Springtime riding around Idyllwild is some of my favorite stuff around SoCal. Unfortunately due to some ill-timed (like there is ever good-timed) injuries and a horrible bout of poison oak, I missed the spring riding in the area. Even though I knew it was going to be hot I met one of my regular riding buds who was in the area for a wedding this weekend. Considering that he was going to be up late with the reception and all, we opted for a 9AM start time from the Herkey Creek Campground area. We knew it would be even toastier with that start time. Hot it was but a fairly consistent breeze kept it just hot vice blistering. We brought plenty of extra water and electrolytes and kept to a “heat management” pace on all the significant uphills.
The trails can get pretty loose here during the summer. I was quite impressed with how well the trails are holding up and I am pretty sure it is due to the care that most of the locals take when riding this system. You can not rail this stuff like you can during the spring and moist times and it is impertive that you hold the lines and skillfully use the brakes. The trails simply can not hold up to skidiots and turnblowers. There was plenty of evidence to show that some of the people who do blow a turn took the time to stop, go back and make an effort to repair their damage, or at least brush out their off-trail tracks. I hate to say it, but you just don’t see that generalized level of trail ownership by the routine-users in the more urbanized areas like Orange County and San Diego. We should all take a lesson from the Idyllwild folks.
In addition to enjoying the flowy twisty singletrack goodness that this place is known for, we played around and a few rocks.
Here is one of the twister rocks bits that is nearly a maze. Hats off to the builders of this.
This was a great finish to a good week of riding, which included some of my local stuff, and the Santa Margarita River Trail (aka SMaRT). I was slacking with my camera for those rides, but here is a ride report on the SMaRT ride on SocalTrailRiders.org.
-Bill