Northern California

I think a lot of these guide books try to throw a bunch of trails in so they can either say they have more trails that the next book or be "the complete guide" to what ever. That is lame. The author doesn't try and write a book that is all things to all people. Looking for a trail to take your out-of-shape dad on when he comes to California to visit? Look elsewhere. This is a book written by an avid mountain biker for avid mountain bikers. It is a comprehensive guide to the trails that mountain bikers want to ride in Northern California, all the trails are primarily single track rides. The book is well written too. It has all the info you need for each ride clearly presented.

I bought this (as well as a few others) for an extended riding trip to the area. No one trail book ever has it all, but I found this very useful.

Of the three major mountain biking guides that cover Northern California the Falcon Guide is my favorite. Despite having fewer rides (67 versus the other two which each have a hundred) the trail information is presented in such a way to allow for efficient trail selection and detailed understanding of the trail's difficulty. Each ride is accompanied by a map depicting where in CA it is, a helpful schematic of the trail and an elevation profile of the ride. The books best feature is that each trail does not get a single difficulty score, but the elevation profile is broken up into sections that are each assigned a difficulty category (from 1 to 5). The rides tend to be on the intermediate to advanced side (though some good beginner single track is included) and there are no paved or easy rides (which the other two books include). To date I have found the trailhead directions and trail descriptions to be accurate and lively.