The Ocala Mountain Bike Association built and maintains the Santos Trails on the outskirts of Ocala, Florida, located on 80th just off Highway 441. A spacious parking area, practice area, and even bike wash greet you as you arrive, along with this map, duplicates of which are found at other areas within the maze of trails. The yellow trails are the easiest, blue moderate, and red the most technical and strenuous. The trails actually continue off the map. I crossed two streets and wound up with rides of 13 and 15 miles on my rides in 2005, 2006 and 2008, and the Greenway trail still continued farther, heading to the Land Bridge and then beyond.
The singletrack trails run through beautiful pine and oak forest, but straightaways such as this are rare as curves predominate and keep you on your toes. One of my rides was on a Sunday and the parking lot contained many vehicles, but the trail system is so vast I encountered other bikers only a handful of times, and fewer as I got farther from the main trailhead. My second ride was on a Friday and I seemingly had the whole complex to myself.
This post has signs for all three of the trail ratings. Yellow trails (as Pine Tree) are rated easiest, but can still be twisty and run over roots and rocks. Blue (like Bunny) are moderate and involve more technical riding with more ups and downs, tight turns, and rougher trail tread. The most challenging are the red (as John Brown) and take you up and down longer and higher inclines and much rougher terrain and tread conditions. A free ride area was closed and under reconstruction, but signs for it warned of possible death and severe injury and the area requires the use of face mask in addition to helmet.
This was one of numerous tight squeezes on yellow trails as the trail takes you between trees, and since the trails are not one way, you must always be on the watch for oncoming bikers and not over-ride your sight lines. I've biked trails all over the country, and this trail system is now #1 on my personal list of best mountain bike trails.