spots. Pacifica

Pacifica

Pacifica. A small surf town located south of San Francisco, Pacifica is especially known in the bike community for its network of trails that overlook the Pacific Ocean. Popular with the gravity oriented crowd, it is one of the few spots in the Bay Area where it is worth carting a full blown downhill bike around.

For the gravity crowd there is a downside. As there is no way to shuttle your bike, you're on your own. This means raising your seat up as much as it will go, and pedaling. The upside is that the way up is partially paved, making it a bit easier to make your way up.

You have to go up to go down though, and in the end, it just makes the descent that much better. Or so they say. If the trail was shuttle friendly there would be a lot more traffic on it as well.

There are a number of trails that branch off from the access road. The main route most of us come down is actually made up of three separate sections: The crack, the mile, and boyscout. We utilized the fireroad to get to the top and ride the before mentioned trails down.

The Hike

We headed up to the top to ride the crack. It is a steep rocky descent with extremely narrow sections cut into the ground. In fact, some parts are nothing but rocky ruts cut into the hillside. While it is possible to take the fireroad all the way to the top, we elected to push our rides straight up the crack. On a dh bike you're walking either way, and this option gave us a chance to preview the lines.

yeah, it's steep.

Its a bitch of a climb. I haven't been riding that much lately and personally, I was hurting, and sweating my ass off. The push up does give one a chance to think on the lines down and that is exactly what we did.

This particular section always gets one thinking. Eric and I paused for a bit and debated on which line was faster. I still haven't figured it out- I have to get another copy of East Bay Grease 2 and watch the Pacifica section again...

keep pushing.

you're almost there..

Eventually you make it up to the top though, and this is where the fun begins. Now we get to go back down.

If you're reading this, you agree that down is the best part..

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