This ride takes you over a medium-length mixed loop of fire roads and singletrack (and some paved roads) on the foothills of Mount Tamalpais, while rewarding you with a handful of things worth seeing there.

The ride starts by climbing on Deer Park Fire Road. This trail follows the spine of a ridge. It's a serious climb, but not discouragingly steep. Its steepest part (which is the first half) averages 12% grade. It then eases up a little bit. Then the last third of it has a slope of 11% once again. While the route is mostly under tree cover, views open up to the neighboring hill sides once in a while.

The historic Dipsea Trail parallels Deer Park Fire Road for the whole length of this climb. This is one of the worthwhile things you'll be seeing on this ride (not that you'll be experiencing it first hand, because Dipsea Trail is not legal for bikes). The trail crosses Deer Park Fire Road back and forth at multiple spots but never deviates from it significantly for the duration of this climb. This trail dates back to the Mexican era of California and is believed to have been blazed by the Miwok before Europeans arrived here. It's also the course for the famous annual Dipsea Race, which is stated to have the distinction of being the oldest trail running event and the second oldest foot race of any kind in the US.

You'll notice that the route features a spur section at its "top". This is to visit Pantoll Ranger Station. You can purchase park maps, books, and some gift shop items here, as well as find water, restroom facilities, picnic tables, etc. It also happens to be the primary campground area of Mount Tamalpais State Park and an intersection of many trails, so it's not a bad place for a rest stop featuring some good crowd watching. I count this as the second thing worth seeing along this ride. Whether you'll agree with me that it's worth this side trip is up to you, because that spur you see on the route plot adds an extra 200 feet of climbing and 1.2 miles of distance to your ride. You can make this ride a little bit easier by bypassing this.

Next starts the most scenic part of the ride, where you descend along Coastal Trail. Not only does Coastal Trail stage vistas of beautiful coastal hill sides and the ocean in front of you as you descend, but it also happens to be a very nice singletrack. It's a really rare treat in Marin County, but this trail is pretty enough that it would have qualified as a treat even if singletracks were a dime a dozen in Marin. This is a beautiful singletrack descent by any standard.

Coastal Trail ends at Highway 1 near Muir Beach. Once you come all this way to Muir Beach, it would be a shame to leave without taking in the views from Muir Beach Overlook. The route shown on this page takes you through there as well. That's one more thing worth seeing on this ride.

After that, though, you'll notice that the route follows some residential streets in Muir Beach. There's no particular reason for doing that. You might as well just return to Highway 1 from the overlook and follow that to the junction with Muir Woods Road.

When you reach that intersection, you might want to consider straying from the main loop a little bit to visit Muir Beach itself (as indicated on this route). It's worth a peek if you haven't been there before or if it's been a long while since you have.

Once you get on Muir Woods Road, you are on the return leg of the loop to your parking spot, which is on a paved road open to traffic. The section of the loop on Highway 1 will have moderately heavy traffic on any weekend with good weather. Once you turn onto Muir Woods Road, though, the traffic is much lighter.