dreadedmonkeygod . net

I ended up chatting with another rider after my spin through Cheeseboro on Saturday, and he suggested a trail that leads east from Shepherd's Flat down into what he called Liberty Canyon. He said it was a challenging descent (marked as a black diamond on his map), and a fantastic bit of singletrack through the canyon, so I headed back on New Year's Eve to check it out.

Alas, no pictures or GPS map for this one. I accidentally left both camera and GPS unit at home. Meh.

The trail from Shepherd's flat is deeply rutted, and several sections are very, very sketchy, with the only rideable line being a foot-wide strip with deep ruts on one side and a steep drop into the canyon on the other. (Then again, probably no worse than some sections of Chumash, so if you're comfy on Chumash, then be my guest.) Throw in some extremely tough technical climbs, and I completely understand why this trail is marked as a black diamond.

The singletrack through Liberty Canyon is very good, and the fire road it connects to is smooth and speedy and gives you a great chance to open up the throttle a bit. Beautiful stuff.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the climb back out from Liberty to Cheeseboro isn't any fun at all. Steep fire road, no view, no breeze. Ick.

A great ride, all in all, but I think I'm going to save it for when I'm stronger and more skillfull rider. (And have a full-suspension bike for that rocky descent...)