White Oak Trail

White Oak Trail has been recently re-routed (completed in late 2010). Before this work, the upper reaches of this trail consisted of a steep, wide, and badly rutted "fire road". This segment of the trail is now replaced by a nicely meandering singletrack; initially exposed to the sky, and later under partial oak cover. The second half of the trail (the lower elevations) still follows the older path, which was a decent singletrack to begin with, and still is. I think that this change of White Oak Trail raises the desirability of Monte Bello Open Space for riders who are interested in singletrack trails. In my opinion, this brings this park to the same level as, say, the nearby Russian Ridge in terms of the level of biking trail quality.

Before the White Oak Trail re-routing, I used to do this ride as a clockwise loop (and used to show it on this page in the same way), traversing White Oak Trail uphill. That was because I found White Oak too short, steep, and wide to be interesting for descent. (The ruts may have been an interesting descent challenge for some, but still...) I used to think that it was at least a good climbing challenge to test one's mettle. After the re-routing, I've changed this to a counter-clockwise loop, because the beautiful singletrack that's the newer White Oak Trail is much more fun to descend than to climb, in my opinion.

The new White Oak Trail has some more off-camber spots than I would have expected from a new trail. Nothing too sketchy, but it does discourage you a little bit from speeding. When I come to think of it, the only other major singletrack trail in this park, Bella Vista Trail, also has quite a few off-camber sections. Perhaps it's something about erosion control. Or speed control. There's also at least one particular hairpin turn on White Oak that's a little over the top in its tightness. But maybe that's a good thing; those of us with superhuman bike control skills need some spots where they can test themselves as well.

The last quarter mile of White Oak Trail (after crossing a minor tributary creek over a bridge) has you pedaling uphill at a moderate grade.