Neil and Phil's Autumn Annadel ride

Neil in front of the Annadel State Park trail map, ready for the climb.

A few months ago, Neil and Phil drove up north to ride Annadel State Park, one of the most technical and fun mountain bike trails in the Bay Area. Annadel is popular among local riders for providing the kinds of long rock gardens, jumps, and other challenging trail features that aren’t as easy to find closer to home in the East Bay. Any time we make it up to Santa Rosa to ride Annadel, it’s a treat.

Neil and Phil met local Cycle Monkey friend Jake at the trailhead. Neil chose to ride his Lens Sport Lunch Box, a 29er trail bike set up with a Rohloff hub. Neil built up the 150mm travel bike specifically for aggressive riding, with sturdy rims and a laid-back seating position. It’s the bike he takes when he’s able to make it up to Tahoe and big mountain trails in Colorado, Utah or other parts of the Southwest.

Neil's Lens Sport 29er trailbike with 6 inches of travel.

Driving up on the gray and misty morning, we realized that autumn had really set in. When we geared up in the parking lot, that fact became even more apparent – it was downright cold! Luckily we warmed up after the first climb, and eventually found the sun at the top of the first hill.

Neil preparing for the climb.

For the first few hours of the ride, we pedaled through the winding singletrack and abundant rock gardens that Annadel has to offer, dodging in and out of trees and riding through dirt fields and grassy meadows. About half way through the ride, we were zipping down Burma Trail, dodging big rocks and hitting kicker jumps built off of trailside roots, when all of the sudden a figure emerged from the side of the trail. Outfitted in a green park ranger uniform, he waved his arms and asked us to stop.

The ranger introduced himself as Bob, and began to explain problems the park had been having with accidents and run-ins among the hikers, equestrians, and bikers that use the trial. Two people had been airlifted out in the summer and many of the trail users were on edge. He reminded us to be careful, keep an eye down the trail, and look out for hikers.

Ranger Bob had surprised us when he first stepped into the trail, and we had thought he was alerting us to an an accident. But after we got to talking, he apologized for startling us and explained that he just wanted to make sure mountain bikers were riding within their means, not getting injured, and not scaring hikers or spooking horses. We agreed that we want all trail users to be able to use the park at any time. We told him we’d be careful, shook hands, and set off down the trail.

Neil and Jake packing up after a snack break.

Trail access in the densely-populated Bay Area has always been a contentious issue, so we saw where the ranger was coming from and agreed we wanted to work with him and other trail users to ensure bike access in public parks would continue. It's a lot of work keeping the lines of communication open among the many types of trail users, but it's a necessary effort that allows us all to have fun doing what we enjoy to do.

Riding the rest of the Burma trail was a thrill – the singletrack wound downhill through the manzanita bushes, offering plenty of large rocks to dodge and rock gardens to plow through. After the descent, we kept the pace up through the last climb out of the valley. Seeing as how it was the last few miles of our day, we we decided to keeping cranking hard, knowing we'd be able to recover tomorrow. After a few more little descents and rollers, we found ourselves back at the parking lot.

By the time we got back to the car, we had done about 30 miles of technical singletrack and were exhausted. Refueling at a local taqueria did the trick before we headed home, smiling and sore, ready for another week in the Monkey Lab.

We'd love to hear stories and see pictures of your Rohloff and Schlumpf equipped bikes in action! Send them to adventures@cyclemonkey.com