Each winter I return home (Marin County, California) to visit parents, and my family of friends that still live in the area.
Marin is a very unique place, at the backbone of Marin lies the coastal mountains that house Mt. Tamalpais, supposedly the birthplace of modern mountain biking.  In my opinion, there are many other places that started "mountain biking" before people in Marin...I mean look a the old Tour de France shots of those psycho pilots riding dirt roads on bikes with fatter tires, one or two gears, in the snow on some crazy high peak!!  Marin was only marketed as the birthplace after some wileys started shuttling Repack.
Anyway, Mt. Tam is amazing...as local Pete "I'll kick your ass on a Diggler" Berrige says, "it's enchanted."
I grew up here, riding an old Specialized Hard Rock the color of this webpage.  I had a pannier rack on the back, a hite rite, and ground control tires...remember those? In the mid 80's me and my few friends that would brave the climb up Eldridge or Old Railroad Grade to the top sometimes before school, sometimes after. and bomb down at speeds they now give you tickets for (see first pic).

...Your worst nightmare....

I've been stopped once about 12 years ago with two other pilots as we were going a maching 20 miles per hour!  I was riding the brakes because I knew this trail (road) was very high profile with the rangers.  We came around a corner and there were two rangers with a truck across the trail and radar gun in hand, telling us to stop.  We had to go to court and pay almost $90 for this ticket.  We were 16 years old.  My first ticket was on a freaking bike.

User conflicts have created quite a situation on Tam.  Mostly every hiker hates mountain bikers, and since that happened first, most mountain bikers hate hikers.  Hikers scream, yell, try to stick sticks in your spokes, even tackle you as you go by if they think you're out of line.   On the other hand, me and my friends were/are always friendly, trying to share the trails, but hikers are not.  Simply put...the majority of hikers want every MTB'er off the mountain and in jail. They think they own the place...which is not too far from the truth.

To make a LONG story short: supposedly, during the early 80's when the "Trailside Killer," a man who killed some people on Mt. Tam scared many hikers off the mountain until they caught the guy, during that time, mountain biking was coicidentally becoming more popular, and hence more and more people were visiting the mountain to ride.  Singletrack was then open, no speed limits, all was good.  Then after the Trailside killer was caught, and hikers (and equestrians) returned to the mountain to find they now had to share it with a new user group--mountain bikers.  They apparently didn't like this and pulled some strings to get bikes banned on all singletrack trails in the entire watershed.  This was a political move, they were better organized.

So that's how it stood, until a few years ago when the Boyscouts of Fairfax starting opening their own (private) singletrack trails to the public.  All you have to do is buy a season pass to help them maintain the trails and upkeep the camp.  They have races on their trails, and these trails are freaking great!  One can link from the camp to anywhere in the Mt. Tam watershed...ride to the Headlands near the coast, ride to Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Point Reyes, etc., etc.  The camp is where many of the below pictures are taken from.  I have too many stories to tell, so I won't even start.
Marin in the winter looks like the Pacific Northwest: wet, GREEN, and very enchanted.  On singles and with the local pilots, there's no place like home...there's no place like home....
 
 

Rick and Mike heading up Eldridge Grade.  This is the traditional
route up to East Peak, and many other offshoots.
 

View of East Peak (Mt. Tam) from Camp Tamarancho...
Oh no, you mean we HAVE TO stay on singletrack?
Shoot, that sucks ass.
 

hmm...i've never read that in the Boy Scouts Pilot Code booklet....
Noontime in the woods. Ewoks lead the way for pilots...use the force.
 
 

Boyscout lession #1: Always take time to be safe (or eat Nate's mom's chocolate toffee).
Stopping to follow the rules of the ranch.
 

View of a fog covered Bon Tempe reservior from Rocky Ridge trail.
 
 
 

Ricky on Wagonwheel trail...nice serpentine outcrop.
 
 

Pilots standing and delivering...
 
 

Pilot TK on an Ionic Steelhead SS (dropouts converted by another
Marin Loc Ricky Hunter in SC) heads down the trail first as usual.
 

Local Pilot Steve completing a drop.
 
 

NB on the Jonny Rotten SS (his only bike)
in the dark woods (again, this is daytime).  Check out
the gramicchi riding pants.
 
 

Pilot Blomgren decends into warp speed.
his arms are approaching the speed of light!
 
 

The Mother Ship is landing.
(The group from the left: Meriweather, Pete, Steve, Nate, TK, Rick, Mike, Matt.)
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