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<\/p>\nSo I know some people who know some people who …….<\/p>\n
That is typically the start of a really good bit of story telling.\u00a0\u00a0 It ranks right up there with “This is a No-Shitter”.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course any story that starts off with either one of those opening lines is to be treated as suspect and the phrases are\u00a0synonymous with some kind of embellishment disclaimer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (NOTE TO SELF:\u00a0\u00a0Remind the viewers of my site, that nearly all my website work is done while enjoying tasty west-coast style hop-infused micro-brews that forces me into\u00a0heavy reliance on the spellcheck function.\u00a0 With that in mind\u00a0 the readers\u00a0should expect the wong word two bee used from thyme too time and possibly a complete would be missing here and there \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
So a freind of my mine in Norcal had a friend of his talk to a friend of mine, then\u00a0that friend\u00a0and I came up with a plan to take that friend of our friend onto a trail that a mutual friend had shown\u00a0us\u00a0some number of years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah I know some people who know some people who….<\/p>\n
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So after meeting up with Vincent we\u00a0dropped off a truck down at the lower elevation and\u00a0made our way up towards the back side of Big Bear.\u00a0\u00a0 About an hour later we were doing the final gear checks and\u00a0 headed off up “a trail”.\u00a0\u00a0 The trail started off at 8,700 feet and we would be climbing to just under 9,000 before pointing the forks downhill.\u00a0\u00a0 It is was immediatly clear we were not a sea level.\u00a0 It is pretty awesome how clean, clear and crisp the air feels at this elevation.\u00a0 Which is a good thing as I was using a lot of it!<\/p>\n
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We were not long into the ride before it became quite evident that the wet and late winter played havoc in this area as there were plenty of deadfall to deal with.\u00a0\u00a0 We made a little roll action here and there and cleared what we could\u00a0but for the most part we had some flow bustage to deal with when up in the pines.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0So we were already in the “Back 40” so to say, but there was this off-shoot remenant of a trail that Bill and I had been eyeballing for some number of years\u00a0so we decided to check it out.\u00a0\u00a0 Checking it out\u00a0meant some granny gearage and some hike-a-biking.\u00a0 The\u00a0remenant\u00a0ended up going\u00a0 where we thought it might and it was soon time to point the bikes back downhill for\u00a0a quick bit of raw and untramelled excitement.<\/p>\n
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We expected cooler temps up higher but it soon became apparent that some unexpected weather had rolled in and had the entire area covered in\u00a0clouds.\u00a0 The good news for us was that as we shedded of the elevation the temps were not climbing like we expected.\u00a0 We were living good!\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0We got in some great backcountry trail action before having to commit to a bit of\u00a0dirt and paved\u00a0road action that would take to the Santa Ana River Trail<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0The SART was in good shape and the lower temps made for some nice riding conditions for this time of year.\u00a0\u00a0 I was especially feeling in the zone and was having an incredible time\u00a0 on all of the sidehill goodness this trail has to offer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Vincent rolling by<\/p>\n \u00a0There was quite a bit more water than expected at all of the creek and feeder stream crossing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This was the final creek crossing of the day and soon after this it was time for tasty beverages full of tiny bubbles\u00a0and chit-chat about\u00a0today’s adventure.\u00a0 We had barely rolled back to truck when the clouds cleared and the temps quickly\u00a0climbed into the hot zone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like most days on a mountain bike near the middle of nowhere, today\u00a0did not suck.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/cb4b0b2d2821b4f5d400657e8cb9248f.jpg?resize=840%2C560\")
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