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Description: A wide variety of trail terrain and features. See trail options/descriptions below for more.
Location:Sanford
Miles: about 11 miles
Skill Level: Physically fit intermediate-advanced with some expert sections. Not recommended for true beginners.
Official Park Website

Trail Options – Main trail head is located in RV campground (take chained off gravel road all the way to the top from paved upper parking lot by the lakes). Please allow yourself plenty of time to complete your ride – park gates are locked exactly at closing time not at sunset so all winter till April that means 5 PM. Park shuts entrance gate ½ hour before closing time. Park has limited parking capacity and sometimes fills up during prime times. Don’t get caught sneaking in the ranger doesn’t play.

1. Short loop – this is the first one that novice riders should try – enter trail at RV campground & skip Bouldergiest and take first exit point at the bottom of Gold Rush / follow Lake Trail across headwaters bridge around to 300’ lake bridge. This will give you an approximately 4 mile ride with no bail out options. Trails in this area are flowing contour trails some parts are rocky with lots of roots, some log crossings and a hand full of cool berms. Part of this trail is tight single track with some moderate climbing and is best suited for novice to advanced riders.

2. Front Half – Varies from 5 to 6 miles depending on whether you ride or bypass the tech sections. Our biggest rock features live in this part of the trail system – Bouldergiest / Ledges / Gauntlet / Free Fall - all have bypasses for the scared. Exit at Exit Point #2 (half way point) if you have had enough or it near closing time.

3. Second Half – Jungle starts the second half at exit point 2. From the upper parking lot, take 300’ bridge between upper and lower lake – use extreme caution while crossing bridge and yield to fishermen & foot traffic – walk if necessary. Keep going straight at the end of the bridge onto the bike trail. The second half features some of our tightest roughest single-track and our highest ridges. It is also home to our newest machine cut marvels including .3 mile Mega Jump a cross between downhill course and dirt jumps / Drop Zone / Six Pack / Lizard Lick / Dragons Tail – are all new cool bermed out machine cut stuff. The old favorites are still there - Rock Nest Monster / San Lee Slick Rock / Charlie’s Mountain / Twin Peaks. We see a developing trend of people coming out just to ride the second half so they can focus on Mega Jump and the rest of the bermed out machine cut stuff. From the 300’ bridge you are committed to ride at minimum almost 5 miles before you get to the first exit point – Exit #3 but if you made it that far I would stick it out another .7 mile and ride Dragons Tail the cool new exit section.

Other Park Features Bring the whole family while you ride they can enjoy this great park. Brand new playground / plenty of picnic tables / fishing / hiking / visit the nature center with a great variety of snakes and raptures. In season they have paddle boats & kayaks plus a year round RV campground and a seasonal tent campground.

Mega Jump – the new crown jewel of the parks trail system – it consists of thee - one tenth mile downhill legs adding something previously missing from the trail system > Jumps – really big jumps / table tops / step downs / drop offs / pump rollers / oh did I say berms very big berms. Mega Jump is so cool we built it so you can reride it as many times as you please by taking a short little connector trail back to the top. I have rated it as black diamond and it is if you big ring it up to full jumping speed but if you ride it slow you can roll it easy – bike shop owners 5 year old rode it so don’t be scared.

Drop Zone – we rearranged a few of our plentiful boulders with the help of the powerful Kubota hydraulics to create two big drops embedded into a once plain hill side. Stay left for smaller sixer drops stay right for wheel swallowing niner drops. After completing the drops hold on for a massive S shaped berm.

Six Pack – Our coolest berm section, a sweet combination of 6 berms / U’s and 90’s / the G’s will pin you to your bike accelerating you into a big exit jump.

Lizard Lick – we replaced the straight up climb after the last big creek crossing with a deeply bench cut contour following zigzag up to the tent campground. This new section features a black diamond solid rock slab (wall) to climb. Don’t fall off - below is a not so soft rocky hiking trail to land on. Non experts can stay right to take a cool but tight single track switchback to bypass the Lizard Lick slab.

Dragons Tail – is located after our super tuff gravel climb near the end of the trail system. I replaced the old straight down fall line exit trail with a bermed out contour hugging big ring wonder. This section starts with a 120’ long triple berm that will wow you. I wanted you to finish your ride with a giant smile as you carve slope style down through a ravine having wall to wall fun as a final reward for completing the San Lee challenge.

The Gorge – I did not forget the front side – tree cutters on boarding property forced us to redesign launch pad and front side flow to fix some property line miscalculations. What looked to be a disaster turned into a blessing! The massive ravine bordering Bouldergiest now is home to one very sweet hand built, deep cut bench forming a narrow single-track trail zigzagging up the side of the gorge ravine – way cool. George / Steven / John and the Storm Racing team hand carved this baby right out of the ravine side wall. Oh it starts with a new rock strewn creek crossing.

San Lee Park is located in Sandord on the east side of town very close to the US-421 bypass

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San Lee Park trail has been reviewed 32 times by our trianglemtb.com guests.

Reviewed by:	Todd
Reviewed on:	04/06/2013
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I used to race XC here a decade ago. Wow has it changed.
The old (optional) rock gardens are still there - they seem to be designed by a local bike shop to sell derailleurs
(or now 29ers) - not so fun clipped-in on an old XC bike but plenty fun on my Enduro with flat pedals.
Lots of fun new additions such as the sessionable Mega Jump loop (afterwards, on the easy contour-line ascent follow
the sign on the left a short 15m easy hike back to the start again). Everything marked yellow/optional on the trail map is
a fun. Good flow IF you go fast (ditto for Beaver Dam).
I'd have to rank this the best trail in the Triangle Area. Definitely worth the short drive on weekends.
More fun on an all-mountain or jump bike than an XC bike (or at least drop the seat post and use a minimal pack.)
A big thanks to those who put in the major effort to add all the new fun options!

Reviewed by:	The JabberWock
Reviewed on:	03/04/2013
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This trail used to be good. Now it's fantastic. The Mega-Jump makes it the best trail in the area and well worth the drive from the Triangle. Ride this trail at least every week and you'll be a better mountain biker for it.

Reviewed by:	jcw5002
Reviewed on:	03/04/2013
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First time riding here yesterday... very fun trail! We hit all of the hard rock gardens and... wow, they are hard! The rest of the trail was pretty fun with not too much climbing. I don't know if I've ever seen a trail with so much signage. Every feature had its own cool name. Overall, it was definitely worth the trip from Raleigh area!

Reviewed by:	rmckeaveney
Reviewed on:	02/26/2013
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This place is awesome

Reviewed by:	hey, wait up!
Reviewed on:	02/18/2013
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This trail, IMO, is THE place to ride in the triangle. The trail has something for everyone, but caters to the experienced rider. This trail is well marked, and the signage for technical sections is spot on. Most features have ride arounds. Goldrush i think it is called, is AWESOME. Im with the others on the freeride rating. im not totally sure what would classify as freeride for the triangle area, but i dont think there is much of it at san lee. The trail flows, it will test your skills, its rocky, in sections, fast and smooth in others, and all around fun. Well worth the drive from pretty much anywhere in the triangle. the trail designer here knows what he is doing!

Reviewed by:	Oliver
Reviewed on:	02/17/2013
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I have seen a lot of reviews that I feel do not accurately reflect this trail. It is a great trail, that will challenge most riders.

It has flow, it has technical, and it has a nice downhill section with free fall.

I also think freeride should be removed from the rating option. If you have been to the Shore, (not the Jersey Shore) or rode Aptos, you do not truly understand freeride.

Reviewed by:	shredward
Reviewed on:	02/10/2013
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Technical is the word here! The new jump zone is terrible, but the berms are good? Trail builder calls it a mega-jump, more like baby-jump!

Reviewed by:	jhstallings
Reviewed on:	11/12/2012
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The trail at San Lee Park has changed again. There has been just a little distance added but berms, humps, in and out of ravines have been added. The leaves add to the excitment but is still very rideable. FreeFall is even more difficult with leaves but has been blown once. The new stuff needs to get packed down. Come ride in Sanford and do your part to improve the new stuff on the trail. If you are not into technical you can bypass all the crazy stuff and still have a fun day on the bike. Some of the best riding in the piedmont if not the best riding in the piedmont is at San Lee Park.

Reviewed by:	loveandrea2
Reviewed on:	11/05/2012
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My husband and I have been riding every weekend for about 5 weeks. Our friend decided to skip the beginner trails and kick us straight into intermediate trails. We did this one 11/3 and it was so fun! it was fast! The only downfall was the leaves! So many leaves on the ground that caused a lot of slipping and sliding. It did make for a few good laughs watching my husband do the superman off his bike. We did exit at point 2 but look forward to going back and doing the rest. The Rocky Gautlent parts were not easy to ride , in fact we had to carry the bikes over them. Lucky for us there was bypass area that made it much easier to ride then having to go thru the rocks. I would say this trail is a tad bit easier than the Governs Creek which kicked our butts (especially if you ride it backwards like we later figured out we did). Happy Trails!

Reviewed by:	philbert919
Reviewed on:	05/12/2012
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I enjoyed riding the trail but it is not for the meek of heart. It is a pretty tough ride for the beg/intermediate just staying in the seat :) either flying over handle bars or against a tree. I found the trail pretty easily "i think" but I wound up down on the lake trail which was pretty treacherous root riding but made it so I think I missed a turn. Overall good heart pounding ride with moments of widespread panic included....

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Category	Average Rating
Overall :	3.9 / 5.0 based on 32 votes
Technical :	4.1 / 5.0 based on 32 votes
Climbing :	3.2 / 5.0 based on 32 votes
Freeride :	1.8 / 5.0 based on 32 votes
Scenery/Wildlife :	3.3 / 5.0 based on 32 votes
Flow :	3.4 / 5.0 based on 27 votes

San Lee Park

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