Day 1 of our Ecuador mountain bike trip/adventure riding the super crazy El Infiernillo trail that’s located north west of Quito.
Starting the day
The day started with an early wake up, quick breakfast at the Dann Carlton hotel buffet, and hoping into the ActivExpedition van.
Everywhere in Ecuador is beautiful, but any time you can drive into the mountains it notches up to an 11!
We drove out of Quito, through the protester’s burned up road blocks, and toward the El Infiernillo trail.
El Infiernillo Trail
You start off down the trail riding a fast double track mountain road. Where you get amazing views of the valley floor below!
After a few miles of downhill riding you get to the valley floor and enjoy some light pedaling through fields of grass, cows, and donkeys.
Once you’ve remembered how to pedal a mountain bike the road turns uphill and you start the climb. Riding past tourist getaways, and small family farms with towering green mountains all around.
With a pretty easy climb behind you the trial gets narrow, and you drop into a dirt tunnel that resembles more of a bobsledding course wrapped in jungle than a mountain bike trail.
If you have good handling skills it’s a complete BLAST!!! Just make sure you don’t have really wide handle bars…. you might lose a pinky! 😉
When you cruise out of the jungle the mountains reappear before leading into the Mars section. This is a section of trail that has less vegetation, and is full of orange and red dirt. My favorite part of the Mars section is that you can choose your own lines, and there are a TON of little jumps to pop and play off of!
Cloud Forest
Once you come off your high from jumping around the Mars section, it becomes abundantly apparent that you’ve entered the Cloud Forest. Riding down muddy double track roads you can look to your left and see that the road is cut out of the side of the mountain, and drops into the cloudy jungle!
Most of the time you’re riding too fast to really appreciate your surroundings, but they truly are breathtaking!
El Infiernillo Switchbacks
If you even want to find this section of the trail you need a seasoned guide. The entrance is a hike-a-bike through dense foliage up a short incline. Then the trail opens up (a little) to offer a dirty/muddy mountain biking sledding course.
This part of the trail is not for the inexperienced mountain biker. It’s steep, slippery, and full of tight switchbacks that require you to use the controlled slide method.
If you like a very hard mountain biking experience… You will LOVE this part of the trail!!
After what feels like hours, but is only a handful of minutes, you reach the fast moving river that grew louder the whole way down.
But, you aren’t done there. At the river you have to push your bike through the water while balancing on a 6″ tree bridge that’s about 10′ long. None of us tumbled into the water, but you cannot avoid cleaning your shoes and socks!
The Food
Ecuadorian food was a delight! Almost every meal was top notch. And after the ride we were treated with a build your own tuna salad with fresh veggies and topping from Jose (our guides) organic farm. The freshness and taste was outstanding, and rounded out an amazing day of hard mountain biking!
Links from episode:
- Trailforks riding info: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/40309249/
- ActivExpeditions Trip https://activexpedition.com/tours/ultimate-ecuador-mountain-biking-expedition/
- Shawn’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/connolsb/
- Anna’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/annakae14/
- Emily’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emilyrkramer/
- Jose’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/josecuervoricardo/
- Joe’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/allaroundjoe/
Leave a Reply