I am Crazy Chris and Redding bike trails are endless | Redding CA
22 years ago I asked myself, “does Redding CA have any bike trails for me to ride? You see, I just got job transfer to the Redding CA area from Rohnert Park and I did a little mountain bike riding there, mostly “Annadel Park”in Santa Rosa. Anyways, once I settled in after the move, I went to the nearest bike shop, the “Chain Gang” bike shop. If anybody had some information regarding Redding bike trails it would be a bike shop. The guys at the shop were super cool, so cool that I have life-long riding buddies to this day. My new friends directed me to Whiskeytown Recreation Area which has a beautiful lake in the middle of the forest. It’s beautiful.
Mountain biking at Whiskeytown Lake
My 1st MTB ride on Redding bike trails, was “Southfork” which is an access road to the communications towers at the top. I just really wanted to ride up the road so I could turn around and go back downhill and that is exactly what I did. 7 miles of dirt road with a steady climb and very boring. I don’t recommend this ride unless you want to incorporate other Redding bike trails to drop you down to Benson road. I will say this, Southfork DH is gnarly MTB in Redding CA. For sure! Many good times on that trail, maybe I’ll share a story or 2.
Well, that was my 1st taste of MTB in Redding CA and I wanted more. Give me more MTB. So I inquired about group rides on Facebook and found “MTB Redding”. Created some more relationships with other MTB riders and learned where all the trails are in Redding CA. Now, I know of some trails that are not even on Trail Forks.
A lot has changed in Redding CA as far as Redding bike trails since I first moved here. A few organizations came together and start building and maintaining a wide network of bike trails. You really can make a day of riding from the trail to trail all the way to Whiskeytown Recreation Area from Redding CA. That is quite a ride, very scenic, and 40 miles plus but it’s an AWESOME MTB experience.
Now, we have multiple areas to ride bikes or MTB in Redding CA. Swasey Recreation Area, Keswick CA area, Westside trails, and Whiskeytown Recreation area. There are 70 plus Redding bike trails all networked together. You can get in a good day’s ride just from downtown. Each area is packed with choice MTB trails like the “Chimney” in Whiskeytown Lake and the “Enticer Jump” trail at Swasey Rec area or the “French Fry” trail near Keswick CA. You can easily do those Redding bike trails in a day. No doubt.
My name is Crazy Chris and I am an MTB fanatic! I love the Redding CA area. Go visit my Youtube channel “MTB Crank Addict” for the videos featuring the trails mention above. Please like and subscribe. Thanks for reading and supporting my efforts of my “Evil take over”.
