{"id":33,"date":"2008-02-17T17:51:44","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T01:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2008-03-01T19:40:04","modified_gmt":"2008-03-02T03:40:04","slug":"up-down-up-downbell-ridge-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Up-Down-Up-Down……Bell Ridge Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow! The Trabuco Canyon – Bell Ridge loop is a bunch bigger than the 20-mile distance would leave you to believe.\u00a0\u00a0 I have not crunched all the numbers yet but it looks like something like over 4,400 feet of climbing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There was supposed to be three of us, but one our cohorts in grime whipped out a “little” 70-mile fixie night road ride last night and somehow managed to oversleep.\u00a0 I have no idea how that could have happened \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The ride started pretty rough for me.\u00a0 I participated in a hockey skating clinic\u00a0yesterday and I woke up with some funky kinks and soreness in my legs. \u00a0We had a five-mile dirt road ride to start things off before hitting the Trabuco trail<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0The road did little to get my legs to feeling better.\u00a0 It was not until somewhere around the turnoff\u00a0 for the West Horsethief trail <\/a>where my legs seemed to start feeling okay.\u00a0 Of course this is also the spot where the\u00a0Trabuco trail starts getting really tricky\u00a0 to climb in spots with patches of loose shale rocks that requires a bunch of finesse while extracting some extra energy from your legs.<\/p>\n

\"Trabuco<\/p>\n

Once we made it up\u00a0to Main Divide Truck Trail it was time to take the Los Pinos trail a ways before\u00a0peeling off onto Bell Ridge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This ride had some great views in all directions, but boy did we pay for the pleasure.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of the time my\u00a0butt was either on the nose\u00a0of my\u00a0saddle\u00a0climbing or nearly dragging on the\u00a0rear wheel on descents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Down<\/p>\n

There\u00a0were at least three sections that were Hike-A-Bike\u00a0climbs and one that most\u00a0riders would\u00a0Hike-A-Bike down.\u00a0 I took a long hard\u00a0look at the one\u00a0gnarly downhill section in question and decided to hike it down.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure I could have cleaned it, but I was not so sure about doing it on the first attempt.\u00a0 Considering we were a long\u00a0time away from help,\u00a0I opted on the safer option.\u00a0\u00a0 Next time I’m going to bring some protective gear and give it a shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Up<\/p>\n

The steep up and down action of the trail kept on going until\u00a0the last few miles when\u00a0grades\u00a0mellowed out to “moderate” and the sight lines\u00a0opened up\u00a0to allow for some\u00a0bits of sustained speed.\u00a0 We finished up the ride\u00a0by\u00a0dropping down into a neighborhood and take a bit of surface street action back to\u00a0our truck.<\/p>\n

\"Bell<\/p>\n

Bell Ridge was a great ride that was a bit more\u00a0challenging than\u00a0unabated fun.\u00a0\u00a0Check back on the site over the coming\u00a0weeks to see a full review and maps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: The Full Review <\/a>is now posted<\/p>\n

-Bill<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t DOOOOH! Walking Wounded<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>