By Brandon D. Shuler
Think mountain biking, and Florida may not immediately come to mind. But it should.
Florida not only has a vibrant mountain biking community, it also can boast hundreds of miles of mountain bike trails that welcome the beginner and challenge the best mountain bikers in the world.
In fact, the International Mountain Biking Association, a non-profit advocacy group that teaches best trail management practices and works in the halls of Congress to provide equal access for mountain bikers in our nation’s wild spaces, rates two of Florida’s trails—Santos Trailhead and Alafia River State Park—their highest trail designation: Epic.
There are five criteria that qualify a trail to be epic, and Alafia and Santos meet them all:
• Demanding, mostly single-track trail experience in a natural setting
• A true backcountry riding experience in remote settings
• One that is technically and physically challenging
• More than 80 percent single-track
• At least 20 miles in length.
SANTOS TRAILHEAD
Pulling into the car park at the Santos Trailhead, deep in the tall Florida pines right outside of Ocala, it’s apparent you’re in the backwoods of old Florida. What is not so apparent is that you’re also ground zero to some of the best mountain biking in the American southeast.
Santos is the center of Florida’s mountain biking universe for good reason. Although the American mountain-bike scene appears to orbit the steep trails of the American West, Santos all alone on the East Coast was the first trail system to earn the IMBA Epic trail designation since it “emerged as a model trail system, with flowing singletrack, bombproof wooden structures, a bike skills park with progressive challenges and jaw-dropping technical features at the Vortex quarry.”
THE SANTOS RIDES
Vortex
Carved from an old quarry, the Vortex Trail is world renowned. With belly-taking drops, the famous Banana Hammock wood feature, and rocks and roots thrown across an already challenging up-and-down trail, the Vortex is the centerpiece of Santos and wraps right around the Santos Trailhead.
Bryar Patch
Bryar Patch is a short, but taxing trial right of the central connecting trail, Blue Highway. A quick loop section, about a mile, has a number of challenging wood features, one a bridge about 8 inches wide. These wood features make a lot of riders nervous and challenge the handling skills of even the best riders, but it’s the switchbacks and speed you can carry through the section that make it the most fun. With some 180-degree switchbacks and loose sand, it is easy to lose your front tire and find yourself sliding. The speed and experience are great warm ups for the more technical trails like Vortex and Anthill.
Twister
Twister is for the speed demon in you. The trial is a slight downhill with very few technical sections, unless you consider a couple of hammocks that with speed can launch you skyward technical. The trail has one wooden feature switchback that can be the highlight of the run. At just under three miles, this is a great warmup trail before moving to the more technical aspects of Bryar Patch and then the black expert trails of Vortex or Anthill.
Anthill
Anthill is short, but challenging. With its rocks and short, steep climbs, it can rival some of the hard technical trails of the American West. The trial has rocks galore and more switchbacks and walled climbs than you can imagine. In the summer, the trails can get really dry and slippery, adding to the challenge. You may even find yourself standing on the pedals in your lowest gears wondering if you should get off and push. It’s the kind of trail that leaves you wishing for something easy to cool down on, like Spider Kingdom North.
Spider Kingdom North
Spider Kingdom North is a little over three miles and has easy to intermediate sections that are perfect for a warmup, cool down, or spin with a group of mixed abilities. Word to the wise: Note the name. Early mornings can result in all kinds of spiderwebs across the trail and, therefore across your face. The trail is a gentle climb that meanders through pine forest and provides some striking views in the winter, including deer and the occasional turkey. It’s a fun ride and well worth slowing down a bit to take in Florida flora and fauna.
Santos is the center of Florida’s mountain biking universe for good reason. Here, a biker navigates the pit.
- Brandon D. Shuler
SANTOS EVENTS
Aside from the riding opportunities, Santos has a great social calendar that offers a variety of events, from lung- and leg-burning endurance races to family friendly rides.
12 hours of Santos
Pain, suffering, up and downs, flats, headlamps, cheering fans, and pain. If you’re a racer, the 12 Hours of Santos is one of the Southeast’s, if not the nation’s, premier 12-hour endurance races.
The 12 Hours of Santos draws riders from all over the nation to challenge themselves against the Vortex and Santos’s harder trials, and to find that center of pain in themselves to see if they can beat it down. Not for the faint of heart, the 12 Hours of Santos is challenge that leaves riders nowhere to hide.
The race, though, is an event, and the local mountain bike community attends to cheer on the masochists. The race is a gathering, and as racers wind back into the Santos Campground, they are greeted with a wall of well-wishers, the smells of BBQ, and sometimes a wall of music. As racers speed through the campground, they are tempted with adult beverages from the sidelined fans, a cool jump over a fire-lined ramp, and hot dogs or energy bars dangled from overhead fishing rods. Hey, Florida is the Fishing Capital of the World after all.
The 12 Hours of Santos, even if you are not crazy enough to challenge yourself for a dozen straight hours of pedaling, offers a fun bike-filled weekend with like-minded cyclists.
Santos Fat Tire Festival
The Santos Fat Tire Festival is one of the nation’s best-loved mountain bike events of the year. With more than 3,000 visitors each year and 50 to 100 vendors from the most obscure trinket manufacturer to the best-known bike builder, the Santos Fat Tire Festival is a must-see.
Sprawled across the parking areas of the Santos Trailhead, the Fat Tire Festival hosts a bevy of Florida’s best food trucks, great local bands, and a gaggle of stoked mountain-biking gearheads. The entire scene is predicated around celebrating the mountain bike lifestyle with a 50-mile supported trail ride, jump demonstrations, and trials demonstrations that challenge the bounds of gravity.
The Fat Tire Festival is a cherished event and tickets often sell out within days of open ticket sales on Nov. 1.
Ride of the Living Dead (Recently renamed the Fall Epic)
The Santos Ride of the Living Dead is a fun event for the entire family that meets at the Santos Landbridge Trailhead. Sponsored by Greenway Bikes and Retro City Cycles, the Ride for the Living Dead is a rolling Halloween costume party on some of Santos’s easiest and best maintained trails.
The best costumes win bike swag and opportunities abound for the younger crowd to get excited about mountain biking while gathering healthy Halloween treats.
WHERE TO SLEEP
Though there are hotels within 30 minutes of the Santos trailhead, but if you’re after the outdoors experience, there are camping opportunities from primitive toss-your-hammock-between-two-trees to plugging in that pro team bus electrification and enjoying the AC between biking sessions.
Santos Campground
The Santos Campground is right in the middle of the action. It is located in the heart of the Vortex and a stone’s throw from the jump park. The campground is a community, so come with a healthy attitude and enjoy the family friendly vibes.
The campground has 24 sites with water and electricity, a dump station for RVs, a pavilion, bathhouse, potable water for refills, and easy access to trails and some of the best roads and terrain for road cycling in Florida.
Silver River State Park
If you’re looking for an experience with all the family accoutrements, check out Silver River State Park, just to the east of Santos. The state park has cabins and over 50 camping hookups.
In addition to spacious and ample camping opportunities, Silver River offers canoeing, hiking, and a visitors center with interpretive tours of the surrounding wildlife.The river is known for being some of the most scenic and peaceful in Florida due to its remoteness. There are two launch points that are perfect for the family and a cool place to take a dip after a long day on the trails.
Rainbow Springs State Park
Rainbow Springs State Park is one of the crown jewels of the Florida State park system. Even without Santos, Rainbow Springs is a destination in itself, filled with cool, spring-fed swimming holes, incredible canoeing and hiking, and a well-maintained camping ground with cabins.
WHAT TO BRING
Santos has plenty of bike shops near the trailheads, but once you’re in the belly of the beast, you’re on your own.
Daypack and Equipment
A daypack that can carry two liters of water, a change of socks, a light raincoat, an additional pair of cleat replacements, a bike multitool, and more nutrition than you’d normally carry isn’t just a great idea, it’s a necessity.
Cartridges, Pump, Tubes
We also recommend bringing not only CO2 cartridges, but a portable pump as well, with plenty of extra tubes. Yes, tubeless tires can go flat. Santos, though well maintained and with plenty of other riders cruising the trails, is vast. When things go south quick, you can be miles from your launch point, so come prepared to keep things fun and stress free.
Bikes
Per bikes, Santos offers every type of riding opportunity you can imagine. So, when you’re staring into the garage wondering which bike to toss onto the roof rack, grab the hardtail, the dual suspension, the fat tire, and the BMX. There’s a trail or jump section for every bike.
Clothing
Prepping your clothing for Florida’s unique mountain biking can be a challenge. We highly recommend light jerseys for the summer with light arm warmers or sun sleeves to protect you from the blazing sun. We highly recommend light summer bibs and low ankle socks or no socks. There are plenty of cabbage palms and spiky scrub to hook your socks on. And, though it sounds counterproductive to bring a light jacket, summer can surprise you with rain showers that can actually leave you chilled after a long day in the saddle. Riding miles in the Florida summer with teeth chattering can and does happen, so be aware.
For winter months, pack winter clothing. Ocala can reach freezing temperatures and its always better to be warm and in layers that can be stripped as the day warms rather than chilled all day wishing you had a hoodie. Also, winter can get really wet, so bring a heavier raincoat with a removable liner. You’ll thank yourself for it.
Sunscreen, Bug Spray
In addition to clothing, bring plenty of sunscreen, a lot of bug spray, and a small well-stocked first aid kit. Florida has tons of sun, baby-stealing sized mosquitoes and invisible no-see-ums, and enough pointy rocks and flora that you’ll want to doctor up any skinned knees or poked limbs before going to bed.
Helmets
Finally, always, absolutely always, bring and wear a helmet. In fact, on any bike trip, always pack two. And, this being Santos, pack a ton of bravado and a lot of stoke.
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