Category: General MTB

North Rim of Grand Canyon Sampler Pics

Still getting through pictures from the AZ trip, but here are some pics from along the Rainbow Rim Trail on the North Rim of The Grand Canyon.  

The waning minutes of the day from our campsite.  My tent was about 40 miles from cell service, 22 miles from the nearest paved road and about 20 feet from the edge of the canyon.   This is not a good place to camp if you are a sleep walker.  For everyone else, this is soooo freaking awesome.

The Rainbow Rim Trail is 18 miles long and easily ridable in a day as an out-and-back if you are “on the pedals”.   Personally, I think you would be quite the bonehead to do so as this ride deserves to take plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers, take in the views and generally just soak the whole place in.  You can hammer on any trail, but it’s not everyday you get to cruise along the rim of the Grand Canyon.  We were camped at Locust Point and did the trail in two days.  Day one was an out-and-back to Parissawampitts  Point.  It is a tricky name to say and we found unending pleasure from seeing how many ways we could butcher the name.  Day two was Locust Point to Timp Point and back.

The trail undulates mildly for most of the time as you gradually descend out to the points and then climb back away from the points before contouring around to the mid-point drainage.   When you do not have the Grand Canyon vistas, you have some sweet singletrack through the mixed pine and aspen forest.

Jeff cruising along

Once out to the end of the trail at “Popabeertopitts Point”  we spent about 30 minutes hiking/scrambling out to the far-tip of the of point for an even better view of the canyon.   Here we enjoyed a sandwich and a little something extra we had packed in our camelbak bladders.   Ahh still nice and cold.

One thing we all firmly agreed upon was that it did not suck to be us today.

The next morning we set off at just about the crack of dawn for an out-and-back ride in the other direction to Timp Point.  The morning light was pretty incredible.

Once again there were plenty of picture taking going on and generally enjoying  the stops just as much as the GOs.

Jeff on the Go

We also came across at buffalo kill that was presumably made by a mountain lion.  Amazing to think about the power of these big cats to take down a buffalo.  Armed only with cameras we were certainly not the apex predator out here.

Hello Kitty Toothpicks

The views from Timp Point (the terminous of the trail) were once again impressive.  The time of day can totally determine what you can see because of the way the light shifts along the canyon walls.  We noticed a small speck of white in the distance and were able to determine that it was Thunder Springs, an impressive waterfall that comes right out of the side of canyon from an underground river.  I did some Googling on this place and I might just have to dust off my hiking boots for a return trip up here.

The “back” part of the ride went fairly quickly but we did stop to smell some of these.

And check out this guy.

We were back at camp at brunch time and Jeff started busting up camp as he had to leave.    It was great getting to hang out with Jeff (aka MTB Mayor of Kernville).  Later that day Bill and I would get in another ride, but that is another story.

AZ is Calling

Arizona is calling.    The wanderlust itch has been growing for quite a while now so it is time to scratch it.

Some friends and I are heading out to Flagstaff  tomorrow for the start of a week of playing around on the dirt.   We are going to hit some of the classics on Mt Elden but I’m sure some other stuff is going to make it on the menu.

After some rides in Flagstaff, I don’t know where the compass is going to take us.  Could head north towards the Kaibab Plateau on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. 

To the south things are already pretty warm, but Sedona is not too hot yet.   Then there is always the White Mountain to the east.  Of course there are hundreds of miles of trail in between all of these points that could be checked.     One thing is for certain,   awesome trails, tasty beers, sore legs and lots of smiles are expected over the next week.   Time to go to bed, I have to be up at O-Damn Early!

Springtime Local Stuff

With my current work schedule  as well as both of my boys playing hockey  I have been staying pretty busy.    This has forced me to spend more time hitting my local stuff than spending the time to get to farther away trails.   As such I have found a revived bit of stoke for the stuff right on my way home and nearly right out my front door.    This is not so much as a ride report as some random pictures from some various bits of the local goods.

Stopping to smell the flowers at Daley Ranch.  This place is always a good place to get your butt back in shape and about 15 minutes from Casa Del Bill.

La Costa is about a five minute drive from my house and while a fairly small area it can be connected with other areas for 50 plus miles of nearly all dirt riding.  For the last few years La Costa has been the starting point of the Archipelago Ride.

Calvera Lake is less than two mile from my house so it is pretty nice to roll right from the garage.    It is a pretty time of year there as things are still green. 

Tom is checking out one of the Calvera locals.

This local was down for a closeup. 

Los Penasquitos Canyon is right on my home so it gotten back onto the mid-week schedule.    I finally got a chance to check out the Cam Ru trail.   I must say this a pretty cool trail.  It is great to see that San Deigo County Parks and Recreation department can create a real trail when they want to.  

The flowers have been blooming for some time now in the canyon.  I felt pretty lucky to have this hummingbird nearly fly in front of  camera.

 

Deer are often a spectator of your efforts if you are chasing daylight.   I have seen a bobcat in the canyon as well but he did not let me get my camera to eye before slipping into the brush.

It has been nice to remind myself that you don’t have to travel far to get in some ride stoke in this part of SoCal.

A Coast-to-Coast Big Laguna Ride

Back in the summer of 2008, while on a business trip to Philadelphia,  JD showed me around one of the local riding spots.  It was good stuff so I was glad to return the favor when my schedule and JD’s line up this past week.   One cool thing about air travel in the westward direction is the time zones work in your favor.  JD took the first flight out of Philly on Monday and was in San Diego just before lunch.    I met him at the airport with an extra bike and we headed east.   Well not directly east.  JD got here before lunch but his luggage decided to catch some brunch back in Philly and catch him at his hotel later.     A quick stop by a local bike shop netted JD a fresh set of SPDs and some shoes before heading out.

The Big Laguna Trail system in the Laguna Mountains Recreation Area was the designated “off-site conference location”.    Sure there are gnarlier bigger rides like the Tour De Noble nearby but this area is super pretty this time of year and we did not have all day. 

 Cruising the ridge off of Red-Tail Roost.   I’m a big fan of Red-Tail Roost followed up by Los Gatos Ravine.

Cruising the north side of the meadow.

 

 Yeah, Work Sucks!   I think we talked enough shop to confidently say we were not playing “hookie”.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

We did a pretty good chunk of trails in the BLT system.  On our final segment back to the truck the afternoon light started to make some of the colors in the meadow pop which made for a nice way to finish off the ride.   That’s the way Monday’s should feel.

Forgive Me Father For I Sinned…

Bill: Forgive me father for I have sinned.  I has been over 3 months since I last rode my bike on any routine basis.

Father:  Jesus! <Skies opens, bright light, booming voice…>

Jesus:  What you say?

Father:  No, No, No, I didn’t mean you.  You know, it was the figure of speech thing.

Jesus:  Will you please stop doing that crap!  How do you expect me to listen up for you if you keep hanking my chain?  This ain’t exactly an easy job I got here buddy.  Keep it up and I will fire and brimstone your ass into the next eternity!

Father:  Sorry about that, I’ll work on it.

Jesus:  Yeah, you do that.  <Skies close>

Father:  Sorry about that my son.  So three months off the dirt.  What have you been doing?

Bill:  Father, I let myself become consumed with my work so between my work and my family the biking fell to the wayside.  I got out shape and gained more weight than I would care to mention and generally lost some of my passion for riding.   I also drank lots of really good beer that I had not justly earned .

Father:  What exactly do you mean by good beer?  Be careful how you answer my son.

Bill:   Oh, lots of Stone, Pacfic Northwest microbrews as well as some good east coast brews.

Father:  East Coast you say, have you ever had any of the stuff  from the Victory Brewing Company.

Bill:  Oh My God Yes! (flinched while hoping the sky did not open up), Thier Wild Devil Ale is simply amazing!

Father:  Je……(Stops mid-word, while looking skyward), Man that is some great stuff,   Hate the name but love the complex flavor.

Father:  So anyway my son, balance is very important in everyone’s life.   Without balance, things are just not right.  Take you for example, even through the fine mesh and dark shadows of this box, I can see you have turned into quite the unbalanced lard ass.

Bill:Jes….<Once again a skyward flinch occurs>, come on father try not to sugar coat it for me.

Father:  My son, there is many paths that could be followed, but you must go into the San Jacinto Mountains.  There you will not only atone for your sins, but you may refind the passion you have lost.

Bill:  I will go my father.

Father:  Oh and don’t pass on the Southridge and Snakeskin trails, those are some bitchin bits of singletrack!  Now get outta here!

So bright and early on Sunday morning I went out to Idyllwild for a bit of riding with Bill O’Neil.  I knew I was going to suck, but there are far worse places to suck at than Idyllwild.  We did do the semi-slacker thing and left a vechicle down near Hurkey Creek and then drove up into Idyllwild to start the day with a run down the South Ridge Trail.

There was still some snow up top which was quite a treat.  Just enough to look pretty.   Right out the gate I knew this was going to be a pretty cool day as the conditions were as good as I have ever seen it here.  Just the right amount of moisture in the trail to create that magical balance of traction and speed.   Good Stuff.

We did not drop much elevation before the snow patches were gone and we were left with the sweet flowy goodness that I have long loved in this area.    Oh yeah I did suck.  I was huffing and puffing on all but the slightest of climbs.

The springtime action is in full effect in many places around here.  After tooling around in the May Valley area when took the Missing Link trail down towards the race course.   After Missing Link we decided that it we needed some more May Valley action so we took the most direct way back up into the area.   We climbed Exfoliator.  Now I have descended this trail dozens of time and it is an absolute blast…going down.   Climbing this trail is a much different story.    I was pretty freaking disgusted with what a wussy I had become during my layoff.  One more climb up the fireroad and I would be return to turn mostly downhill back to Hurkey Creek.

Shortly after the climb we ran into some of the natives who were up for showing off some of the bits have not gotten on yet.   I am always amazed at the high quality trails that “grow” out here.  We were not disappointed but the additional singletrack goodness left me completely cooked and fighting off the early warning signs of cramps.

When it was time to head for the beer cooler, Exfoliator was indeed more more fun in the proper direction.    The last hill to climb to get up to the top of “Rage in the Sage” proved to me my own little hell as I was cramping badly at this point and was lagging behind the other pretty bad.   After that it was all downhill gravy and it was soon time to enjoy some properly earned brews.   My legs hurt but I feel that fire in my belly again for mountain biking.   Time to go get back in shape.

Joshua Tree National Park

The last month or so has been pretty tough for me on the MTB front.  Between a couple of injuries, illness and major work project here in San Diego I have not seen much bike action at all.   Big projects at work are a whole lot easier when they involve travel as you don’t have to play the work-family balance game.   A couple of weeks ago, I went out to Joshua Tree National Park to take a look see.  I really did not know what to expect.

  One thing for certain there is a lot of open space out here.   Pinkham Canyon to Thermal Canyon and back was the route for the day.  It was to be an all dirt road  affair.

As far as dirt road goes, I have ridden far less interesting section of dirt in the past.   It is certainly desert out here. 

Out near the end fo the out and back we checked out the leftover bits on the Silver Cloud mine. 

 

While looking at the maps, the thought of doing a multi-day MTB self-sustained camping loop would be cool. 

Unfortunately, 75 percent of the park has been designated as wilderness so much of the cool bits would be off limits to bikes.    I only cut through a small sliver of this place.  I some point I’m going to get back here to check out the northern end of the place.

The Maunawili Trail

This past Saturday was the last day on my Hawaii business trip and I was able to carve out some time on Saturday morning for a ride.  The destination was the Maunawili Trail on the windward side (east) of the island.   I got an early enough start that I had to casually get ready at the trailhead while waiting for daylight to join me at the rally point.

The Maunawili trail is a 10 mile singletrack that countours along the foothills above the Maunawili Valley and near the striking cliff bases of the Ko’olau Mountains.   All of the descriptions of this trail I had found recommended it as a point-to-point from the north end near the Pali Lookout and going south down to the community of Waimanalo.  There was only about 1,000 feet of elevation between the high and low points so that even accounting for some undulations in the trail it should not be too bad as an out-and-back.   The sun did not make a majestic entrance when I started out from Waimanalo.  It was quite cloudy when I set off on the double track climb that would take me up to the start of the trail proper. 

The doubletrack was not horrible, but the singletrack was downright awesome pretty much right from the get go.  Sweet narrow goodness etched into steep hillsides was the theme most the time.     While most of the trail tread is smooth, there were numerous rooty and rocky section to keep your technical skills on point.

 The trail went in and out of numerous foothill fingers and while the cloudy morning was putting a damper on the full beauty of this place it was still impressive.   The prominence of the cliffs often made me feel downright small. 

The beauty of this trail really did a good job of hiding the danger of the steep hillside that was often less than a foot off the trail thread.   If this was a barren desert trail, it would be easy to get wigged out about some of the exposure.    Mother Nature added to the deception and danger of some of these spots with ferns that grow in from the high side of the trail.   I preferred having my faced brushed by ferns over finding a weak spot on the downhill edge of the trail. 

 

 The  flora on this trail was simply incredible.  I only knew what a few of the types I saw where.  Later on I found out that I had been cruising under cool stuff like mango trees, pink guava, a plethora of ferns, and a bunch of native plants that contained way too many vowels for me to pronounce.

As I started nearing the north end of the trail, there was more signs of use and well as trail maintenance.   In some of the wet spots a few boardwalks had been installed to help the trail and habitat keep from getting thrashed.  At this point one thing was for sure, this trail is uphill in both directions.     It took me a lot longer than expected to cover the 10 miles and reach the north end of the trail at Pali highway.    The plan was enjoy the trail in other direction, but I did not have enough time now as I had after lunch work commitments.   With a great deal of reluctance, I played grown up and dropped off the mountain on the road and speedily made my way back  to my car.   The work went well, but I did have to burn some “lamp oil” to polish everything off.   One thing is for certain, this will not be my last ride on this trail.  I’m already looking forward to a sunny day return…someday.

Aloha from the Aiea Loop

I love it when things just fall in place.   I had to “work” in Hawaii this week and was hoping squeak in a ride during the trip.   I had a early flight on Tuesday and found myself on the ground at lunch time.    There was no delay in getting my baggage and the rental car thing went really smooth.   I already knew where I was renting a bike during this visit so went by there picked up and decently equipped hardtail that was basically brand new.   It was right about this time that I realized that I forgot to bring my clipless pedals.    Cleated bike shoes and flats pedals don’t mix well so my next stop was to local bike shop where I picked up a set of SPD pedals on the cheap.     I was all set to squeak in that ride when the opportunity presented itself.   A look at my watch revealed that opportunity was now and the trailhead was just a few miles a way.  The sky was filled with ominous looking clouds but what the heck, the temps were nice and it was not raining right now so time to get some trail while I can.

I had done the Aiea Loopbefore which was good as I did not have much of a daylight buffer for exploring.    Having all much my gear stuffed into luggage it looked like a yard sale around my car I was pulling stuff out all over the place to get to everything.   Soon I was in the correct garb and ready to head out.    The last time I rode here was in 2004 and I remembered lots of roots.  Yeah lots of roots.   Back in 2004 this trail was my first exposure to roots galore and I remembered it being monumentally frustrating.    Since then I have had a lot more exposure to riding this type of stuff so the roots where down into the challenging category. 

For the first 1.6 miles of of this loop you are climbing some good and twisty singletrack.   I have been fighting off some chest and sinus congestion for the past week so the “redline” on the cardio side of the house was much lower than normal.  Get anywhere near that line for line would quickly turn into a wheezing, hacking mess.    This meant I really got to enjoy the climb as despite the overcast, the scenery was nice with lush vegetation all around.  

  

That lush vegetation however does hide some often precarious exposure that could net you a long tumble down a steep hillside should you blow a move or turn.

Once I reached the highpoint , the fun really got to going as a good chuck of the rest of the route was downhill.    The flowing singletrack typically bench cut in the side of the steep hillsides so there was little room for error along the trail.  I had gotten into flow of the trail and was zipping along quite nicely when the bike gave me a quick reminder that it was not one of trusty full suspension bikes.  I took a root drop that was a little bigger than it looked from up the trail and soon found myself riding a compressed fork nose wheelie for way too far before slamming the rear wheel back and nearly jolting myself off the bike.   After getting the bike to a stop, I starting laughing so hard that I sent myself in another round of congestion hacks and coughs.    Any near miss that you can laugh at is good in my book.     

It was not long before I was back at the trailhead where I cleaned up a bit and did the yard sale thing in reverse and headed out for the hotel.  What a great way to start a business trip.

An incredible ride at Palm Canyon

What exactly makes an Epic? Wither it is online or recounting the days adventure at the trailhead, the question comes up quite routinely. Difficultly, length, scenery, conditions, the variables in the equation are numerous and subjective. The Palm Canyon trail fits just about everyone’s definition of an epic. It is a big classic desert ride than can be brutal for the ill-prepared or in the wrong conditions. I’ve done this ride a whole bunch of times and have the checklist of extra stuff to bring pretty much tattooed on my brain. There is something about the misery from forgetting this kind of stuff in the past that files that stuff in a mentally easy spot to find.

That ready file was opened up Monday afternoon on the drive back home from our Christmas travels when the phone rang. “Hey Bill, what do you think about doing Palm Canyon tomorrow? Hold on a second…. Hey Honey, do you mind if I do an all-dayer tomorrow? …..Dude, I’m down, how does 7:30am at the Von’s parking lot sound? … Sweet! See you then.” That was all the planning involved for this ride. Both Bill O’Neil and I have been on enough rides and trips together to know the drill. Now lets get to that checklist.

O-Dark:30 came O’Damnearly and I was headed towards Palm Springs much earlier than my body would have liked. There was sugar and caffiene in ample supply on the drive. I was taking the “country” route which took me past the upper trailhead near Pinyon Crest on Highway 74. It was a mighty brisk 37 degrees when I went by there. A made a mental note to give the “fellows” a break and change into the bike gear at the bottom. Neither Bill or I were able to rustle up any of the usual suspects for the ride on short notice so it was just Bill and I headed back up the mountain after shuffling stuff around between trucks. It had been two years since either one of us had done this ride so I was stoked. Bill had never done the Pinyon Flats trail and it had nearly been five years since I had last done that trail so we opted to start from Pinyon Flats vice the Palm Canyon trailhead proper.

It addition to being brisk, there was a biting breeze but it was otherwise an exceptionally pretty day. Layered up we set out. I had nearly forgotten how flowy and swoopy Pinyon Flats is in most spots. I was having so much fun, I did not even pull the camera out. Once we met up with the Palm Canyon trail, one thing became blissfully obvious. The trail conditions were simply the best I have ever seen. The rains had packed the soil and enough moisture remained to provide both great traction with no additional drag on the tires. Mother Nature had served up some downright sexy dirt.

Killer trail conditions and an exceptionally clear day with the temperatures somewhere between cool and mild is what continued to develop as the day went on. With just the two of us, we were not burning any daylight on regroups and other delays that typically scale up with the group size. We were not really hammering, just flowing along taking advantage of the wonderful conditions. Before long we were at the bottom of Dry Wash. A three-mile sandy climb awaited us. While chilling here it was nice to realize that barring some misadventure we had a huge daylight buffer now. The ride up until now had been so awesome that I could have cared less if I had to walk nearly all of the next three miles if the sand sucked.

The sand did not suck. The dry wash was also in the best shape I had ever seen it and for the most part completely rideable. You still had to look for the firm lines in the sand but the wash was not in its usual death march form. After the wash it was time for the Hahn Buena Vista trail after a break at the dozer. Once again the trail conditions were incredible. The camera remained packed away as nearly all things must yield to the sirens song of tires holding their line through flowy downhill goodness.

After the giggling like school boys descent we payed back some elevation up the Catherdral Canyon and then over to the saddle at the Wildhorse and Claire Burgess trail junction. There was a good dose of fatigue set in at this point and the breaks came a little more often. It was all good as there are far worse things to do than stopping and smelling the flowers around here.

I love the Wildhorse trail, the plummeting elevation drop on either side the ridge top section this trail make for some splendid views. There is also a mental boost of seeing your destination below. It is much better seen in person than described.

The ubiquitous trusty steed shot from the peak on Wildhorse with San Gorgorino is in the distance. It had been sometime since the Spider had seen some trail love so it was called into action today. It was certainly the correct weapon of choice today. Man I love this bike, such a wonderful XC machine.

After dropping the steep switch back section of Wildhorse we worked our way through the Goat Trails and soon rolled back down to the lower trail. What exactly makes an epic? There was no debating that question this afternoon, all the variables of that equation were scattered across the 30 miles of awesomeness countryside that lay behind us. There was nothing do now but celebrate the Palm Canyon Epic.