 |
| Photo credit:omba.org |
Santos and Vortex MTB Trails,Belleview, Florida
If you mountain bike in Florida, I can almost guarantee that you've had this conversation when talking with non-Floridians/non-mountain bikers:
Me: Oh! You mountain bike! Cool! My home trail is Santos in Central Florida. You should totally check it out!
Them: ::quizzical look:: Umm, isn't Florida flat?
Then, I continue to gush about all Florida's awesome trails have to offer. Don't believe me? Check out singletracks.com and you'll be surprised. What Florida lacks in mountain terrain and elevation, it trumps others with limestone quarries, coral quarries, and man-made obstacles.
Santos, part of the 75-mile stretch of trails that extends across Central Florida, is part of the OMBA biking association and they do a fantastic job keeping the trails up to snuff. The Santos trailhead and Vortex section are my personal favorites, but I tend to prefer the ruff stuff rather than cross-country stuff that you can ride on Landbridge. But, regardless of your taste in trails, Santos has it all. The rating system is as follows:
 |
| image from outerlocal,com |
- Yellow: (Easy) rather level land, hard packed terrain, some roots and pine needles
- Blue: (Intermediate) technical at times with rocks and roots, some elevation changes - both steep and/or gradual
- Red: (Hard) technical with difficult climbs, rocks and roots are plentiful
- Black/Double Black: (Expert) extremely technical with roots, rocks, and bolders, not recommended for novice riders, sometimes include bridges, platform drops, and/or ramps.
In the Santos section, just off of HYW 27/441 in Belleview (south of Ocala, north of The Villages), you can find a great parking/picnic area complete with bike wash, water fountain, restroom facilities, and a pump track with skills section. You can also camp and bring your horse as well. The trail opens up on the yellow Pine Tree, which is still a bit rooty at times, is great for riders looking to cover land rather than drops. The trails intersect into other trails, leaving the unaccustomed rider to need to carry a map (but any passing rider can help you out, and the trailhead arrows are marked).
Our personal favorites here include:
- Marshmallow (blue) the awesome, sketchy drop is worth a few loops back!
- Cowbone (blue) The best trail to take to the back trails; not too difficult; great little warm-up
- John Brown (red) one of our favorites; dry conditions are best for this...wet makes us frustrated. Very rocky, but a challenge and fun!
- Anthill (red) good luck with that hill!
- Unmarked drops on Blue Highway near John Brown and Cowbone (red) AWESOME drop!!! Steep as heck and don't grab too much brake! Oh, and I mean the one on the left...not the psycho one on the right...
- Bunny (blue) a fun one to take when coming back from Vortex. Smooth with turns, you can get some speed on this without working too hard.
 |
| Sweet drop! |
The Vortex section is our favorite park/section of all time. This place isn't for the timid, because once you get in, you'll either cry or get giddy. There is parking here at the Vortex, but no water and a stinky no-lock port-o-potty (inside the park)...so it might be smart to stage a car here if you're with a group. There's a red peak bridge qualifier to get in, and to start the beginning trail...but don't worry if you have to push your bike. Others have as well. Once inside the trail, you'll find pump track heaven. OMBA has done an awesome job with this. Here, your childhood dream meets BMX fantasy playground. You can ride the three varying tabletop tracks (far left one is for those who can get air... I about swallowed my teeth when my bike didn't clear the top and I came down hard). Then, a small but effective pump track allows you to work on hops. But, even more impressive is the large pump track and BMX jumping section. I personally only take the right jumps and I'm happy with getting four inches off the ground. There is a drop in for crazy-ass BMX bikers who are looking to get at least 10 feet in the air. We've seen them do it...as young as 10 years old. Craziness. There are some table top drops on the left that are great to try out if you're more experienced. If you're riding a 29-er, you're safe no matter what. I on my 26-er have to get air and get behind my seat. It's enough to get the adrenaline buzz going!
 |
| Kev gettin' an adrenaline buzz! |
Farther up in the "Pit," you'll find the drops. The drops range from 2'-3' drops (the only I'll tackle right now), to 5-7' drops (what I dream about), to dropping off of a cliff. No joke. Like 30 feet in the air. You can drop off these, hit a large hill of clay and continue to fly if you wish. Or if you're extra nutso, you can go down the hill, get as much speed as possible, hit a hill and back flip. That is an amazing sight. This section is what makes this park our favorite!
The trail has new features!!!! WAHOO!!!
It's like the new slide opening up at a kids playground!
The Vortex section now has THREE of these wooden wall berm beauties.
The trails here are awesome, but don't allow for much speed (They're improving that). They are more technical with roots, rocks, climbs, and turns, but still an awesome ride. The trails connect to form a loop around the Vortex perimeter, but each trail exits out into the pit area to allow easy access back up to the front. ALL trails here are either red or black diamond (for the boulders you'll have to climb...or in my case get off and push). Our favorite is the trial that meets the top of the crazy-ass drop in...you can access it from there or ride around to it. There's a great hill drop, raised bridge, and other obstacles that I can't help but smile when I finish them. But, this park is the reason I don't ride clipped in. Too many times I've had to land a foot or toss my bike...so I stick to my 5Ten Sam Hills (which I absolutely love!!)
If you're anywhere near Central Florida, this is definitely a trail to hit up (EASY access off of I-75 and the Turnpike!). The bike shops in the area, Greenway Bikes and Santos Bike Shop, are both great shops. We use Greenway for foot/beverage stops and we've purchased our son's bike at Santos Bike Shop. Both are honest places with great people.
Let me know if you've ridden them or are planning to! I'd love to hear your experiences!
 |
| I LOVE my 5Tens! |
 |
| The big Von Maxeys |
 |
Our little guy learned to ride in
the Santos trail head parking lot! |
|
| Learning to ride wore him out! |
 |
| Selfie! |
 |
Yeah, that's how we roll...
|
No comments:
Post a Comment