Best of Home: Volume 8. ⁠ ⁠ Botanical to Morning Glory / San Luis Obispo, CA⁠ ⁠ Distance: 3 miles / Descent: -1,227 feet / Climb: 154 feet⁠ ⁠ “I’m not sure exactly how many times I’ve ridden these two trails, but it’s a lot and they never get old. It’s just one of those rides with a little bit of everything: Chunky rock gardens, sweeping singletrack with tight turns, and some shorty, punchy climbs that sneak up on you. The view from the top overlooks a good part of the Central Coast and my hometown of San Luis Obispo. I grew up in SLO and hopped on my first mountain bike there; 10 years later, I still find myself going back to those very same trails. ⁠ ⁠ “Botanical drops from a USFS road on West Cuesta Ridge, at the sign for the trail’s namesake: the Cuesta Ridge Botanical Area, a preserve home to multiple rare plants, including a grove of Sargent cypress trees straddling the ridge to the north. It’s easy to pick up speed on the swoopy, wide-open blue, and just as easy to wash out on the loose rocks and pebbles. Botanical flows into Morning Glory about 550 feet down, which is an entirely different flavor: narrow, rocky and technical, packed with switchbacks and peppered with a few creek crossings. ⁠ ⁠ “The weather on the ridge can be so varied it keeps things interesting on its own. I’ve seen days where icicles hang from the trees and the ground is covered in frost, days when it feels like you’re searching for water in the Sahara Desert, and days so thick with mist that the dirt stays tacky and there’s no dust for miles—enough for you to forget, for a split second, that you’re in dry, hot California. It may not be PNW loam, but it’s my home.” ⁠ ⁠ Contributor: Tara Conway⁠ / @tara.d.a.c.t.y.l⁠ ⁠ Photos: @sparks_kyle⁠