Illegal to legal with a lunch for $39

Almost every single down hill mountain bike trail in southern califonia is illegal. They are built on private or government land with no permission. Land owners, Park Service, BLM, Sierra Club and so forth have all made it essentially illegal to ride and build downhill trails in the area. Which kinda sucks because southern California invented things like, oh say motorcross racing, so you'd think the climate would be more friendly towards this sort of thing but they're not.

There are of course legal mountain bike trails to ride on, but they are geared towards cross country riders and are multi user, sharing with hikers and horses. The speeds and which a downhill (dh) bike travels and the type of terrain these trails on essentially make them good for only one user, the dh rider.

If you want to ride real, fun trails you have to go to a more progressive place as far as land management (ha! take that California, you really aren't progressive. ya freakin' oppressive nanny state!) or a mountain town with a ski resort that's built trails for summer users of the gravity powered bicycle sort. Think Whistler in British Colombia or Winter Park in Colorado.

Here is a video from Winter Park promoting their opening to give you a comparison on just how far BB has to go:

Here in California we have Mammoth Mountain, North Star and now Big Bear Mountain Resort offering lift assisted biking in the summer, targeted towards downhill riders. The dirt at Mammoth sucks frankly. It is talcum powdery, moon dust. You feel like you're riding on a flat tire. Oh, and it takes 6+ hours to drive there from San Diego. (i've done a day trip, there and back in 24 hours but it is brutal) They do have a couple good trails, but if I'm gonna go that far I'd rather make the effort and go elsewhere. North Star is even farther away.

So that leaves Big Bear. The biggest downhill mountain bike race in the US used to be held there! And then someone broke their neck and sued them, ceasing all bike riding on the resort. What evolved was they'd take your money and carry your bike (with stipulations) to the top and then you could ride on trails, built illegally but with tacit approval from the Forrest Service, on any land NOT actually the resort. Take my money, but want nothing to do with me.

Finally that changed this summer! While they are essentially just toe dipping by opening a very limited amount of trails this summer they still have done it. You can now ride a full on dh bike there and not get kicked out. They now have 3 (really two in my opinion) trails just for bikers actually in the resort's boundaries. With two more planned by summer's end. Just a little less than 3 hours drive from my house.

$39 gets you an all day lift ticket, a lunch voucher and hours of legal downhill mountain bike riding. It's not perfect, but I'll take it!