Mark, Herb and I decided to do Little Pine yesterday. After a call from Sam warning us about the intense mud, we decided a Romero adventure would be better. Our original plan was to ride Romero up to the top, then go hook up with San Ysidro trail and ride back down into Montecito then back to Romero. Instead we ended up climbing Romero to the top, taking an alternate, newly cut trail that we called the Romero Connector to Camino Ciello then riding the road back to the top of the actual Romero trail, then dropping the Island View trail back into Romero Canyon. The newly cut Romero Connector is great. It cuts through several tunnels of chaparral and for some of it, you’re riding on grass. It’s a lot of hike-a-bike though since no one has been riding it and it’s pretty loose. Overall very cool. The top of the Island View trail is great right now. The little bit of rain and snow up there has made the usually loose gravel into pretty tacky soil. Romero is still Romero. After falling twice there on Saturday, I was taking it easy and we managed to have a fall free descent.

Total distance: about 14 miles.
Total vertical climb: about 3000 ft.

View all images