Alpine to Arastradero

Some more California riding, this time up in Palo Alto. We headed from the house that we were staying, up Alpine to Arastradero Preserve. Some fun, easy riding that can be done from almost anywhere in Palo Alto.

This route is a combination of double and singletrack, a quick 2.5 hour ride without any driving involved. We headed up a brief section of road before hitting the Alpine trail.



The amount of shaded sections



to unshaded sections was perfect.



To get to the Arastradero Preserve, we had to ride up about 1/2 mile up Arastradero Road. This area seems to be a the mecca for roadies. Nice rolling hills through beautiful meadows and forests....I can see why.

At Arastradero Preserve, we started exploring without a map. Trails zigzagged the mountain, another choose your own adventure type of area. There were some pretty steep hike-a-bike sections past the Bowl ST



and some other steep up sections


I am stunned at the amount of singletrack that is closed to mountain bikers. Few places in Arizona have no biking signs (apart from wilderness areas). In northern California, a distinction is made between hiking trails and biking trails, hundreds of them line the trail. Understandably so give the large amount of people in California.

We ended up doing two big loops while we were there. Here is a good combo of Kendall cleaning a switchback.





Great riding here in Northern California. We saw only a handful of hikers/mtbers on the trail. Weather is perfect, mid 70s.

More riding hopefully in the next few days before flying to Central America.