Hwy 62 with a 65mph speed limit than I did in the park where it was 35.

The climb to Key's View.

This park is huge but only a small part on the west side is actually accessible to bikes. On the road I did a loop that did the park loop connected by Hwy 62 with a side trip to Key's View which overlooks the Coachella Valley. I also did most of this as an out and back so I could climb the West Entrance hill.

Both of the hills to get into the park were pretty good. The East Entrance hill was definitely tougher climbing 2400' over 12 miles. The other notable climb goes to Keys View through some of the largest Joshua Trees in the park.

On the MTB side, you are limited to the 4x4 roads that are scattered throughout the park. There isn't anything technically challenging but that isn't to say the riding is easy. The climb back up Geology Tour Road is steep and sandy in places. But like the other riding in the park, the views are awesome.

A good ride would be to start at Hidden Valley CG and ride out Bighorn Pass, do the Geology Tour route and return for about 25-30 miles.

My recommended routes:

MTB - Geology Tour w/Queen Valley Tour

Road - Jumbo Rocks to JTree w/Key's View

Twilight at Joshua Tree National Park.

Ride Review: Moreno Valley

I spent the last week in the former foreclosure capital of Southern California. I didn't find any good deals on housing but the riding was pretty great.

I always go to new areas with the idea that I'll ride whatever is better between the road and the dirt. This week I found two pretty good road rides but spent the majority of my time exploring the trails of the Lake Perris State Recreation Area.

The better of the two road rides was the Oak Glen Loop, a 57-mile ride with 5300' of climbing with the cat 2 Oak Glen (east) climb. I've done this climb from the other side twice during the Breathless Agony Century so I wanted to give it a go from the other side. I managed to get into the Top-10 for the 15-mile climb starting at Live Oak so that went pretty well.

The other road ride I did was a loop that I spotted some local riders doing. Not bad but it seemed to be your typical shop ride loop that tended to avoid any good hills.

MRAP Downhill.

The real surprise for me was the mountain biking. I've been to Lake Perris on numerous occasions but have never ridden here. I always looked at the trail maps and saw that it was just a bunch of sandy horse trails. I had actually planned on making a couple of trips over to Sycamore Canyon while I was in the area but ended up riding at Lake Perris instead. I even managed to put together an 83.3-mile ride for the February Gran Fondo Challenge on STRAVA (Dirty Fondo).

The riding did have some sand as I expected but I also found a bunch of singletrack trails that were similar to those found at Sycamore Canyon and Southridge. The climbs are mostly moderate with the exception of the climb up to Terri Peak. There were two sections on this that weighed in with a grade of over 30 percent. Yes, it is that steep. I managed to get the KOM riding up the MRAP DH to the top of the peak. This was probably one of the steepest grades I've climbed but the surface was solid so it is ridable (shut-up legs).

The view from Terri Peak.

The trails are mostly decomposed granite over hard pack with some rock obstacles thrown in for fun. The soil type means that this place would be a good choice after a rain. It rained twice while I was here and it pretty much just made the conditions better as it packed down the sand.

There are plenty of other things to do at Lake Perris so this would be a great place for a family weekend. There is fishing, boating, hunting, hiking, etc...

The campground is huge with 100+ RV sites and 100+ tent sites. Everything is well maintained and the staff is pretty friendly.

Sunset at Lake Perris.