Limestone today

I didn't make it today; but have been out there many, many times. For most, it's new dirt and take a chance to go out there and ride if you can. It is now owned by OC Parks and is actually YOUR public land. I've seen one segment of trail that had kitty tracks and deer tracks in the same stretch. I built a story in my mind of the stalk and the hunt; never did see evidence of the final conflict.
 
First Saturday of the month is either Limestone or B*, but you need to sign up in advance at letsgooutside because parking is limited. Talked to a guy riding a Castellano (aluminum URT with pivot duties furnished by flat aluminum chainstays).
 
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Tomorrow is another open access day with a few spots still open and probably more during the day as individuals who can't make it cancel. Nice 12 - 15 mile loop starts at Shoestring, two fairly easy ascents for the monsters here, followed by a 1 - 1.5 mile mild ascent (may be somewhat sandy), nice downhill doubletrack, then across Hick's Haul Road, some uphills ending at "The Wall" before a descent to Dripping Springs and the Sinks (OC's mini- Grand Canyon). Return on a nicely graduated descent and maybe add "Sandtrap" if you're up for a little more climbing like my friend and I two months ago.
 
fos'l said:
Tomorrow is another open access day with a few spots still open and probably more during the day as individuals who can't make it cancel. Nice 12 - 15 mile loop starts at Shoestring, two fairly easy ascents for the monsters here, followed by a 1 - 1.5 mile mild ascent (may be somewhat sandy), nice downhill doubletrack, then across Hick's Haul Road, some uphills ending at "The Wall" before a descent to Dripping Springs and the Sinks (OC's mini- Grand Canyon). Return on a nicely graduated descent and maybe add "Sandtrap" if you're up for a little more climbing like my friend and I two months ago.
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I think you are a day early, it's Saturday. Gonna be hot; I might be bailing.
 
fos'l said:
Tomorrow is another open access day with a few spots still open and probably more during the day as individuals who can't make it cancel. Nice 12 - 15 mile loop starts at Shoestring, two fairly easy ascents for the monsters here, followed by a 1 - 1.5 mile mild ascent (may be somewhat sandy), nice downhill doubletrack, then across Hick's Haul Road, some uphills ending at "The Wall" before a descent to Dripping Springs and the Sinks (OC's mini- Grand Canyon). Return on a nicely graduated descent and maybe add "Sandtrap" if you're up for a little more climbing like my friend and I two months ago.
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Isn't this mostly fire road??
 
Last open access (in June) all the trails were open including a new single track with an entrance along Sandtrap. The purists won't be happy since there's a lot of double track and fire roads, but nice to see different dirt and views; also, the ascents are fun. Once you find your way around (or get a map at the booth), you'll discover a couple of neat single track trails.
 
Hadn't heard about a new trail, but they are pretty secretive. Dripping Springs and Sandtrap have both been ST at some point and both double at some point. Seems every time a different management group comes in they want to change them back and forth. I've hiked and ridden out there a long time; as I can remember it's been managed by Nature Conservancy, IRLR, IRC, and OC Parks.

Singletracks include Raptor, Shoestring, Box Springs, Limestone Ridge, and Dripping Springs.
 
The full length of Limestone Ridge (starting from The Sinks side and continuing past Raptor) is one of the best singletracks in OC, IMO. The problem with it is Open Access days are so crowded it is almost impossible to ride it without encountering a crap ton of hikers, and if you do it with a docent you have to ride at his/her pace.

The best Open Access days to do are when it is really hot, because a lot of the hikers don't show up. ;-)
 
Obsidian said:
The full length of Limestone Ridge (starting from The Sinks side and continuing past Raptor) is one of the best singletracks in OC, IMO. The problem with it is Open Access days are so crowded it is almost impossible to ride it without encountering a crap ton of hikers, and if you do it with a docent you have to ride at his/her pace.

The best Open Access days to do are when it is really hot, because a lot of the hikers don't show up. ;-)
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I think @Andy is a docent there....Maybe we could all sign-up for his ride and get a decent pace going?
 
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Obsidian said:
The full length of Limestone Ridge (starting from The Sinks side and continuing past Raptor) is one of the best singletracks in OC, IMO. The problem with it is Open Access days are so crowded it is almost impossible to ride it without encountering a crap ton of hikers, and if you do it with a docent you have to ride at his/her pace.

The best Open Access days to do are when it is really hot, because a lot of the hikers don't show up. ;-)
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My wife and I attended a docent-led Limestone night ride when we lived in Irvine. She ended up walking down half of Limestone Ridge after getting psyched out on a prior switchback. The poor docent rode at our pace that day, haha! The ride wasn’t scheduled to be a night ride, but the sun had set well before we got back to the vehicles. Serves them right for requiring an escort to ride out there.
 
The volunteers seem really nice, and most events are rated, so if you want to hammer, go on a "5" ride (hike or whatever). I've found that bikes can get ahead of hikers and/or ride where few hike; if one plans correctly, they can ride most of what they want without a lot of interference. BTW, one of the benefits of being a docent (AFAIK) is you can schedule an area with your pals when nobody else is there.
 
Obsidian said:
The full length of Limestone Ridge (starting from The Sinks side and continuing past Raptor) is one of the best singletracks in OC, IMO. The problem with it is Open Access days are so crowded it is almost impossible to ride it without encountering a crap ton of hikers, and if you do it with a docent you have to ride at his/her pace.

The best Open Access days to do are when it is really hot, because a lot of the hikers don't show up. ;-)
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For me, past Raptor is a bit too chunky for my tastes; but each of us has our tastes.

I do a lot of the docent led rides; mostly the slow intermediate ones. I see a bit less of the whole pack riding together now; a lot depends upon the individual leaders. Usually they'll announce the route before starting and let most go at their pace to the next stop point (often a gate). A volunteer pretty much always has to be in front and behind the group. I tend to become friends with the sweeps.

A lot can vary on the leader. If you find one you like, ask them what other rides they are leading.

There is a lot of good and bad things about the whole situation.
To me, a negative with the sign up listings is that you don't know what the actual route is going be (they are getting better) and knowing who the leader will be.

I do recommend everyone try it at least once. It's at least new dirt
 
Sasquatch9billion said:
I think @Andy is a docent there....Maybe we could all sign-up for his ride and get a decent pace going?
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I'm just a trail assistant volunteer. Actually I haven't even been that for the past few months as my CPR/First Aid Class certification has lapsed and I won't be renewing until November... I did entertain the idea of becoming a docent for a while... and I still do. Occasionally. When the wind is blowing in the right direction/the stars align etc... But as I don't think I've even done one scheduled ride this year, not sure how that looks to TPTB. Maybe next year... who knows... except to say there are some under-utilized potentials, so it might be nice to tap those...
 
Andy said:
I'm just a trail assistant volunteer. Actually I haven't even been that for the past few months as my CPR/First Aid Class certification has lapsed and I won't be renewing until November... I did entertain the idea of becoming a docent for a while... and I still do. Occasionally. When the wind is blowing in the right direction/the stars align etc... But as I don't think I've even done one scheduled ride this year, not sure how that looks to TPTB. Maybe next year... who knows... except to say there are some under-utilized potentials, so it might be nice to tap those...
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I believe I've ridden with you a couple of times this year, were you volunteering or just riding?
From time to time even docents have asked me why I am not a volunteer.
Not sure I like all the policies; but, I have been out there many times and enjoy the area. I do imagine some different route possibilities.
I would like to do a slow paced FREEKS ride. I'm a slow climber, but think I could do the whole route.
I have done some recent evening rides with Jeff ( I think) going from Irvine Park pretty far out to Little Moab, most of the hard part done.

I'm not going tomorrow, but I do hope a few go to see the area.
 
fos'l said:
Best part of the ride today was the relatively new singletrack, a 1.5 mile nicely contoured descent from Sandtrap to the main road. Started early so in front of the hikers to the Sinks, then traded pleasantries with them on the return. Tomorrow Sycamore.
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I am pretty sure that is Dripping Springs. It has been open since at least June 3 2017, which is the first Strava time I have on it.

They recently put up nice new signs on the trails out there. Dripping Springs was easy to pass by if you were not specifically looking for it, but it has been open for a couple of years now.

I got there early too, always best to get ahead of the hikers. As I figured, it was much less crowded than normal as it started getting hot fast.

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Dripping Springs is old. I'll have to try and check, but I've ridden and hiked it for ~10 years.
It used to be a fire road with horrible water bars. As I've mentioned, the different managers keep switching Dripping Springs and Sandtrap back and forth between ST and fireroad. I think it might be part of the bureaucratic nonsense of proving your existence by doing something.
Dripping Springs was basically closed for a couple of years due to storm damage and converting it to ST. It is often closed for raptor nesting as well.
 
Maybe the "new" part was changing it to singletrack. I've ridden Limestone many times both on access days and with docents, but this trail only in June and yesterday.
 
Don't know how others fared at Limestone today, but we arrived (so to speak) at the posted opening time of 8:00 and were in a line for 40 minutes before parking. Still a nice ride up Hicks Haul, to Dripping Springs trail, out to the Sinks and back. Supposedly the SNAFU was caused by a group of 150 individuals that descended on the park.
 
fos'l said:
Don't know how others fared at Limestone today, but we arrived (so to speak) at the posted opening time of 8:00 and were in a line for 40 minutes before parking. Still a nice ride up Hicks Haul, to Dripping Springs trail, out to the Sinks and back. Supposedly the SNAFU was caused by a group of 150 individuals that descended on the park.
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Yeah, it was a mess. I got there about 10 minutes before opening, and there was a line of cars parked for about a mile down Santiago Canyon. I finally got started at 8:30, so 40ish minutes for me too. I came across a hiking group of what looked like 100+ at one point, so maybe they were part of the 150.

I still managed to get in a decent ride overall. I knew Dripping Springs & Limestone Ridge would be inundated, so I just cruised those today. I did manage to get in two runs on Box Springs without encountering any other hikers or bikers, so that was fun.

23 miles & 3,054 feet.
 
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I've been there 30+ times in the past ten or so years and this was the first time there was this large a crowd. Usually the wait at the entrance is five or fewer minutes. One of my friends said that FB (not a participant) had a lot of entries about the event. Hopefully the first and last time for this problem or adios Limestone.
 
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