Monday, November 30, 2009
Santos Epic
Got a chance to ride around the Santos Trail System. It's been over 3 years since I've been there and the folks and the OMBA have been pretty busy.Since I was there last they got some stuff done :
Completed MANY miles of trails
Totally reworked the Vortex section with the cooperation of IMBA
Recived the Epic designation by IMBA - The first time IMBA gave that designation to an ENTIRE trail system.
Started the day by riding the 42 mile Epic trail route. Sweet fast big ring single track. From flowing high speed slalom to tight blind turns. Mostly easy, non tech stuff but great to get fast off-road miles in. The last section "Shangri-la" with the Nayls trails is about 11 miles long, much more interesting and gives you a reason to get off of the big ring.
It's nice to be able to ride 42 miles ALL on single track! Woot! Well - there's actually about 3 miles of multi-use trail on an old forest road through the Christmas section on the way back in.
Along the way I took a few excursions to do the the Twister and Canal Digging trails. All in all the day netted 55+ single track miles and an ear-to-ear perma-grin.
No trip to Santos is complete without going to "the Other Side" aka the Vortex. I love that sign. More Free-Ride, DJ and big drop stuff than you can possibly describe. Pump tracks galore. Progressive drops and lines to build skills. Pretty cool that this stuff could be built and maintained on state owned property. 
The Vortex also has some really nice techy trails all around and through it. Much of it is used for the 12 hrs of Santos in February.
My pocket camera was out of service so all the photos are with the trusty iPhone, so sry for the quality.
RideOn
JB
