The Backbone Trail is a 67 mile long trail that spans the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Historic Park to Pacific Palisades and is used by mountain bikers, hikers and horses. There are many ways to access the Backbone Trail since it crosses many roads giving you an opportunity to explore various sections without having to backtrack to where you started or do a two car ride. It can take quite some time to explore the entire Backbone Trail and you can't really do it all in one day unless you are Superman! Since the trail is so long and has so many access points it makes for a great trail to do multiple rides on.

Backbone Trail Reviewed, Filmed and Rated by Jim Bernstein Review Date: 1/17/2013 Trail Ratings  Fun Factor:  Technical:

Backbone Trail from Cessna Rd to Kanan Rd Trail Video

Backbone Trail from Cessna Rd to Kanan Rd Trail Review

This review is of the section of the Backbone Trail from Cessna Rd to Kanan Rd and is about a 3.8 mile ride going one way. Since Cessna Rd is a dirt road and appears to be private you will need to park on Kanan Rd and ride up the trail to Cessna Rd. It's an up and down ride but it is more up when starting from Kanan Rd which leaves you with more downhill fun coming back down. You can continue on past Cessna Rd if you want and it will take you down into a tree filled valley and is a nice addition to the ride but keep in mind that you will have to ride back up!

This part of Backbone Trail is all singletrack and is fairly smooth for the most part with a few rocky and rutty areas near the Cessna Rd side of the trail. And the final decent to the Kanan parking lot is pretty rocky as well but it's fairly short so you can walk it if you don't feel comfortable riding down rocky terrain. You will go down for a while and then have to go up for a short period twice during the ride on the way back. There are some nice curves as well but be careful as there may be riders or hikers coming up the trail. You will also cross Latigo Canyon Rd on your way up and down and you will notice that there is a dirt parking lot there as well so if you ever want to do a 2 car ride the option is there. Overall it's a fun ride with some fast singletrack throughout the ride and the climbs are not too difficult. You should be able to go make the round trip in about 1.5 hours.

Backbone Trail Pictures

Directions

To get to the Kanan parking lot take the 101 freeway to the Kanan Rd exit and then head west towards the beach for about 8 miles and the parking lot will be on the right. It gets pretty full on the weekend and hot during the summer so go early. There are 2 ways to access the Backbone Trail from the parking lot and the way you want to take is not marked too well and is at the end of the parking lot and starts with an uphill walk on the rocky part of the trail. You will actually go over Kanan Rd at the beginning of the ride. A good rider can ride 90% of the trail without having to walk.

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