Category: Foothills

Trail LP (Luz Piloto (Pilot Light)) is the shortest member of The Smoking Section collection. Like the other Smoking Section trails, it’s a straight-down-a-ridge, singletrack made by goats, campesinos, running water, and a few biker/hikers. The vegetation can quickly take back over this rarely used trail so part of the fun is keeping a sharp eye on the terrain to keep from being led astray by a mirage path. Depending on the time of year and the amount of recent use, the tread may show more or less obviously. The usual mix of scrub oak and acacia bushes (i.e. THORNS!) do their best to keep your sight lines short and your body scraped up. Just go easy on the terrain with your braking, be prepared to turn quick, and let ‘er roll.

Since Trail LP dumps out on Trail TTT (Toro Toro Toro (Bull Bull Bull)) above the steep, eroded section, it makes for a nice connector to create a loop on the western end of Road LNR so you can ride part of Trail MMD (Maguey Mi Dia (Maguey My Day)), come down Trail LP, and be back up on the top of Road LNR for more singletrack (e.g. Trail ED (Espina D (Spine)), Trail LLL (Larry’s Lacerated Leg), Trail VV (Via Viguera)).

Road LNR (Libramiento Norte Road) north of Donaji over into Trinidad de Viguera is a built but never used roadway. The pavement is falling apart in some areas, and there are roadblocks (piles of dirt dumped across the road) in some places. Occasional motorized traffic uses the accessible parts but it’s used by residents more like a greenbelt path than a beltway road. Half-jokingly called the “San Felipe del Agua Bike Park Access Road” it in itself isn’t a worthy mountain bike trail, but using Road LNR to head east or west on the elevated areas north of Oaxaca de Juarez provides one easy access to over 40 kilometers of trails (and adding more every month!).

Trail LLL (Larry’s Lacerated Leg) is a tight, twisty mostly downhill singletrack trail connecting Trail HFR (High Flyer Ridge) and Trail TTT (Toro Toro Toro (Bull Bull Bull)). The LLL trail splits off to the west from Trail HFR just as HFR starts to climb after exiting the clearing around the electrical tower and gets more crowded from vegetation. The tread is well-packed dirt with very few technical obstacles except for erosion ruts in steep sections. The section above the LLL + MMD (Maguey Mi Dia (Maguey My Day)) Junction is readily ridable up or down. The section below that junction is a bit steeper and rutted. A nice connection is to use Trail MMD down to the LLL + MMD Junction, climb LLL up to the HFR + LLL Junction and then up HFR to one of the trails reached from HFR (e.g. Trail M (Mechero (Burner))).

OaxacaMTB.org All-Trails Map

Trail HFR (High Flyer Ridge) is a shady, singletrack trail that climbs the ridge starting out from LNR (road) and getting more technical and steep as it climbs. Cutoffs for the Trails LLL (Larry’s Lacerated Leg), M (Mechero (Burner)) and Ma (Martillada (Hammerblow) and T (Tostadora (Toaster)) (all downhills) are on this trail.

From the west end the trail starts with a climb to gain the ridge but then loses elevation as it runs on the ridge top to the northeast. Around the first kilometer the trail starts the climb that averages around 12% for the next 1.75km to its junction with Trails BK (Burro Kong (Donkey Kong)) and Ma (Martillada (Hammerblow). Beyond that the trail continues up the ridge but the tread gets rougher and sections of steeper grades become more frequent.

Note that this track shows the west entrance on the south side of the ridge, basically at the junction of Trail HFR, Trail MMD (Maguey Mi Dia (Maguey My Day)) and Road LNR (Libramiento Norte Road). Find that junction and scramble up the erosion-gutted rut to your left just as you start down Trail MMD having left Road LNR. Turn left (north) and follow the obvious singletrack trail up. When you are east of the high-voltage electrical tower, go about 50m north but at each social path intersection, follow the best path that leads you to the ridge top headed northwest. As you turn and begin NW, watch of for mistaken turns (e.g. north approach from Road LNR up to HFR on your left, Trail VV on your left, Trail LLL on your right). Trail rolls up and down for

Trail ED (Espina D(orsal)(Spine)) starts at the top of Rojo Runout peak (see Trail RR (Rojo Runout)) as a thin ribbon of dirt facing constant threat of encroachment from the bordering grasses. The singletrack takes the fall line down to the south, weaving (barely at times) through the acacia bushes and scrub oak. The slope decreases slightly and the trail jogs west to run along side a section of fence before it enters on to a jeep trail bordered by a few campesino houses (shacks, really) and heads steeply down into a saddle of the ridge.

At this saddle on the ridge, the trail (i.e. dirt road) enters a four-way intersection of dirt roads. Trail ED takes the left (east) road which seems to deadend in 15 meters. A wide singletrack path starts here and dives down to the east to a right-hand switchback. A subsequent turn to the left sets you heading east by northeast and down into an open area in the bottom of the ravine the trail has led you into. A short scramble on the east side of the ravine leads to a wonderfully built benchcut singletrack tread heading south and uphill to bring you out of the ravine and over to the next ridge to the junction of Trail A (Abuela (Grandmother)) and ED. At this point ED becomes a dirt road (with deep ruts in some sections) headed down the ridge to the south. The road occasionally has a chain gate across it (but with a pedestrian opening on the east side of the gate) as you take the final downhill approaching a small neighborhood of houses in the saddle between the upper section of Trail ED and the first of three peaks that sit on the remainder of the ridge before it dies out west of barrio Creston.

After stopping for a Coke and a snack at the small tienda/miscelánea just north from where the ISSTE-route buses turnaround/park, follow the dirt road south across the saddle, ignoring the more-travelled roads (one to the right, one to the left) that would lead you off the ridge. Instead follow the middle road that starts climbing the next hill south of the saddle. It will turn to the east and continue climbing. Locate the singletrack hiking trail (time for hike-a-bike fun!) that stays true to keeping you headed south on the ridge top. If you stay on the road and end up taking a turn to the right (i.e. south), you’ve missed. Go back to the west (downhill) and make a better effort to find the singletrack (it will look like a trash-filled rut, most likely). After you climb to the summit of this hill, the continuation of Trail ED is more obvious as a doubletrack running the ridge south down through the next saddle to the subsequent hill that has the large array of radio towers on it.

When you climb through the trees on the south side of this saddle you come onto the cobblestone access road that has climbed from the east side of the radio tower peak and circled the north side to run on up to the facility using the west side of the hill. Follow this road south until it circles the south end and turns north to enter the communication facility. Trail ED leaves the cobblestone road and becomes a doubletrack that heads south, diving steeply downhill to the next saddle where you can easily visit the large cross (i.e. Cruz de Milenio) on the small summit that is the south hill of the saddle you’ve just entered. Use the now-visible lower part of the tower facility’s access road which is now visible just below you to the northeast of the Cruz de Milenio summit. Make your own way through the residential areas in the valley below or follow the remainder of this GPS-tracked route to return to Colosio Park.

A good mixture of up and down, singletrack and wider, twisted and straight, and wooded versus barren trail for adding several kilometers to a ride. Especially beautiful late in the day as sunset starts to cast long shadows into the Oaxaca valley.