I Rode My Bike Today...

Another romp in the Gabes with Vince yesterday. Wanted to check out Idlehour so we through a route together. Started at JPL. Up Fern saw a bobcat walking on the trail. Thought it was someone's dog at first. It causally walked up a ravine and disappeared. We kept going to Millard and up the Sunset pavement grind. Continued on the dirt to the junction where the bottom of Upper Merrill is, and a tad further there's the Idlehour Trailhead. New dirt for us. Smiled and dove in. Reminded me of Valley Forge at first with a nice easy flow. Didn't take long to find some downed trees. Into the canyon we went.
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Constantly getting smacked by branches, poked by them sticky bushes and Poison Oak in abundance. Beautiful! Multiple stream crossings.
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This was turning into more of a jungle. PO everywhere. I carefully walked through quite a bit of this just to try to stay away from it. Vince pushing through ahead of me.
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No one out here. So desolate.
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Traipsing through the jungle, what an adventure.
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A steep AF climb followed out of the canyon to Mt. Wilson Toll Rd. That sucked!!! But for new dirt, it was worth it. I wanted to head back to JPL at this point but Vince wanted to make it epic to Mt. Wison. Climbing MWTR I bonked twice. Tossed the bike on the ground. Sat enjoying the views for some time. Got myself back together and finally made it to the top. Refueled with water Vince got from somewhere. Down Mt Wilson Rd at 42 mph to the tunnel. Short climb to the top of Upper Merrill. All down hill now, well except the climb from the ruins, but that's not too bad. Down Upper Merrill, down Middle Merrill, down Sunset ST, and down Horsey. What a blast, epic DH! I was beat, done, over. Good times!
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Grego said:
Another romp in the Gabes with Vince yesterday. Wanted to check out Idlehour so we through a route together. Started at JPL. Up Fern saw a bobcat walking on the trail. Thought it was someone's dog at first. It causally walked up a ravine and disappeared. We kept going to Millard and up the Sunset pavement grind. Continued on the dirt to the junction where the bottom of Upper Merrill is, and a tad further there's the Idlehour Trailhead. New dirt for us. Smiled and dove in. Reminded me of Valley Forge at first with a nice easy flow. Didn't take long to find some downed trees. Into the canyon we went.
View attachment 66122

Constantly getting smacked by branches, poked by them sticky bushes and Poison Oak in abundance. Beautiful! Multiple stream crossings.
View attachment 66123

This was turning into more of a jungle. PO everywhere. I carefully walked through quite a bit of this just to try to stay away from it. Vince pushing through ahead of me.
View attachment 66124

No one out here. So desolate.
View attachment 66125

Traipsing through the jungle, what an adventure.
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A steep AF climb followed out of the canyon to Mt. Wilson Toll Rd. That sucked!!! But for new dirt, it was worth it. I wanted to head back to JPL at this point but Vince wanted to make it epic to Mt. Wison. Climbing MWTR I bonked twice. Tossed the bike on the ground. Sat enjoying the views for some time. Got myself back together and finally made it to the top. Refueled with water Vince got from somewhere. Down Mt Wilson Rd at 42 mph to the tunnel. Short climb to the top of Upper Merrill. All down hill now, well except the climb from the ruins, but that's not too bad. Down Upper Merrill, down Middle Merrill, down Sunset ST, and down Horsey. What a blast, epic DH! I was beat, done, over. Good times!
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Totally epic!
Thanks for the info on Idlehour. That trail is perpetually overgrown and uphill both directions.
 
herzalot said:
My ride was similar to @Grego's ride today. 2.7 miles. 515' :thumbsup: :cool:

It was all on pavement, but it was on my mt. bike and the hills were steep, therefore, it was a mt bike ride. I didn't even fall this time!
We should put up a counter ___ rides without a crash. :oops:
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Dude! That's awesome! I know how great it feels to just ride a bike again after a big injury.
Now if we can just get @hill^billy off the pity pot and on the bike.
 
I rode Exploration & then went over to SkyPark.

I crashed within the first 30 seconds on Exploration, LOL. I got scraped up and tweaked my knee. Kind of embarrassing, and I am glad nobody was around to see. I turned around and started over. There were not too many hikers out until the last 1/2 mile and then it was a lot of stopping and starting. Exploration is one of my favorite downhill trails, nice and long with a little bit of everything, but it still seems too short. 9.04 miles & 1,415 ft.

After that I headed over to SkyPark and did another 9.23 miles & 1,652 ft. It was pretty crowded at Noon. I figured it would be, as they opened it up to everyone now. I did not get a single clean run until my last one, so I considered that a win and called it a day.

The drive in and out was terrible in the mountains .... it seemed like every car & truck had mountain bikes and there was crazy traffic. Three bike parks all on the same route will do that.

Fun day overall.
 
Everyone having adventures... I went to same old .. my favorite oaks... Solo but at start met an old friend... Perfect timing.. he was on the new ripmo.. v2.. was shredding...down chutes... Saw what my ripmo was capable of.. he left.. I kept going.. decided to do all of oaks day...up n down.. chutes Waterfall.. yucca.. deer..cactus ..coaxhwhio..barnam... Mt goat.. hawk... Needed to go back up the bs.. to finish w grasshopper n Peralta.. but I just didn't want to.. so went to car and drank up cold frosty water.. man so good!
One day all of oaks and weir... Good to have goals..fun day!
 
Dusted off the trusty proflex and headed out to the Luge yesterday afternoon. Roads were busy but I only saw 3 other riders out, one dude pushing a behemoth DH machine up Modjeska grade, passed another guy just at the cut gate and then came across a rider who'd dumped his bike on the side of the trail halfway down the Luge itself - right at one of the rock ledges. Thought he'd had a stack so stopped, nope, he'd decided that was the perfect spot to stop and have a break :facepalm: I wasn't to fussed, it was dry and dusty and the proflex demands you take things a bit easier than my other bikes. Cruised over to Live Oak and went though O'Neill, need to spend some more time in there learning some more trails, I don't know my way round there at all. Only a few hikers out and two riders. Cruised down the Arroyo Trabuco and then climbed out for a quick roadie home. A great day to be out, weather was pretty much perfect, nice sunny and warm with a cooling breeze when you could get it.
Need to throw some new tyres on the proflex, lack of tread is starting to make them pretty sketchy. My decision to dump the skinny bars was the right one, much easier and more controllable to ride. Decided I'm going to dump the V brakes and find some Magura HS33's to put on it as well.
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Faust29 said:
@Derkderkall - Did I see you out there? It was probably 7:45 when I passed JPL. I was on the single speed, and I was huffing and puffing pretty heavy.

Well... I started out to do my standard Sunday morning Brown/ el Prieto quickie. The climb up Brown hurt with the smaller cog, so I was pretty excited to hit the downhill. I didn't even stop, and just rolled in... As I was getting ready to turn onto el Prieto, I had the idea to keep going. Never been that way, so a little exploring was in order. It's a nice little single track and then it turns into fire road down to Millard Campground. After Millard it turns into the pavement climb from hell. Cars parked on the side all the way up to the gate. I don't know the road's real name. I'm just going to call it Hell. Seems fitting. :p When all forward motion stopped, I walked. I pedaled a few sections here and there, but it was mostly a hike. :D

Eventually I made it up to the connector trail, and took a little side trip over to the ruins.

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Wrong bike, riding solo, and no @rossage to follow... Not exactly the scenario I wanted for a ride down Sunset. Oh well... I'm not opposed to walking. :p I played around on a few things, and made it down in one piece. :thumbsup: Where Sunset pops out, I'm not too sure of my options yet. So, I went down the horse trails that @rossage showed me a few weeks ago. Twisty, fun and a little loose... Today there were probably 15 hikers to add to the fun. Everyone friendly... Most wearing masks. I put mine on in the populated areas, and kept it lowered for the Sunset downhill. I pulled it up when I passed anyone... :thumbsup:

19.25 miles and 3400 feet.
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Steve, next time you get to Millard camp look to your left for Lower Sunset trail that takes you up a singletrack up to Mt. Lowe just past the beginning of Lowe!

Edit: Nevermind Mike already mentioned it, now you know:whistling:
 
A couple more from the ride at Twin Buttes today...I saw 4 hikers in the first mile and that was it for human activity. 80 degree blue sky day in town. Everything is open here, masks required when you go in any shops. Found out after going to a local bike shop that the high country stuff is still not ready to ride due to snow cover.

Up top, looking down into the Animas Valley
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This is lower Ebb & Flow. You can see the trail start at the right and then it's back & forth up the banks (low intermediate stuff) with rollers, drops and features further down
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The main trail headed up out of the parking lot....
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My friend Louanne is trying to get back into mtn biking, so I showed her my GE today. Just the first section, FR up to the last ST descent. She did great! I’m not usually super patient with people, especially on the DH, but I wanted to make sure she felt safe, so we scooted down the mtn together. Great day ....you can’t go wrong with shenanigans and great company.

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mountaingirl sara said:
My friend Louanne is trying to get back into mtn biking, so I showed her my GE today. Just the first section, FR up to the last ST descent. She did great! I’m not usually super patient with people, especially on the DH, but I wanted to make sure she felt safe, so we scooted down the mtn together. Great day ....you can’t go wrong with shenanigans and great company.

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She looks a bit like my Sis-in-law.
 
mountaingirl sara said:
My friend Louanne is trying to get back into mtn biking, so I showed her my GE today. Just the first section, FR up to the last ST descent. She did great! I’m not usually super patient with people, especially on the DH, but I wanted to make sure she felt safe, so we scooted down the mtn together. Great day ....you can’t go wrong with shenanigans and great company.

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YAZZZZ!
Bring her along sometime, introduce her to "The Family"... :thumbsup:
 
El Moro today..back to normal conditions.. all to myself!! Maybe 2 or 3 groups... I know we should share.. I so selfish.. trails to oneself...

Lizards.. Camarillo..stage coach.. willow.. passed repoman.. so tempted but really tryin to turn over new leaf... old emerald still fun..
Wanted more but after a few hours.. started feelin tired in the bones...
...
Easy to agree in principle not to poach trails... Bit harder when the cake is right there in front of u!
Esp when u know it taste so good...
BUT.. I definitely don't want our trails closed... Will be sticking to the legal trails....
 
mtbMike said:
A couple more from the ride at Twin Buttes today...I saw 4 hikers in the first mile and that was it for human activity. 80 degree blue sky day in town. Everything is open here, masks required when you go in any shops. Found out after going to a local bike shop that the high country stuff is still not ready to ride due to snow cover.

Up top, looking down into the Animas Valley
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This is lower Ebb & Flow. You can see the trail start at the right and then it's back & forth up the banks (low intermediate stuff) with rollers, drops and features further down
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The main trail headed up out of the parking lot....
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Wow - two days in a row someone posts something about an amazing trail in or near a town in which I lived. DAAAAMMMMITTT that stuff wasn't there when I lived there!

Thanks for posting. Do I need to say "have fun?" Say hi to the choo choo for me, and to FLC.
 
mtnbikej said:
Ooooooo......Oooooo.....Me too, me too.

I rode my bike.

I rolled from the house to meet up @ Tree Farm with @Faust29 and the Professor. It was 51* when I rolled out of the garage at 4:40. Going past Irvine Lake, it dropped to 34*.

Today would be a social/casual pace....for 2 of us....one of us kept falling of the back. We had Maple Springs to ourselves...once past the pavement.
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Felt good at times on MS, felt like crap at times. We made it to 4 Corners without much trouble. We were on an island of no clouds....
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Once on Main Divide the cloud/fog rolled in. Temps also fluctuated. At time visibility was short. The top of Motorway was just a quick stop to wish Steve a bon voiage. But he thought you guys might give him crap for shuttling the Santa Ana's. :rolleyes::whistling: It didn't take much of a nudge to get him to continue on.

The fog was thick...
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Before long we reached the top of Eagle Rd. This was the first time we'd see other riders, heading to Motorway.

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The ride down Eagle was cool....foggy, wet, muddy, rutted and fast. The drop in at the bottom seemed ok at first til we dropped in....then it became peanut butter. We were close enough to the top, so we HAB'd back up and took the "alt" line. Yeah, I took a little tumble up against the cable fencing.

Finally reached the bottom of Skyline at mile 40. As we rolled up, we got behind a girl walking her big dog on a 25' leash.....er 1/8" cable :facepalm: .....yes I brought it to her attention how dangerous it was. :thumbsup:

The climb up Skyline was slow....it was hot...at least it felt that way after dealing with temps in the 30-40's all morning. The Professor was starting fade.

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At this point it was up to conversation as to what the other 2 were gonna do. I was heading to Coal Canyon. Steve had already decided that it was either going to be Sierra Peak or the Luge....Josh said hell no...he wasn't making the right turn to go to SP. It was a slow grind out to Sierra Peak for me. Eventually I made it to the top.

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Coal Canyon was interesting with all the new rain damage and ruts. Couple of oh sh*t moments. Also had my own private Poppy Party...
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Once back on the bike path I stopped for a water and a Coke.....I was hoping for a caffeine pick me up. Didn't work. Mile 59 I bonked hard once back on the dirt. Again slow going. Through Weir Canyon and into Oaks. The plan was to do a few loops in the Oaks, but legs were dead and the humidity inside the mustard growth drained me. Got to the top of Deer and took a break. This guy was mocking me....

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I decided to call it a day and head home....I looked at my numbers and saw I was just a few feet short of 10k'...so I headed up Oak to the top of the B and turned around.

Fun day on mountain. Hard day on the mountain. Expected suffering....and suffering I did.


Good times.

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Pic slots for the win.....

Funny, I was just thinking of this route on Saturday and couldn't remember whether I had done it or not. Apparently I have. :laugh:
 
mountaingirl sara said:
“Canadian honkers”, LoL, I read “hookers” at first :laugh::cautious:
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Mikie said:
HAH HAH HAHH!
Honkers... Hookers...
Same thing in our neck of the woods...:whistling:

(I like your version better...)
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Hey @SS Barby and I could probably bring in good money for hook’n in the right neighborhood...:gag: I mean I live in a trucker town and John has PO blisters on his face...:Barefoot:
 
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