Camuesa Connector -

Gallery

Access / Parking

Ride Log

Expectations for Riding the Santa Barbara Area Trails
Country trails are multi-use trails and as such are used by several thousand users each week. If you are riding downhill on these trails, expect to encounter them on your way. Your cooperation will help make everyone's experience a safe and pleasant one.

Ten things every mountain biker who rides the front country trails is expected to do:

1. Have a bike bell so other trail users know you are approaching.
2. Keep your speed down; practice riding techniques that minimize impacts.
3. Good braking means never having to skid. Do not lock up your brakes.
4. Approach switchbacks with caution and brake well before you reach them.
5. Stay on the designated tread. The front country trails are multi-use, not a race course.
6. Ride with other trail users in mind and enhance rather than interfere with their enjoyment.
7. Always assume there is another trail user around each corner.
8. Yield the right-of-way to uphill trail users. Stop and dismount if necessary to allow them to pass.
9. When approaching equestrians, dismount and ask them what they want you to do.
10. Be courteous. Smile and say something friendly to everyone you encounter.

Background

On The Ride

A Reminder
Buckhorn Road is open to ORV use. You should be alert for their presence. Please be extremely cautious and on the lookout for horse riders. The area is used extensively by equestrian groups. Assume a rider is just around each corner. If necessary, dismount from your bike and ask the horse rider what he or she would like you to do.

The Ride
For single tracking, there is none better than on the Camuesa Connector, which is cut along a fault line that creates a series of saddles leading southeast and eventually down to the Santa Ynez River near Live Oak picnic area.

The first half-mile of the trail is the toughest, a twisty, winding path leading up to the first of a number of saddles and short trials sections providing a test of your riding ability. Undoubtedly you’ll find yourself pushing a few of them. At the top of the saddle the trail drops down into a brushy canyon and then up to a second saddle. The ruts are deep on the downhill and may be difficult to ride, but they do not last too long. An easy 100-foot uphill brings you to the next saddle.

Beyond this the countryside has been blackened by wildfire, and it has a different kind of beauty—that of nature’s fire cycle, the chaparral undergoing the process of renewal. It is now ten years since the last fire in this area and it may not be as easy to spot the effects.

Several gentle switchbacks take you down into a larger, more open canyon and the trail follows this downhill. The drop is down a deep narrow deep V canyon and the riding is a bit more technical but really exciting as you cut back and forth across the creek several times. Then a short climb and a switchback or two bring you up and over a third saddle. From here the route is almost continuous downhill, first across a large plateau, then through a small “window” between two knolls to a large, flat bluff overlooking the river. The tops of the knolls and the bluff provide perfect lunch or picnic spots.

Just before you drop down onto the bluff, notice the sharp outcroppings of white rock just to the left of the trail. This is limestone, a remnant from when this area was beneath the ocean. Right below this formation you will have a good view looking almost directly down onto Live Oak picnic area and its very enticing water hole.

The trail veers right, continues west across the bluff, and then goes down through a series of switchbacks to the river. You can either head directly across the river to Paradise Road or continue a half-mile downstream along the right side of the river and then cross.

The swimming hole at Live Oak picnic area is a half-mile left of the upper river crossing. To complete the loop, ride down Paradise Road three miles to Lower Oso, then 1.3 miles to your car at Upper Oso.