Saturday was the big day. I have a route I've done a few times before that climbs up from Big Bear Lake to Sugarloaf Mtn at 9,950ft using an old little used ridgeline trail, before dropping down to Santa Ana River Trail (SART) and running all the way down to Redlands at about 2,500ft.
We had plenty of options to start with and settled on Pineknot Trail which would give Shillingsworth a taste of Skyline trail.
Pine knot starts off steep, but so far so good
Up top there is lots of interesting rock
Great views open up on Skyline across to the San Bernardino range
Lots of buff singletrack on Skyline. The only negative today is we were running against the flow of an xc race going on. Lots of stopping to pull over for racers.
Leaving Skyline we had some forest road to traverse, ending with a short steep hike a bike with a nice view of Big Bear Lake
Then the fun began. After a steep down hike bushwack we reached the seldon used Sugarloaf ridge trail. A hike back up to it yielded some beautiful, raw rideable trail
But also a lot of hike a bike
Our target in sight - Sugarloaf Mtn
Some big juniper trees appear trailside
We started down by the lake shore and will finish out of sight down the valley on the left
But first, more hike a bike
It gets steeper the higher we go
Finally reaching the shoulder of the peak the trail mellows out
Then it disappears completely and its a choose your own adventure to the summit. Here, we mistakenly end up on a scree slope which has terrible footing.
Summit shot
Dropping down from the summit sweet singletrack makes up for all the hike a bike
Nice, flowing 2k descent down Wildhorse Trail
We skip an upper part of Santa Ana River Trail which is in bad shape and pick up the main part at South Fork campground
SART keeps you on your toes with lots of exposure, many riders have tumbled off the edge
Fall colors on display
One of several creek crossings
Fading daylight
We reached Middle control road right at sunset which would be the end of SART for us. The trail continues on into a fire closure so we climbed the road for 3 miles up to Hwy 38 and then picked up Loch Leven, and old fire road returning to singletrack that would take us to the bottom in Redlands. We ended with 50 miles on the day, +5,600 and -10,000ft. The proper route including all of SART is obviously more epic, but completing the crux over Sugarloaf is what really makes the route even if the hike a bike to the summit gets a bit outrageous. Good times as always, thanks for making it out Shillingsworth! We'll be back to do Wildhorse + full SART once the fire closure ends.
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