Irish Hills
(Gary Sletten rolls down the Irish Hills towards Prefumo Canyon Road – Cerro San Luis lurks in the background).
You won’t find this one in the guide books. This is a local “after work” ride. Short mileage, with challenging climbs, and fast rocky descents on singletrack makes this ride a good one. It is easy to loop this ride, or ride it as an out and back.
You can find this ride at the end of Madonna Road, or you can start it the more challenging way (steeper climb) from the parking lot on Prefumo Canyon Road.
From the end of Madonna Road (near Home Depot), you will find two singletracks that head up the hill. They both go to the same place, but the one on the left is a little longer and more gradual. If you loop this ride, come down the fork you’ll see on the right.
Ride the single track up until you come to a paved road, turning left. The other previously mentioned single track pops out down to your right once you hit the pavement. Continue up the pavement for a short distance. The road will soon turn to fire road, completely covered with rocks. Although this looks bad, it is actually cleanable if you keep a good line.
Eventually the rocky road will turn to single track again. Pass the Mine Trail on the right (bad for riding) and continue forward. You will soon come to an intersection. The left takes you down to a dirt road which climbs back to the pavement. There is a pretty good little stretch of singletrack there, but it is really short.
Go right and continue along the top of the ridge. You will soon arrive at yet another intersection. This climbs up for a rocky loop, and has a decent overlook of Prefumo Canyon if you take the spur off to the right. The right fork takes you all the way down to Prefumo Canyon Road, and is the best singletrack downhill of the ride. Be careful.
From the bottom, you can climb back up the way you came, or ride Prefumo Canyon Road (paved) to Los Osos Valley Road. Los Osos Road (left) returns you to Madonna.
