While the Sea Otter Classic Training Ride is a great training ride with steeper grades, today's ride may be my new favorite mountain bike trail on Mt. Tam. Beginning at Natalie Coffin Park, I rode around Phoenix Lake and took Eldridge Grade all the way to the top of the East Peak of Mt. Tamalpais (2350')(as far as you can get on a bicycle), and then I road along Ridgecrest Blvd until I passed the West Peak Summit (2500')(elevation on the road). The views at East Peak and along Ridgecrest are magnificent. Today I could see well past San Francisco and miles out into the Pacific.
I continued down to about 2080' where I picked up Rock Springs. You climb for the first .5 miles or so up Rock Springs, but then it's pretty much downhill all the way back. I branched off onto Rocky Ridge trail, which is much more fun descending than climbing and the views are great, particularly when you start getting closer to Bon Tempe Lake. Ride across the Bon Tempe dam, and take the road back out to Lagunitas Road where you pick up Shaver Grade trail. Shaver leads you down to Five Corners where you continue on Shaver back down towards Phoenix Lake and Natalie Coffin Greene. The loop from Natalie Coffin Greene park was 17.04 miles and 3301' of elevation gain; you can download the GPS motion-based data for the mountain bike loop here. If you start at Ross Commons, add another 2.1 miles to the overall trip and another 100' or so of elevation gain. This ride also very closely mirrors the distance and elevation gain of past Otter Creek Classic cross country loops.
Details of this ride are posted here on MarinFatTire.com, where you can explore lots of great Mt. Tam Mountain Bike Trails.
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