Moving Nor Cal to So Cal.. help

[426 Pilot]

Well, It looks like my company may be moving me and my family down to So Cal. We would probably end up living near the Irvine area. I am born, raised and am now raising a family in Nor Cal (bay area). I ride mx in the summer and nothing but trails and hare scrambles Oct-Apr. I know that there are plenty of MX tracks in the Southern Ca area, but how is the billly goat, single track, tree slammin riding that I have become accustomed to in areas like Stoneyford, Upper Lake, and Clear Creek in the Northern region of the state?

Are there a lot of these areas? Are they far? Is there any perfect tacky loamy trails?... or am I destined to choke on desert sand? Any good clubs to hook up with?

I appreciate as much info as I can get...

Thanks,

Jon Lloyd D36... soon to be D37
05 CRF 450
01 YZ 250

Sold that 426 years ago....

 

[Kav]

Kennedy meadows is a good place to ride if you don't want to ride in the desert. it's off of the 395 north of Ridgecrest about 50 miles or so. lots of great single track, some with rocks some with out.

 

[dirt bike dave]

Kennedy Meadows is great, but its a long drive from Irvine.

I grew up in Orange County but lived in the Bay Area most my life and had the pleasure of riding the good spots in No Cal. In fairness to SoCal riding areas, I don't do much riding since we moved to Bakersfield and started having kids. But if you are looking for an area as good as Stonyford within a short drive of Irvine, you are going to come up way short.

In the National Forest near the Hungry Valley SVRA there are some unmarked (illegal) billy goat type trails. Forget the SVRA - it has a few short stretches of single track trail but is vastly inferior to what you are used to. The marked trails in the Los Padres forest next to the SVRA are better, and some are similar to trails you would find at Stony or Middle Creek, except they are beat up, whooped out and dusty most of the year. BTW, they close the forest trails whenever it snows or is wet (BOO!). Oh yeah - red stickers enforced, too.

Sometimes I ride at Ballinger Canyon - its where Kern, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties meet (long drive from Irvine). Probably 75 miles of marked trails - maybe 25 miles of decent single track. Quite fun if you catch good condtions, but not even in the same ballpark as Stonyford (can you tell I miss NoCal?).

Some of the desert riding can be quite technical and probably your most reasonable option for day trips.

http://www.employees.org/~calridng/allsites.html is a link with a list and map of most of CA's riding areas.

 

[dante]

I think you'll proubably like the desert too... It's not like beach sand, all over the desert... And the lack of trees are good because they are'nt there to crash into... Try the desert after a big rain, you'll love it...

 

[NVR FNSH]

Big Bear has some decent trails - nothing like NorCal but it will hold you over for some time.

Brian

 

[KiwiBird]

Don't worry mate, we've got lots of gnarly single track for you.