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2 reviews for Oat Hill Mine Road
I've been going up this trail both hiking and biking since I was a kid. Back in elementary school we did a hike up here while getting ready for our trip to Yosemite. After that I brought my mountain mike up here more times than I can remember.
This trail would be awesome for hauling ass downhill if it wasn't for all the people going up hill, especially hikers. You have to go fairly slow so you can stop in time to avoid other people on the trail. You have that with every trail though so no real knock on this one, just dreaming of what it would be like to have it closed off to all uphill traffic for a bit and be able to really open it up going down.
Several very steep shortcuts that you can take on the downhill journey but you do so at your own risk and some are quite steep and you can easily fly right over your handlebars. Remember to keep on the back brake and lean back a little and that should keep you vertical but not going over.
Overall this is the best place to ride in the area if you want to get off the high-traffic roads for a bit.
Oat Hill Mine Road is a mountain bike trail that starts right at the intersection of Highway 29 and Silverado Trail, just outside Calistoga's retail strip. The trail is an old wagon trail that was once used to bring supplies up to miners. The ride is about 3 hours long (up and back), climbing about 2000 feet in elevation over some very rocky terrain. Very "technical" as MTB folks like to say (ad nauseum).
I sort of went on a whim while staying at the Solage hotel a couple hundred feet away, and it turned out to be a blast. Almost no one else was there, and I could cool my heels back in the pool once I was done. Enjoy!
