Well, I couldn't manage to get the time to go with Woodsie and Eric up to my favorite trail riding destination when they went up for the 4th of July. Can't say I wouldn't have rather done that than the chores that I was saddled with that weekend, but then again I almost would have rather had a root canal that weekend rather than the business at hand....but I digress....
So I decided to join my friends who were camping up in the San Bernardino mountains. They made a last minute decision to ride some of the fire roads and single track trails up there after their big Bass Lake ride got cancelled. I hadn't been on a ride with Deb since last October and hadn't even met Ian yet, and it was a 120 mile drive up there....so I was enthused to go. The poor old TE has seen very little action so far this year. The battery that the bike came with 4 years ago was still in the bike, but it wasn't very functional anymore. Still, there was the good old kickstarter. I loaded the machine onto the Jeep and headed out just after sunrise. With all the precipitation we've had last winter and spring, the forest was nice and green, the water flowing in places it had not been in previous years. I was pretty excited.
Mid morning at the campsite. It was a beautiful start to the day, but I knew the innocent looking little fluffy clouds that began to appear would probably turn into a fullblown thunderstorm sometime early in the afternoon.
After consulting the map, we geared up and headed out towards Coon Cabin camp.
It has quite the vista.
And a nice trailhead that goes up behind the camp.
See how those clouds are starting to sneak up on us?
By the time we reached Onyx peak (over 9000 ft elevation) it began to rain. We didn't ever see any lightening or hear any thunder, and even though it rained pretty hard in some of the areas we rode, we never got rained on really hard. Seemed like just a few gentle showers actually caught us and then we would end up riding though an area that just got pounded.
We found another trail that would take us off of Onyx peak. It turned out to be really steep, covered in loose rocks and gnarly. I regrettably managed to take a nap during this part of the excursion. I spent most of the descent trying to kickstart my flooded bike after wrestling the portly beast back up onto two wheels. Once I got the TE lit up, we made our way on to a flat meadow area where the weather had recently cut loose. It doesn't get any better than this.
We tore along the back roads, trenching through the soft earth and enjoying the scenery. Ian found a trail off to the right that he wanted to explore. Deb and I weren't as enthusiastic about it.
We kept moving on down the road till we found the trail to Tiptop mountain. In retrospect, the other trail probably wasn't any worse than the Tiptop trail. I started up it just fine, but about 3/4 of the way up I just wasn't in good enough physical condition to keep pushing on, so I stopped about here to catch my breath.
I can't get over how much more rocky and steep that stretch looks "in person"!
I rested till my breathing and heart rate dropped back to normal (which was just a few minutes), drank some water and GU, then turned around and rode back down to wait at the bottom for my riding partners to return from the mountain top. Then we continued onward through the hills and valleys and a couple of deep water crossings till we reached pavement and headed into Big Bear for some lunch.
More to come.
So I decided to join my friends who were camping up in the San Bernardino mountains. They made a last minute decision to ride some of the fire roads and single track trails up there after their big Bass Lake ride got cancelled. I hadn't been on a ride with Deb since last October and hadn't even met Ian yet, and it was a 120 mile drive up there....so I was enthused to go. The poor old TE has seen very little action so far this year. The battery that the bike came with 4 years ago was still in the bike, but it wasn't very functional anymore. Still, there was the good old kickstarter. I loaded the machine onto the Jeep and headed out just after sunrise. With all the precipitation we've had last winter and spring, the forest was nice and green, the water flowing in places it had not been in previous years. I was pretty excited.
Mid morning at the campsite. It was a beautiful start to the day, but I knew the innocent looking little fluffy clouds that began to appear would probably turn into a fullblown thunderstorm sometime early in the afternoon.
After consulting the map, we geared up and headed out towards Coon Cabin camp.
It has quite the vista.
And a nice trailhead that goes up behind the camp.
See how those clouds are starting to sneak up on us?
By the time we reached Onyx peak (over 9000 ft elevation) it began to rain. We didn't ever see any lightening or hear any thunder, and even though it rained pretty hard in some of the areas we rode, we never got rained on really hard. Seemed like just a few gentle showers actually caught us and then we would end up riding though an area that just got pounded.
We found another trail that would take us off of Onyx peak. It turned out to be really steep, covered in loose rocks and gnarly. I regrettably managed to take a nap during this part of the excursion. I spent most of the descent trying to kickstart my flooded bike after wrestling the portly beast back up onto two wheels. Once I got the TE lit up, we made our way on to a flat meadow area where the weather had recently cut loose. It doesn't get any better than this.
We tore along the back roads, trenching through the soft earth and enjoying the scenery. Ian found a trail off to the right that he wanted to explore. Deb and I weren't as enthusiastic about it.
We kept moving on down the road till we found the trail to Tiptop mountain. In retrospect, the other trail probably wasn't any worse than the Tiptop trail. I started up it just fine, but about 3/4 of the way up I just wasn't in good enough physical condition to keep pushing on, so I stopped about here to catch my breath.
I can't get over how much more rocky and steep that stretch looks "in person"!
I rested till my breathing and heart rate dropped back to normal (which was just a few minutes), drank some water and GU, then turned around and rode back down to wait at the bottom for my riding partners to return from the mountain top. Then we continued onward through the hills and valleys and a couple of deep water crossings till we reached pavement and headed into Big Bear for some lunch.
More to come.
