Mountain Biking over Oat Hill Mine road
3 weeks ago my wife, brother, and I got the opportunity to mountain bike from Aetna Springs to Calistoga. This ride starts on private property but my parents obtained permission to cross through a friend of the owner.
The route follows an old wagon road which goes over the mountains between Aetna Springs and Calistoga. The road used to be used to reach the numerous mines in the area, and in some parts you can still see the ruts worn into the rock by the wagon wheels. We started a few miles past the old Aetna Springs resort, at a gate where a sign proclaimed “End of county maintained road.” From there the road goes up, skirting along the edge of a hill. The road was fairly rough on the way up and we ended up walking quite a lot of it. My parents, who were hiking, were able to keep up with us on this section of the road. The terrain in this area is very desolate and filled with odd looking volcanic rock outcroppings.
After the first main climb the road crosses a small valley before dropping down to Maple spring. Right before the road starts down there was was a small cave next to the road. The tracks from 4-wheel drive vehicles, which we had seen from the start of the ride, stopped at the cave. After that, the trail was considerably more brushy, and in most areas it was reduced from a road to a single track. In a few places we walked just to avoid touching the poison oak infringing on the trail.
Maple spring didn’t have very much water, but it would have been enough to drink if we had been thirsty (it might have been hard to get to the water through the brush, however). From here the trail climbed up until it met the hiking trails in the Palisades area near Calistoga. There were some great wildflowers along the trail, although often the trail was technical enough that we had to stop riding if we wanted a chance to look at the flowers.
Once we met the Palisades trail, it was all downhill. The first section down is all rocks and was some of the most technical riding I have ever done. I think I walked at least half of it, and almost went over the handlebars twice. I definitely would have felt better with some body armor here. After leaving the technical rocks the trail is much nicer. There were still the occasional rocks in the trail, but after the section at the top we were ready to take them on.
This was a great ride. We probably won’t ever have the opportunity to do it again (owing to the private property at the start) but I’m glad we were able to do it once. It isn’t something I would want to do every day, however. By the time we got down our hands were aching from braking and hanging on over the bumps.