Snow Summit Downhill Mountain Bike Ride in Big Bear California

My Son invited me to go with him and some friends to Snow Summit Ski Resort in The mountains of Southern California to do some mountain biking. For $20.00 you can buy an all day lift ticket to bring you, and your bike up to the top, then you pick your trail and make your way down. We got in 6 runs for the day, including one flat tire repair (mine), and we rode to Carl’s Jr. and had lunch. Snow Summit has some arrangement with the U.S. forest service to allow mountain biking in the area, but no riding on any of their ski runs. They do have some rules however.

Any one of the following four factors will disqualify a bike from being transported on the chair:

Bikes must be less than 35 pounds.
Designated tire size must be less than 2.5.
Front shock must have less than 6 inches of travel.
Bikes must have three chain rings unless they are single speed.

We rode a variety of bikes, from an Intense 29r, to a KHS hard tail.

Since this was my first time there I didn’t know what to expect, I have ridden a motorcycle in the area on several occasions and enjoyed the single track trails, water crossings and the mountain terrain, but on a mountain bike, this was a first time for me. Don’t get me wrong, I am no stranger to 2 wheeled riding, I am 50 years old, raced BMX with my boys, when i was 35 until I was 40, I got to number 5 in the ABA in our area in my class. I raced District 37 Gran Prix series on my Honda CR 500 When i was 41 to 44, got 1st place in the Beginner senior open class my first year, I bought The GT RTS3 when it first came out, sweet full suspension bike, had to have it, but they have come along way since then. Blah blah blah.

So that said, our first ride up the chairlift and we were all ready for some good riding, I had my helmet cam on and was ready to capture all the action.

The trails all start out from fire roads, we are going down the fire road and I am thinking “I hope this gets better”, then we stopped on a trail that branched off from the fire road. All the trails started this way, fire road to trail head. First trail (sorry, I don’t know the names) was west of the chair lift drop off area, nice single track, twisting around the pine trees and manzanita (don’t get me started on the manzanita, but it will grab you right off your bike) some logs to hop over, some have ramps up the front so you can catch some air going over, then it got steep, loose and rocky, so steep I had my seat all the way down, and was leaning back as far as my arms would let me, and was loving every minute of it. The end of the trail was smoother and we found ourselves ready to go up again.

Second run was similar to the first, except this was more shaded, a little damp in some areas, (and this is August) with some awesome rock drops down the trail in several places, one nice rock ledge with a couple rocks at the base to go around then a slight left turn, this had some soft powdery dirt at the base, 4 of us made it down with no problem, but the last guy, well i was taking photos, and got the most awesome picture sequence of his endo at the bottom. Funny thing, first words out his mouth as he is laying face down in the dirt “did you get it”. Yes I did.

29′er this was my first time on a 29 inch wheeled bike. It definitely rolled over obsticles better than a 26, it seemed to roll and roll without me pedaling on the fire roads compared to the 26′s. It was the steep downhills that it suffered, on the loose steep downhills the front seemed to push rather than turn, it wasnt that big of a deal but it was noticable. A little more rake on the fork angle may help, or like the 69′r, maybe a 29 in the front and 26 on the rear. I enjoyed it and could wheelie it on the flats like a madman. Thanks to The Pedalsmith for hooking me up with it.

All in all, we had a great day, the rest of the runs were similar, some slight variations in terrain and dirt, but all good stuff. One of them even had a teeter totter on it you rode over. If you are into scenic rides, the fire roads cover a lot of area, are pretty smooth and have great views of the valleys below.

For me, I am looking forward to our next trip back up the mountain, good action, good friends, and I could ride with my son, and that’s a great day! See ya up there.