Since it used to be a huge military base, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Fort Ord contains a very large amount of public trails, even though much of what used to be the base is still not open to public use. This large trail network also includes the courses for the bike races organized as part of the Sea Otter Classic, held annually at the neighboring Laguna Seca Raceway. In fact, this route happens to be the exact course used for their cross country mountain bike race for several years up to 2010, with minor variations made to the exact route (and, sometimes, its direction) here and there. Note, however, that the course used for the 2011 XC races at Sea Otter underwent major changes compared to this route in, although it still meandered around the trails in the same area as this ride.

The terrain at Ford Ord does not involve any major mountain ranges, though the mid-size ridges that are present do add up when you string enough of them together, especially on a long trail ride like this one. Many trails here are sandy (when dry) and most geological features seem to be mainly sandstone.

The ride starts in the Laguna Seca Raceway. It's a bit tricky to find your way out of wherever along the racetrack you may have parked your car, to the beginning of the trail ride. You can either study the map carefully to be able to orient yourself, or (as I would recommend) make use of a GPS receiver using the downloable track on this page.

I'm told that there is also a nice new parking area on Creekside Terrace at the other extreme of the route from Laguna Seca. I think it might be the one seen at this link. If you are interested in a subset of this route just in that vicinity or if you're interested in exploring other routes in this area, you might want to keep that additional parking option in mind.

The initial part of the ride follows mainly along a ridgetop for a while (Trail 11). Then comes one of my favorite parts of the ride, a beautiful singletrack (Trail 50) descending gently along the side of a valley (Barloy Canyon).

Once the singletrack ends, you cross a paved road and pick up another singletrack on the other side (still Trail 50) that climbs up to a low ridge via switchbacks. Nice dune foliage line the sides of this trail segment. Once you're on top of that low ridge, you follow it for a short distance (Trail 22) before turning sharply to start descending back on the same side from which you climbed it. This descent (Trail 60) is easily the sandiest part of the ride. It's a reasonably steep trail that feels like riding downhill on a beach (at least as of the time of my last ride there). To me, the concept of "downhill on sand" feels a bit contradictory. The fluid nature of sand makes me expect that the trail can't stay that way for too long, and that the sand should be pushed away from or roll down the trail fairly quickly. But, I suppose, when the ridge itself is made of sandstone, you end up with a steady state of "downhill sand". That causes this descent to consist pretty much of an exciting "controlled slide" most of the way down.

Once you cross pavement again, a steep singletrack climb starts on the other side (Trail 82/85). I'm not too fond of this part. I'm never good at clearing this climb.

After a brief stint on pavement and a little bit of ruler-straight fire road climbing, you meet singletrack again at Trail 44 ("Lombard/Corkscrew/Outhouse Trail"). This nice trail winds around a hilltop and then descends to a multiway intersection. The ending part of this descent used to be a wickedly rutted short series of tight and steep curves, but a couple of years ago this part of the trail was reworked to make it milder.

You continue from that multiway intersection over the Three Sisters (Trail 10). You'll immediately realize where the name comes from when you struggle over the exceedingly steep succession of three short fire road climbs.

Following this, you enter the part of the ride that involves the tightest network of short interconnected trails. Follow your GPS or your map carefully and enjoy the fun singletrack here.

Another notable trail segment along the rest of the ride is a narrow singletrack (Trail 41; "Goat Trail") across an open meadow, where you descend briefly and then start slowly climbing, when riding in the direction of this route. Following that, the fire road continuation of Trail 10 drops you onto Skyline Road and you limp your way over the numerous humps along that road back to your car.

Right near the end of the ride, you'll have an option of just finishing your return on the fire road all the way, or taking another singletrack option (Trail 47; "Couch Canyon / Hurl Hill Trail") right near the end. The singletrack is a nice little trail, but it's a pretty short one, and if you're too tired by this point, you wouldn't be missing a whole lot if you were to skip that one.

If you are a local of the vicinity of this ride and/or you're fond of trail rides in that region, you might be interested in knowing that Fort Ord also happens to be the home base of the Monterey Off Road Cycling Association (MORCA). If you are wondering about a way of getting involved, there's your starting point.