Wilson Canyon/May Canyon loop.

I rode this on May 10th 2001 and even at 10am it was already getting way too hot (Summer's starting early, it seems). This one starts behind Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar: Thomas Guide® ref pg 480 J1. I first happened across this trail from the other direction, and it's a little obscure to find the first time - you park in one of several lots used by hospital people on Olive View Drive and ride up Cobalt St and keep on going, and eventually pass a few abandoned buildings, and then you see a locked gate ahead. If you go up to the locked gate, you'll see a handy hole in the wire fence to the right big enough for you and a bike. It's quite equestrian around here and there's a fair amount of horse-poop around!

The trail is a steady climb up about 5 miles/1500 feet or so. I've never seen anyone on it, although this time I met a group of hikers at the top who were about to come down it (they'd left a car at the bottom). It's a fire road and has quite a bit of loose gravel. In fact I passed a bulldozer who I thought was doing me a favor scraping off the loose gravel on top, but the net result seemed to be actually more loose stuff, which was harder to ride on. At the top of this section you reach a saddle, which is the junction of several trails. You also reach this point doing the Santa Clara Truck trail when you come up from the Santa Clarita direction.

From this saddle you can see the top of a single-track that comes up from Placerita State Park and another single track that actually dives back down into the San Fernando Valley, but looks pretty steep for biking. So I now continued up on the fire road, heading roughly east and towards Fire Camp #9. This becomes a little less steep, and almost flat in places. Along here is where I found snow in February. You mostly get to see the Santa Clarita Valley along this trail, with occasional openings to the south. After about 3 more miles or so, the dirt road trail meets a spotty blacktopped road. Go left for Fire Camp #9 or go right and start descending for the May Canyon return route. This is what I did today. At this point the total climb is about 2000ft.

Now it's just about downhill all the way. May Canyon Road was delightful.....smooth surface and hundreds of vivid wildflowers in bloom all the way down. I passed one topless man hiking up it with no water and about a million lizards. Why is it that they take so long to realize that if they just went sideways, they'd save themselves a lot of effort? They hear you coming and promptly take off in the same direction you're going and finally they realize they're getting beaten, so go off into the bushes! I also passed a group of beehives.

At the bottom of this road you pass by the side of Veterans Memorial Park, and then it spits you out in a street called Parkland Circle. From here it's a 10 minute ride, mostly downhill through residential streets, to get back to Olive View. A most enjoyable loop!