ECUADOR MTB ENDURO

Jungle trails, Volcanic freeriding, and the world’s longest downhills!

Clients will arrive in Quito and be picked up at the airport by our 2Wheel team and taken to their hotel where they will put their bikes together and prepare for their Ecuador Mountain bike vacation. *We recommend clients arrive at least a day early to adjust to the altitude and have full energy for the days to come.

Day 2: Discover the MTB Heart of Quito and Lumbisi Bike Trails (Jan 17th)

After an incredible breakfast and finishing our bike building, we start our amazing Ecuador MTB Enduro Adventure. In the heart of Quito lies the Metropolitano trail system, where we ride for the first morning of their trip, these trails serve us as great way to acclimatize to the altitude, understand how the trails in Ecuador are built and get used to the types of dirt that they will see for the remains of their trip.

Following delicious lunch in the heart of Quito, we head over to the Lumbisi trails to enjoy Ecuador’s first purpose-built mountain bike specific trails.

• Distance: 14.4 km / 9 miles
• Max Elevation: 3200m / 10,500 ft
• Ascent: 250 m / 800 ft
• Descent: 1800 m / 5,000 ft
• Accommodation: Hotel Finlandia
• Meals Included: B, L, Snacks

For the second day of our Ecuadorian bike trip guests will pack their bags and load up in the car for an hour and half drive to the base of the CotoPaxi Volcano to ride the volcanic forests of the CotoPaxi bike park. This bike park is full of singletrack trails that are made of loamy volcanic earth that weaves in between the humid forests that are native to the highlands of Ecuador. The dirt is soft, humid and is what most cyclists dream about when they think about the best mountain bike trails. 

Coto Bike Park is a dream come true for bikers, loamy trails, jumps, natural features, and iconic views of the CotoPaxi. We will be shuttling trails that each have 300-400 meters of descent, guest will ride about 4 laps before lunch and then decide if they want to spend some time on the jumps lines, take some laps on the pump track or return to the trails and keep ripping up the mtb trails of the CotoPaxi Bike Park. 

• Distance: 14.4 km /  9 miles 
• Max Elevation:  4100m/13,500 ft
• Ascent 125 m / 350 ft 
• Descent 1060 m / 3,500 ft 
• Lodging: Hacienda at NoNo
• Food included: B, L, Snacks

Every country has its iconic attraction that will never cease to captivate travelers from all over the world. In Ecuador, the Cotopaxi Volcano has been attracting travelers to its base to bask in the grandeur of its glacier beauty for centuries. For millions of years the glacier has receded and receded leaving behind a soft volcano dirt that is ideal for epic freeriding. Clients will have the ability to use their creativity as they paint their way down the three epic freeride routes of the CotoPaxi. Each freeride route boasts over 1,000 meters of downhill and is full of natural features, huge rock wallrides, volcanic shoots and will leave all riders of all levels smiling from ear to ear. 

• Distance: 28 km /  17 miles 
• Max Elevation:  4600m  / 15,500 ft
• Ascent 220 m / 700 ft 
• Descent 1800 m / 5,000 ft 
• Lodging: Hacienda CotoPaxi
• Food included: B, L, Snacks

This morning clients will sleep in, have a wonderful breakfast and pack their belongings and get ready to travel 3 hours to the secret mountain biker paradise of the world, the province of Bolivar. We will arrive at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, have 2 hours to get settled in before we head off to the quaint little town of Salinas where we will have a short tour of an agricultural farm and then enjoy the infamously delicious food of Salinas. 

• Travel Time: 3 Hours 
• Lodging: La Vaqueria
• Food included: B, L, Snacks

The Chimborazo Volcano is the tallest volcano in Ecuador and is also the closest point to the sun on Earth. During the age of the Hacienda systems local ice harvesters would harvest blocks of ice from the glacial volcano and use mules to transport the ice all the way down to the coastal regions where people in the cities would use the ice to chill their evening cocktails. This mule trail that was deemed useless in the past hundred years as ice machines and freezers made obsolete the ancient trade of ice harvesting.

However, the trail has been rediscovered in the past twenty years and all 20 kilometers of this epic trail has been rejuvenated by the use of local mountain bikers. Clients will be taken to 4,500 meters to start this epic and ancient mountain bike route, where they will descend through the volcanic spree before they descend into the open plains that wil take them down to 2,300 meters. This trail is one of our favorites and is truly and 2Wheel Epic!

• Distance: 28 km /  17 miles 
• Max Elevation:  4600m  / 15,500 ft
• Ascent 220 m / 700 ft 
• Descent 1800 m / 5,000 ft 
• Lodging: La Vaqueria.
• Food included: B, L, Snacks   

Mama Rumi is one of the world’s best mountain bike trails, just thinking of this cloud forest trail gives our whole team goose bumps and memories of riding through the lush subtropical forests of Bolivar. 

This trail, over a thousand years old, was once used as an agricultural pipeline to bring crops to and from the tropical coasts (citrus, cocoa, bananas) to the high mountain areas (potatoes, quinoa, maiz), but was forgotten when trucks and roads were introduced. Until the age of prohibition re-opened the trail as bootleggers looked for a route that would allow them to transport their goods without being detected by local officials.

Once again though this trail was completely forgotten about until one late evening a group of bikers were chatting with some locals and community elder spilled the beans that there was a singletrack trail the descend over 2,100 meters in just 11 kilometers; moreover, that the trail had not been used for over 75 years. The rest is history. Think cloud forests, jungle canopies, loamy jungle dirt, and 2 hours of pure descent!                

• Distance: 13 km /  8 miles 
• Max Elevation:  3200m  / 10,500 ft
• Ascent 50 m / 150 ft 
• Descent 2200 m / 7,200 ft 
• Lodging: Pedregal Ranch
• Food included: B, L, Snacks

At this point in our trip clients will be staying in the lush jungles of the Ecuadorian coats and have the opportunity to spend a day discovering this incredible lush and magical land. Today we will be going to waterfalls to swim in crystal clear pools and then we will take a short yet extensive visit to a cocoa plantation. 

• Accommodation: Pedregal Ranch
• Food included: B, L, Snacks 

This mountain bike trail’s name says it all, Devino singletrack trail is Divine. A huge ridge trail that descends down the jungle that will definitely be the one of the highlights of your Ecuador mountain bike vacations. This trail is full of tight switchbacks, epic views and ends in a banana plantation. 

This trail was the first mountain bike trail that our good friend Rene Arevalo Coloma discovered when he set out to discover the most incredible trails of his home province, Bolivar. To end the day we will ride right to our accommodations and enjoy a delicious Ecuadorian meal of Seco de Pollo and then bathe in the waterfalls below our beautiful accommodation. 

• Distance: 14.4 km /  9 miles 
• Max Elevation:  3200m  / 10,500 ft
• Ascent 250 m / 800 ft 
• Descent 1800 m / 5,900 ft 
• Lodging: Pedregral Ranch
• Food included: B, L, Snacks

On the second to last day of your Ecuador Mountain Bike trip the clients will have a later start to the day, and then have the opportunity to pick either a mtb trail that they have already ridden, or have the opportunity to ride a new mtb trail. They will be situated at the base of what we consider to be the Cloudforest Mountain Bike Paradise, and it may be hard to decide which epic trail they want to ride that day! 

However in the Afternoon we will go and ride the sunset ride Chanquil. This sunset ride is on a ridge that floats above the cloud forest, and when the sun sets the clouds become an empty canvas that is then painted with every color of the sunset. 

Then after a delicious lunch they will be able to pick our trail before we have a delicious farewell dinner at our accommodations. 

• Distance: 14.4 km /  9 miles 
• Max Elevation:  3200m  / 10,500 ft
• Ascent 250 m / 800 ft 
• Descent 1850 m / 6,069 ft 
• Lodging: Pedegral Ranch

This is the last day of your Ecuador MTB Vacation and we will be packing out things and headed back to Quito to pack bikes and get ready to head home. In Quito we will have an incredible dinner in the heart of the beautiful city of Quito.

Accomodation: Hotel Finlandia.
Food included: B, Farewell Dinner.

Clients will say good-bye to their new friends and get ready for the journey home. 2Wheel Epix will drop off clients at their hotel.