The Sycamore Canyon trail area is a very popular spot for hikers, bikers and horses and offers a decent variety of trails to ride on. Most people will head down Big Sycamore Canyon Rd. towards the beach and do a beach and back ride which is around 19 miles and not too exciting of a ride. You can spice it up by doing other trails that are off the beaten path such as Guadalasca Trail which offers much more excitement. The Wendy Trail\ Danialson Fire Road ride is a there and back ride that doesn't require that you go down Big Sycamore Canyon Rd. and have to ride back up which is a big plus right there. It's about an 8.5 mile round trip depending on how far you veer off the main trail to explore. The trail offers some fire road as well as some singletrack riding which can be on the rocky side in some areas. Scenery wise it's pretty nice even though you can see houses from almost all parts of the trail and some of them are very nice to look at! You will have some uphill riding to do but that means you get to come back down it. The downhill portion may be a little intimidating for new riders because it can be pretty rocky but if you go slow you should be ok. |
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Wendy\Danialson Trail Video
Wendy\Danialson Trail Review
This trail is a fun one to do if you want a quickie that won't take you too long to do but will still give you some uphill exercise as well as some downhill fun. The hardest part is figuring out how to get to the uphill part since many of the trails in the area are marked as not for bikes. You may have to just break the rules if you want a direct path there. Most people don't seem to mind as long as you go slow when passing them by.
Once you get to the uphill part it will be a nice test of your cardio and balance going up the rocky sections but once you get to the top it will smooth out and give you some decent views. You will notice when you get to the top that it will T off to the left and to the right. If you take the trail to the left you will be going uphill some more but the trail will start to fade away into brush and then you will have to turn around and come back down. If you take the trail to the right you can take some decent singletrack down to some horse property and then you will turn around and come back up. Neither direction is too exciting so maybe you will just want to turn around at the T and hit up the downhill back the way you came.
The reason this trail gets a 3 for the fun factor rating is because of the downhill ride on the way back. It's pretty rocky but you can still maintain some speed on this part and blast through it. It's better if you have a full suspension bike though to help you take the bumps. This part doesn't see too many hikers so there is a good chance you won't have to slow down too much. Once you get to the bottom of this part the trails are pretty standard issue and are not too exciting.
Wendy\Danialson Trail Pictures
Directions to Wendy\Danialson Trail
View Wendy Trail - Danialson Fire Road in a larger map
To get to the Wendy Trail\ Danialson Fire Road trails you will need to take Wendy Dr. off the 101 Freeway in Newbury Park or take Potrero Rd. from Westlake Village and park where they intersect at each other. There is a dirt parking lot that offers quite a bit of parking space but it still gets pretty crowded on nice days. It is pretty obvious where the trail starts right at the parking lot and you can look on the map on this page to see how to get to this particular part of the trail.