As notorious as Marin County is for its paucity of bike-legal singletrack, this ride might serve as convincing proof of how much biking fun can be had there even by riding mostly fire roads. This ride takes you over chaparral-covered scenic hillsides, through dense eucalyptus, intersects a Zen retreat, allows a rest stop at a beach, and manages to string together a couple of stretches of singletrack even.

The ride starts with a sharp climb out of Tennessee Valley on Miwok Trail. The trail might qualify as a singletrack, but it's a bit too steep in its initial climb to the ridgetop to be very enjoyable (to me, at least). Once you're up there and you cross Coyote Ridge Trail, the route dives into a grove of eucalyptus trees. What the trail does under tree cover seems to be no more than a sharp descent and a sharp climb for no good reason, but things get easier once you emerge on the other end and Miwok Trail starts curving lazily along an open hillside with views to Richardson Bay and beyond.

After you cross Highway 1, you get on Dias Ridge, heading toward Muir Beach. The last half mile or so of this trail (right before the point where it meets Highway 1 again) is reflected in the downloadable GPS track on this page in its state before the extensive rework it has undergone recently. When I did this ride, this segment was a rutty, rocky, steep, and (in some places) extremely narrow singletrack. I'm sure it will be much more tame after the recent changes. So, expect the new route to deviate significantly from what you see on your GPS screen if you happen to upload this track to it and you're following that as you ride. Eventually, though, the trail still leads down to Highway 1 near the short street (Pacific Way) that takes you to the Muir Beach parking lot. You shouldn't have any problem finding your way there.

After killing however much time you feel like killing at the beach, you'll continue the ride by pedaling through the Green Gulch organic farm and Zen center. Middle Green Gulch Trail then starts right at the "back door" of this farm. It starts out climbing with some switchbacks. Initially, at least, it appears to be a singletrack. Further up, it turns more into a fire road, or at least a singletrack that has resulted from an old fire road being partially grown over with vegetation. This trail also happens to be legal only uphill for bikes, so don't get any bail-out ideas back down this trail.

Once you finish this final climb of the ride, all that's left for you is the enjoyment of the wide open views from Coyote Ridge Trail as it descends back into Tennessee Valley.