Biking Ironic

One of San Francisco’s many charms is its size—it’s a small enough city to go almost anywhere by bike. But real estate is fought for, and few green scraps of natural land are left for the public to explore beyond tightly corralled urban parks. The irony: From San Francisco, most people have to get in a car and drive to a place to go biking "off road," which is counter to the carless ideal of many a bike rider. Fortunately, the drive to the Marin Headlands isn’t far.

Mountain bike rider Rene Mitsui stops at an overlook in the Marin Headlands.

By Dan Sankey  
Published: July, 2007 

In the Headlands (part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area) almost all of the legal biking trails are fire roads (car-wide unpaved roads). What these trails may lack in challenging terrain and technical challenge they make up for with outstanding views of the Bay, the Bridge and the City beyond. Also, the hills are home to a wide range of wildflowers, quail, rabbit, deer and ravens. Not to mention, the trails provide a pretty solid workout of a climb, but still within reason for a novice rider with a well-maintained, geared bicycle.

Many Headland trails are bike-riding distance away from San Francisco, just over the Golden Gate. From the City, it’s about a 3-mile ride to the Coastal Trail trailhead. Bikes are allowed on the East side (City) of the bridge at all times, and on the West side (Ocean) only weekends and after 3PM on weekdays. And, remember that strong crosswinds can hit anytime on the bridge, particularly when passing the two towers.

Once over the bridge, riders pass through a parking lot and go left onto Conzelman Road. The hardest part of climbing this road is the first stretch. It’s doable; just use your gears and take your time. There are plenty of pullouts with great views to take a breather, but be careful of oblivious sightseers looking at the view and not at you.

Just shy of a mile up Conzelman, take a right on McCullough Road to the Coastal Trail head about 300 feet on the left. The trail drops and traverses 1.6 miles to cross over Bunker Road. Coastal continues to the Rodeo Beach but that part is not bike legal. About 200 feet further across the road in the trees is the Rodeo Trail head. Follow it 0.5 miles to Miwok Trail, which goes on for one mile, gets steeper then continues straight for 1.3 miles on Old Spring Trail to the Miwok horse stables. Old Spring Trail has some narrower sections with small rocks and wooden planked footbridges bringing some grins after that teeth-gritting climb.

A turn right at the stables leads to Old Marincello Vehicle Road, part of the Bay Ridge Trail, a 400-mile bike-friendly loop in the Bay hills. It continues 1.7 miles onto Bobcat where riders can travel two miles back on to Rodeo Trail to finish the loop before riding back up Coastal Trail. The entire ride takes about three hours, including time for rest stops and a comfortable pace.