![[Akkana above Castle Valley]](images/mtb/akk-porc.jpg)
One of my favorite pursuits is mountain biking.
As far as I'm concerned, the most beautiful place in the world to do that
is the Moab, Utah area, and I visit there whenever I can (every year or two).
I've collected my Moab shots into a separate Moab page.
My bike is a '93 Cannondale M700, which I bought because
it was one of the smallest mountain bikes made..
I'm short, 5'3", and finding a good small mountain bike is a challenge --
here's a brief writeup on
small mountain bikes.
The Women's
Mountain Bike and
Tea Society can be a good source
of information regarding women (of all sizes) and mountain biking.
![[Priest and Nuns, Moab]](images/priest-nuns.jpg)
A few of my other mountain biking shots can be found on my sports photography page.
Despite my enthusiasm for the southwest, I don't mean to imply that the San Francisco Bay area, where I live, doesn't have its own great mountain bike rides. Ross Finlayson and Doug Landauer have the definitive reference for local trails.
![[The 914]](images/mtb/mike-914.jpg)
One of the best riding areas here is El Corte de Madera.
This preserve is currently being evaluated, and some trails are in
danger of being closed, so bay area mountain bikers need to get involved
by helping with trail maintenance in order to keep these great trails open.
In particular, we hope to prevent the district from "sanitizing" the
trails, opening them up with their Sweco mini-bulldozer.
For more information on what the Sweco and its bretheren do to trails,
see my Recreational Bulldozer Web Page of Shame.
The south bay is great for riding: some of my favorites besides El Corte de Madera are the Canyon Trail (Montebello OSP), Saratoga Gap and Long Ridge, and Purisima Creek. For beginners, Arastradero is a nice ride, as is the Grey Whale Trail near Montara.
![[Well-earned Refreshment]](images/refresh.jpg)
I spectated at the "Bud Lite" mountain bike race at Briones (in the east bay),
trying to capture the race on film.
The temperature was brutal
-- about 106 Fahrenheit -- and a kindly race worker was tossing cupfulls
of water on racers as they passed by, which provided several fun photo
opportunities.
![[Flooded]](images/flood/flooded.jpg)
When heavy rains come, most local trails aren't good riding spots
(unless you want to give land managers an excuse to blame erosion on
mountain bikes and ban us from even more trails).
But there are alternatives! Occasionally, Stevens Creek rises to
cover paved Stevens Canyon Rd, which then becomes
a technically challenging yet still ecologically sound MTB alternative.
See my flood page for pictures.
