Mountain Bike! Los Angeles County

Book excerpt: Mountain Bike! Los Angeles County is must-have literature for the cyclist who is eager to explore the wonderful terrain that housed the genesis of mountain biking in the late seventies. In this trail guide you'll find detailed maps of carefully planned routes, some popular and some unknown to many, as well as comprehensive descriptions of what hazards and delights you'll encounter along the way. Whether you're a adrenalin seeking downhill bomber, or a gram-counting cross country racer, the Wide Grin guide will be your bible. Los Angeles County has every conceivable type of mountain bike accessible terrain, from remote, loamy oak forest floor singletracks without a person in sight, to roller coaster, rock-garden filled chutes that will give you plenty of thrills. Several easier routes for novice riders are also included. Over the years, mountain biking has become a multi-faceted sport, encompassing several disciplines that all utilize the 26-inch knobby tire. The masochistic single-speeder, the cross country racer, the dirt-jumping purist, the downhill racer, the freerider, the epic rider and the weekend warrior will all find their needs catered to in this guide. Each route is rated on technical and aerobic difficulty, so no rider will get more than they bargained for. Additionally, GPS waypoints for the start of each route are given in both UTM and latitude/longitude coordinates, so you'll never find yourself lost. Los Angeles County has enough riding terrain to keep your riding experiences new, fresh, and challenging for a lifetime. Even veteran Angelinos will find themselves surprised at the number of great loops and shuttle-runs unbeknownst to them until now. After a broad tour of LA's mountain bike playgrounds, you'll surely cancel your plans to relocate to Vancouver's North Shore or to the city of Moab, Utah, because Socal truly is the Mecca of mountain biking, and Los Angeles is right in the center of it.