All three of these trails are in my neighborhood and I've ridden them a LOT, including in the current decade. Probably gonna regret jumping into another disc vs. rim thread but oh well.
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Originally Posted by slowpoke
We may be talking about different trails. Keep in mind there's (at least) three "Coast" trails in the area:
1. Coastal Trail from the roundabout to Bunker Road in Gerbode Valley
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This one is fairly mellow. You can go much, much faster on it big tires, with disc brakes, though. There's also one section which NPS has dumped huge amounts of loose gravel on for some reason that gets dangerously drifty going downhill on skinny tires.
The bottom section is extremely rutted out, and on a skinny rim brake bike you'll be death-gripping all the way down it, but it's over quickly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowpoke
2. Coastal Trail / Coastal Fire Road between Tennessee Valley and Muir Beach
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This one is the absolute epitome of terrible Marin County fire roads - super steep and rutted with a surface dirt that's bad year round - loose and dusty in the dry season, peanut butter mud in the winter. Really, you're better off not riding it no matter what bike you have. Dias or Middle Green Gulch are much better ways to and from the same place.
You CAN ride it on rim brakes and skinny tires. I used to! It really sucks! Actually had a fairly bad crash here involving a bike with cantilevers and 38mm tires. If having a terrible time riding is your thing just because #SaveTheRimBrake then more power to you. The worst sections are between Tennessee Valley Trail and Coyote Ridge, and then from Coyote Ridge down to Muir Beach... oh wait, that's all the sections.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowpoke
3. Coast View Trail from Pantoll to Muir Beach
My handling skills aren't good enough to run skinny tires on the third.
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Coastview is a mountain bike trail. Recently NPS has done some very questionable trail work on the lower section to try to make it more palatable to gravel bikes, but since they aren't good at their jobs the smoother sections are already eroding again. Riding up it on a gravel bike is doable - I used to it frequently on a rim brake bike too. But downhill, it's mountain bike terrain.