Croft Passage and Southside Park Trails near Spartanburg, SC are the definition of multi-use trails. I've never mountain biked on a true off-road trail and seen so many horses.

Croft Passage is probably best know for its equestrian facilities and camping, but it, along with very nearby Southside park, offer some really fun mountain biking as well.

I started the day at the trailhead I had downloaded into my GPS. This was Gypsy's (my new GPS) trial run for mountain biking. I had loaded the map from my singletracks.com account the night before. Gypsy did a great job taking me to the trailhead on a bunch of back streets I otherwise probably would have given up on.

OH, I forgot to describe my preparation for these rides. My wife was gone for the weekend with a bunch of other crazy women (no offense Monica) to a scrapbooking weekend. Yes, Thursday night - late afternoon on Sunday of nothing but scrapbooking, drinking Starbucks going without sleep!! I cannot even imagine. Anyway, along with downloading the maps into Gypsy I downloaded a few tunes as well. Yes from a legal site. On the drive from Johnson City, TN where we lived at the time to Spartanburg I cranked Def Leppard, Kiss, Poison, White Snake, Eagles, Heart and seems like a couple others to a "kill-all-the-stress-in-life-and-ignore-the-traffic-and-just-say-to-hell-with-the-rest" levels and hammered down!! Oh what a day. I swear I had one of the best rides I had had in a LOOOONG time.

Ok, back to the ride, most of this trail is really easy to follow and just enough fun with several log crossings but only a couple that were necessary to dismount for, a couple bridges, a few fairly fast corners, etc. There was one section I began to ride but it had been ridden by so many horses that weekend that it would absolutely rattle your teeth and the sandy areas were so deep you couldn't move. Then came the muddy areas, nothing causes worse mud bogs than hundreds of hoofprints. It was a shame too because there was a series of small drops that would have been a blast under better conditions.

After I finished that side I drove into Spartanburg to try a restaurant I had heard about and a locally brewed beer there sold there. These were both part of the reason I chose this ride today. The beer was from R J Rockers Brewing Co, the restaurant was Chief's Wings and Firewater. Menu looked good online and like I say they carried this locally brewed beer. Well, what sounds good when you're looking at it on the net is not always that good in person. Now granted to make a true decision a person needs to visit any place more than once but I didn't get that chance so I'll go with my one impression. This place SUCKED!! I sat on the patio, ordered the only beer they carried from RJR, a wheat bear and some wings and fries. The beer was pretty good though not the RJR I wanted to try, the wings were the worst I have ever eaten anywhere,and the service was even worse. How many times have you ever ordered fries that you waited all the way through your wings and beer and the fries never showed. That's right I NEVER got my fries!!!

Anyway, after lunch I drove back to the park, to a different parking area, to try the Southside Park trails. Let's just say I saved the best for last. There were some decent short climbs, a couple of man made jumps and stunts, lots of roots, some rocks and one surprisingly calm path through a flat meadow. Also thrown in were a couple of creek crossings and a lot of riding near the creek which is always good.

I've seen tougher rides with more jumps and stunts but this one has enough to be a lot of fun for most riders. If the weather has been rainy it will drastically change the nature of the ride.