Florida isn’t usually the first place that people think of when talking about awesome mountain biking. Or any mountain biking for that matter. That’s because the sunshine state, primarily known for beaches and amusement parks, is flat and sandy. And that usually doesn’t equate to good offroad biking. But there are several spots in Florida where you can find some really awesome trails. The Santos Trail system is the most extensive and arguably the best mountain biking in Florida.
Florida Isn’t Flat, Not All of It Anyway
Located in Ocala, the Santos Trails system consists of over 80 trails totalling over 68 miles of single track, as well as a 15 mile paved greenway that connects the various sections of it. The trails range from green rated cross country trails to blue intermediates and black diamond expert rated. The green trails are pretty wide, mostly smooth cross country type trails. And surprisingly, there’s a good amount of elevation change, rocks, roots and lots of winding turns at the blue and black diamond level.
How Much Time Should I Plan On Riding These Trails?
If you’re thinking of riding most of the trails at Santos, you should plan on a couple of full days of riding. The trail system is split into two main areas. The Santos trails are on the eastern side of the trail system, accessed via the Santos Trailhead. Santos includes primarily natural surface trails of all difficulty levels. The other system is called the Vortex trails. Vortex includes more natural surface trails, but also has the Vortex Jump Park that has a bunch of wooden structures and boardwalk jumps and features. Vortex is definitely geared toward the advanced riders, but there are some things for the less skilled and adventurous to enjoy.
Is It AMTB Friendly?
Whenever I go to a trail or bike park I haven’t been to before, I always consult the Trail Forks app. With that, I can get a good idea of which trails will most likely be good for me and my Lasher ATH-FS. I say most likely because trail ratings are subjective and notoriously prone to interpretation. A trail that an expert rider considers green might be impossible for a newer rider, and if there are only a few (or zero) reviews from fellow adaptive riders, the ratings are not always reliable.
At Santos, I was pleasantly surprised that I could easily ride all of the green trails with no issues. The trails were wide for the most part with the exceptions being some narrow sections where I was scraping through the bushes and palmettos. But I like that kind of stuff, getting in touch with nature. And every blue intermediate trail that I rode was more challenging with more rock and roots, but also totally rideable. I only rode about half of the available trails, but that’s only because I ran out of time. I will be going back to check out the rest of them in the near future.
I rode the following trails with no problem, except for a few tree gates that were easily ridden around.
Pine Tree
Marshmallow
Canopy
Cowbone
Blue Hiway
Bunny
Puppy
Twister
You can watch full trail rides in the video below.
Trail Verified by AMTB Hub
