Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: Trails

Trails in General

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.

Golden Eagle

This pasy weekend I ventured about as far as I am willing to travel for a single day ride.    The Golden Eagle Trail is on Liebre Mountain about 60 miles north of downtown LA.   It is a long haul from San Diego.   Why drive that far?  Well is a really awesome trail and with the recent snow and rain, the conditions should be prime.   So I was up at O-Damn Early and headed north.

After meeting up with Bill O’Neil in the LA area continued onto the trail.   We mulled over some kind of epic shuttle but our shuttle vehicle was acting a little flaky so we opted for the out-and-back option. 

It was a rather brisk start when we started the climb up the singletrack, but it did not take long to get warmed up.  Most of the main climb up onto the mountain is on its north slope and offered some shelter from the morning breeze.   The predominate ground cover on the north slope was this incredibly green grass that reminded me on an oversaturated photo.  Simply incredible.   What was not incredible was my climbing speed.   Maybe it was too much breakfast, snacks and coffee on the drive up here but I was having “issues”.     By the time I made it up onto the ridgeline I was feeling rather sick and something bad was about to happen.   It was one of those feelings that creates uncertainity about what should be pointed where.   After some gastrointenstinal “adjustments” I started to feel better and we continued.

Once up on the ridgeline we did quite a bit of rolling up and downs with each undulation gathering a little elevation for us.  The trail not technical to speak of, just sweeting flowing goodness.

There were patches of snow here and there as we cruised along that for the most part were rideable.   Some of the patches were as deep at six inches which offered some challenges to keep going and maintaining control.     After handling a bunch of these patches I got pretty complacent with the stuff, hitting them with more and more speed.    One particuarly small looking patch decided to refocus my attention as I got bit sideways in the patch.  Upon leaving the patch and suddenly regaining traction, I aburptly switched from out-of-control cyclist to amateur geologist.  FYI, there are much easier ways to take soil samples.

Soil samples aside, we had a great time on the ridgeline.   Once the Golden Eagle trail ends you can continue along the ridge on a fire road and explore around a bit.   We did this for a while until turning around.  The return leg was really cool as there was more down than up along the ridge.  The final segment is all downhill and it simple rocked.  The conditions just don’t get any better.  The trail in this section was incredible with the perfect balance between traction and speed.   This trail is also open to motos so most of the turns have berms which made for some insanely fast turns.   Bottomline – We ripped down this section back to the truck!   

MIA Status

So man, long time no post for me. Truth be told, I have been enjoying other pursuits as of late. After spending plenty of time traveling and riding over the summer I have found life at home in the “slow” lane really freaking fun. I have been on the bike a bit, but first a little catchup.

 

The family (and a couple of friends) played hookie one day and enjoyed some mid-week fun at Knoxberry Farm. No lines was pretty freaking awesome.

 

Over Thanksgiving, we kicked up some dust in my Brother-In-Law’s yard with the go-carts.

 

Then there has been the weekly hockey practices and games. If it is not Jake on the ice at the Escondido Iceoplex,

 

It is Will at Tricity Inline rink. Always good times.

Early this week, a few friends and I did a little riding east of the Laguna Mountains. This is an area that I have not done much riding in so it was cool to check out some new stuff. Kitchen Creek, Fred Canyon, and Thing Valley were all on the menu.

 

It was not too long into our uphill exploration that some of the white stuff made an appearance. While just in the shadows at first, by the time we got up into the Lagunas proper there was more snow that not on the trails.

 

It is always a treat to get snow on your tires here in Southen California. Today’s dosage was just right, while enough to be a bit burdensome in spots it was for the most part  fun to hear the crunch under your wheels.

 

After bit of play up top we worked our way back down to lower elevations and a welcomed bit of warmth.  There looks to be some good scenic loops that can be put together out here. I have to go back a time or two to get everything figured out. One thing is for certain, I had a pretty cool time out there on the bike.

Back to Hitting the Local Stuff

I got back from Japan a couple of weeks ago and have been taking it easy for the most.  Enjoying the “normal” things in my life like the kid’s hockey games, practice, honey-dos, etc…. Oh, and I managed to break my FN left big toe just strolling through the house.    So not much in the way of blogging about mountain biking.  But I been squeaking in some ride here here and there.

Before the toe breakage, I met up with one of the usual suspects at one of the usual suspect spots for some playtime on the rocks.   After not riding here for over six months, the rocks and all the moves looked bigger.   I’m going to have to repolish my game in this area.

Just a couple of days ago, I tested out the toe on ride through Calvera with my youngest son, Jake.  While the toe was mildly a pain, it is okay to ride with.

 

What I was really stoked about was how well Jake was hanging.   I rode at around 90% of my normal pass and he was right there the whole time.  We did not do a whole lot of stopping either, just riding.  

Kids never seem to amaze me at the rate at which they progress.   We had a really good time out there and we got in around 12-14 miles all together.  It was a good day to be a Dad and on a bike.

“Taiiku no hi” Ride

 This past  Monday was Columbus day in the United States, but I’m not in the States.  Lucky for me Monday was also the Japanese Holiday of  “Taiiku no hi” which is “Health-Sports Day”.   What better way to celebrate that than a bike ride. 

Fall is happening here.   The summer heat is gone and the cooler temps of fall have taken over. There are no huge splash of colors just yet but you can tell that mother nature is dusting off her brushes and shaking the paint cans.

The closest mountain to town is Yumihari.  I have been on most of the flanks of this mountain and have found some stuff to ride in all those areas.   The place suffers from little use and even less maintenance.    This place would be incredibly awesome if there were enough riders to keep this place debrushed.  I was focusing on the southern area today and was quite pleased with what I found and that it is seeing some use.   One such trails was an awesome benchcut along a ruggedly steep hill side.

I eventually found my way over to what I was looking for.  There is a large statue that you can see from town perched up along the ridgeline that I had been eyeing from work for a couple of weeks now.    This thing is huge.  At least 20 feet high and it sets top of 20 foot raised base.  This was a great spot for some snacks so I enjoyed them while taking in some of the views. 

There was an old couple there tending to the grounds.  Eventually the husband and I struck up a conversation which was a mixture of my bad Japanese, his bad English and a healthy dose of International Charades.   From the jest of the conversation, the man was 70 years old and his father made the sculpture.    He was very proud of his father’s work.  He was also proud of the fact his wife was much younger than him (only in her 50s).   The wife snickered at this and gave him a gentle slap on the arm.  While I did not catch what see said, the facial expressions translated to something along the lines of “You Dirty Old Fool”.  While he looked old, he was mighty healthy and was doing some significant work like cutting grass, trimming back branches, etc…   I hope to be that spry when I am his age.  You can tell they loved and cared for this place.    After a bit more broken chit-chat over a can of coffee he gave me, I was on my way.  After such a nice little life enriching experience I could have called it a day right then and have been quite happy.

Lucky for the me the old man had “Charaded” me some more information on trails, so settting off from the shrine, I did some more snooping around.

What the old man had pointed to was a really cool bit of trail where you descend down along a mostly steep ridgeline through a forest of mixed bamboo and hardwoods.   It was a pretty fun descent with some scary bits thrown in when things got rocky and really steep.  

After this I climbed back up the mountain and hit some one the loops I have done several times which put me back onto the side of the mountain I wanted to be on.   After another rather technical descent I popped out into another neighborhood.   From here I zipped along a series of narrow twisting sidewalks that descended the rest of the way down the mountain back into town.  I love when the navigation calls for anyway that is downhill to get “home”.    I might get another ride or two in before I leave Japan but if not this would be a downright cool closer ride.

Tooling around the Tawaragaura Peninsula

Yesterday, I decided to check out the peninsula to the south of Sasebo.  The plan was for this to be road ride and be on the lookout for some trails to explore on another day.  I was actually looking forward to a ride where I did not have to deal with the arachnid gauntlet of webs across the lightly used trails around here.  Last weekend, I must have taken 50 spiders to the face and it got old.

Peeping around on the online maps it looked like the peninsula was gong to be “country” so I packed plenty of snacks.  Onigiri is my favorite ride snack in this parts. It is a triangle of rice with some type of filling on the inside (I dig the tuna) and whole thing is wrapped in seaweed. 

After a bit of hilly road work I got to a pretty cool park overlooking the “99 Islands” area.  The islands are quite pretty and as you travel around there are every changing views as your angles to the numerous islands change.

The main road I took while heading out on the peninsula stayed up on the ridgelines for the most part.  There are quite a few old farming roads that head down to the various nooks and crannies along the shoreline.   Many of these roads are much more narrower and far more interesting that most of the “Trails” built by the various land mangers in San Diego County.

 

While humping back up one of these old roads, I came across another crab.   While I’m only a couple hundred feet above sea level here, I was still amazed to see them up this high.  I did a little research and found out that the crabs here have adapted to living away from the tidal range so you can find them all over.   Like the one I saw last week, this bugger did not like having me around.  He did manage is get some pressure on my thumb through my glove and I must say that this little guy has got quite a pinch. Doesn’t he look pissed?

As I ventured further out towards the end of the peninsula I found the roads turned away from the southern tip.  I managed to find an old road bed turned trail and decided it was worth a look as it would keep me working my way south.    I learned a spider sweeper technique for riding around here.   I take a nice green stick about 3 feet long and keep it between my right hand and handlebar grip.   When I see spider webs I sweep the stick around out in front of me.   It works well when climbing non-technical stuff, but not so much when descending or in technical stuff.   Of course I look like a crazy mashup of  a mountainbiker and an orchestra conductor on crack but what the heck the spider thing gets old after a while and this lets me keep moving. 

 

The old road bed led me up to what I believe is a series of old WWII bunkers.  (I have yet to confirm this, but I am told there are nuemerous ones in the area) Some of them are dug into the side of the mountain while others are dug down into the mountain.  They were really trippy.   This was the biggest one with five interconnected bunkers dug into the side of the mountain right at the summit. 

This was one of the ones that was buried down into the top of the mountain.

 

When I was in the large interconnected bunkers, I was not alone.  There were some bats that called this place home.   When I got too close that started flying around and moved into the adjacent bunkers.  Since I had started at one end by the time time I got to the last bunker, they were all concentrated into the one room.  They did not want to go outside and since I was standing in the archway between the rooms, they were a little perplexed.  I spent a lot of time working on getting a shot of these little guys.  They would often buzz within a foot of my head as they thought about going past me to get to the other room.   The camera flash usually sent them wheeling around away from me.

This is the best closeup I was able to snag.  Ain’t he cute?   I heard this species is closely related to the endangered Texas Perot Bat.

After harassing the bats for long enough, I continued along my way of poking around on the peninsula.  There was lots of farm patches up here as well as a small community.  Looking back to the north I could see pretty much every peak I have gotten to so far in Sasebo.

I decided to drop down to the Shirahama Beach were I was expecting to see hordes of Japanese hotties in bikinis.   I had to settle for nearly having the beach all to myself while enjoying an onigiri and views of the East China Sea. 

The water looked inviting but you would have to watch out for these critters which were in abundance.

I spent quite a bit of time checking out some of the nooks and inlets. I’m sure some are only accessible via boat.   I took lots of notes and waypoints of the many old abandoned roads and nearly overgrown trails that dot the area.  I have enough dots and dotted lines for a return visit.

I got to a road junction where I could take the fairly direct route back, or I could take the more round-about way back along a big eastern chunk of the peninsula I had not gotten to yet.  Thinking that I could stay down along the shoreline I took the road downhill into a small fishing villiage.  I really like these small seaside towns, I feel like I’m closer to the culture when in places like this.   I dig watching families fish, old couples tending to thier crops or just strolling along the narrow coastal streets.  The people are so warm and friendly particularly when you know enough of the language to exchange basic greetings and be polite.   When you look on the maps the peninsula is listed as Sasebo, however the three or four folks I talked with on this ride all asked if I had came “from” Sasebo.  Clearly they don’t think of thier quite little neck of the woods as Sasebo and now, neither do I.   The ride back along the more scenic route was anything but the flat cruiser shoreline ride I had expected.  Between the little fishing villiages the road would climb back up into the hills and then drop back down at the next village.  I don’t know how many undulations I went through but by the time I got back to the hotel I was throughly pooped.   It was a good day on a bike.

Added Takatori to the website

I finally got all my notes, photos and map information together for the Takatori-yama area near Zushi and Yokosuka, Japan.   I added a Google Earth KMZ file to this review that is mashed up with my photos and trail notes  as well as Japanese topo map to help you get to know the area better.  One thing I like about this setup is that you can find all sorts of other information on the area in addition to photos from other people.  If you find yourself in the area you should definitely check this place out.  For all my peeps on the Far East Side that call this place home, keep the trails ridden and shot me some more information on the trail spurs I did not get to.

The Takatori-yama Page