The technical rides in the SM mountains rarely involve rocky terrain,
rather steep dirt and shale. The Sullivan Ridge fire road takes off
from the top of Ridgeway, which is just off Sunset Blvd (Mapquest it).
There's a single track descending to the right of the long (3 miles)
fire road and it has some steep and interesting dirt ramps (rutted). I
usually try and grind this out once a week and then take the
Mullholland Drive fire road over to another fire road descending down
to Sullivan Canyon, which is non-technical but a fun training run with
some drop practice off stuff beside the main trail. The whole loop is
about six or seven miles and is a good fittness drill.
You can also keep going (on Mullholland) past (1/4 mile) the descent
into Sullivan and blast down Caballero Canyon foot paths but these (two
side by side single tracks) are horrendous, steep shale/dirt and dump
out in the Valley, meaning you have a 15 mile shuttle to get back to
SM. There's also a super steep dirt single track above Will Rodgers
State Park that ends close to Sunset Blvd., as well as the dreadfull
"Elevator Shaft," which pitches down the mountain (to the left) after a
1/4 mile up the Sullivan Ridge fire road. There's some semi-technical
stuff further toward The Hub, but it's a long way to get there (like
eight miles) for little pay off. There's a big rock slab up there that
would be good if it wasn't so far. Little Moab and other trails in
that area are mostly moderate MB paths, not worth bothering with (I
think I've done most all of them). The Malibu stream bed is a "baby
head" rock garden that develops hard tractoring skills but is basically
dead ass flat--and exhausting. And boring.
If technical muni is your thing, I suggest driving 30 minutes and do
the trails in Agora (Suicide Connector) or up in East Simi (G-Spot,
Hummingbird, Devil's Slide, et al). Those will keep you busy for
years.
JL
--
vivalargo
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