SoCal_Rider
Member
The wife and I felt like riding something different today. I remembered a ride I did a couple of years ago in the southern part of the Cleveland NF, near Camp Pendleton, west of Murrieta/Temecula. It's the Margarita Lookout Road aka forest road 8S01. To shorten the ride a bit from my previous ride, we decided to park at the end of the pavement on Tenaja Rd. There's only a few of us on here that have an idea where I'm talking about, so here's a map.
We got started early this AM under overcast skies, but it didn't take long for us to get above the clouds.
Our ultimate destination was an old, now gone, fire lookout known as the Margarita Lookout Tower. A little research tells me the original tower was built by the CCC in 1935. This is what the original tower looked like before it was replaced by a metal structure in 1965.
The 1965 tower was burned over in a 1986 wildfire, but still stood until it met its final demise when it was hit by a Marine Corps helicopter in 1988. The tower was torn down after that.
To get to the old site we rode about 6 mi of gradually climbing fireroad, finishing with a steep, rutted, rocky ride/push to the top.
At the top/end is the old foundation
And a new flag
After admiring the views it was time to head down. Just after we finished the chunky downhill from the peak, I heard a motorcycle heading back down the road. I never heard him come up though and we were on a dead end road. From last time I rode here I knew there was a semi-overgrown singletrack at the end of the FR. I looked for tracks there. Sure enough I saw fresh tracks. My curiosity got the better of me, so off we went down it to investigate.
About a 1/4 mi into the downhill singletrack we came across a chin-up bar. Of course being the Navy nurse my wife is, she busted out a chin-up. All I can think of is that the Marines must use this trail for PT/training.
We continued down the singletrack about 3/4 mi until I could see it was going to end at Camp Pendleton. It was time to head back up. The motorcycle track continued, so I figured it was either someone poaching Pendleton or a Marine having some fun on the weekend.
On our way down I scoped out a couple of offshoot roads. This is all I found.
Total mileage was 16 mi with 1,900 ft of climbing.
We got started early this AM under overcast skies, but it didn't take long for us to get above the clouds.
Our ultimate destination was an old, now gone, fire lookout known as the Margarita Lookout Tower. A little research tells me the original tower was built by the CCC in 1935. This is what the original tower looked like before it was replaced by a metal structure in 1965.
The 1965 tower was burned over in a 1986 wildfire, but still stood until it met its final demise when it was hit by a Marine Corps helicopter in 1988. The tower was torn down after that.
To get to the old site we rode about 6 mi of gradually climbing fireroad, finishing with a steep, rutted, rocky ride/push to the top.
At the top/end is the old foundation
And a new flag
After admiring the views it was time to head down. Just after we finished the chunky downhill from the peak, I heard a motorcycle heading back down the road. I never heard him come up though and we were on a dead end road. From last time I rode here I knew there was a semi-overgrown singletrack at the end of the FR. I looked for tracks there. Sure enough I saw fresh tracks. My curiosity got the better of me, so off we went down it to investigate.
About a 1/4 mi into the downhill singletrack we came across a chin-up bar. Of course being the Navy nurse my wife is, she busted out a chin-up. All I can think of is that the Marines must use this trail for PT/training.
We continued down the singletrack about 3/4 mi until I could see it was going to end at Camp Pendleton. It was time to head back up. The motorcycle track continued, so I figured it was either someone poaching Pendleton or a Marine having some fun on the weekend.
On our way down I scoped out a couple of offshoot roads. This is all I found.
Total mileage was 16 mi with 1,900 ft of climbing.
Bravo!
