{"id":2388,"date":"2020-06-24T22:46:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T06:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2020-08-29T05:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T13:02:00","slug":"kitchen-creek-fred-canyon-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=2388","title":{"rendered":"Kitchen Creek – Fred Canyon Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I have been behind the power curve on making reservations ahead of time for excursions.\u00a0 \u00a0I had to go the route of finding a first come first serve site for this outing.\u00a0 \u00a0I was looking to hit up our favorite spot, the Laguna Meadow Campground, but it is currently closed for maintenance.\u00a0 \u00a0Burnt Rancheria was the other campgroup on the list but they were all booked up so I headed up mid-week to find an spot.\u00a0 \u00a0 Most of the first come first serve sites are tent camping sized sites.\u00a0 I was not the only person who had this mid-week idea as when I arrived most of the larger sites that would accommodate an average or larger RV were already occupied.\u00a0 \u00a0One of the reasons we went with the size trailer we did was to be able to get into more places and spots.\u00a0 \u00a0 Lucky for me there were half a dozen spots that were large enough for our setup.\u00a0 \u00a0The spot I got had just enough of a parking spot to use but it made the door face away from the site itself.\u00a0 \u00a0No big deal as the site itself was huge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Grabbing a Spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following morning I decided to do some snooping around on some trails\/routes that I had never been or or I had been quite some time ago.\u00a0 \u00a0My boundaries for the day were Sunrise Highway, Kitchen Creek Rd, Fred Canyon Rd and and Thing Valley Road.<\/p>\n

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Kinda a trail here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dispersed camping is allowed on the National Forest land off of Kitchen Creek Road and Thing Valley Road so I had an eye out for accessing those options on a later visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Top Quality Social Distancing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more I snooped around the further east and down the mountain range I traveled.\u00a0 \u00a0 Evidently I found myself by Cibbets Flats campground thinking I had done a good chunk of descending so it about time to head back uphill.\u00a0 \u00a0I decided to make a loop using Fred Canyon Road and Thing Valley Road to get back up on top of the Lagunas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Taking a much needed shade break while climbing up Fred Canyon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The climb up Fred Canyon Road was not too terribly difficult but it had some steeper spots and there was little shade along the way.\u00a0 \u00a0 I evidently made it to the junction of Thing Valley Road and continued climbing.\u00a0 Thing Valley Road takes you up through the Ewiiaapaayp Indian Reservation (Stay on the road) for a ways before you are back in the National Forest.\u00a0 \u00a0As you approach the northern border of the reservation the flora transitions from desert scrub to\u00a0 pine trees.\u00a0 \u00a0 Evidently gnats love this kinda forest as once I was under the trees the gnats got thick.\u00a0 \u00a0I realized I have my bug net in my truck and not in my pack.\u00a0 The remainder of the climb was a bit of extra work as there was some additional calories expended swooshing at those little bastards.\u00a0 \u00a0I heard once that the the Southern California Gnat can fly at up to 6.7 mph.\u00a0 \u00a0My top climbing speed on Thing Valley Road was apparently 6.6 mph.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hammock:45 (15 minutes past Beer:30)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I felt pretty good about the effort I put in for the day but I was certainly ready for a siesta.\u00a0 \u00a0It was a very good day to be out on a bike.<\/p>\n

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