SaMaKi

Planning on riding Nate Harrison Grade this evening starting around 5PM. I'll be AT THIS STARTUP POINT at 5PM. Depends on how the ride goes but I may not stop at that. May push it to Palomar divide if they connect. Let me know who's in!

It was definitely wet at some spots like it had rained earlier but no rain while I was riding.

None.

Ended up going alone....it was gorgeous. Nate Harrison is a nice and sweet ride to the top of Palomar. 65 degrees at the highest point, felt good. Made it all the way to the observatory and went down by the S7, Mesa Grande and Black Mountain road to home. Will be going for another ride tomorrow the 3rd if anybody wants to join.

@DSM8 calls me to go ride with the Flying Monkey group and poor man got a flat so couldn't make it. I decide at the last minute to join them....left Santee @ 4:50PM to meet up with the guys at the gas station in Temecula @ 5:45PM. I went flying and still made it to rdv point on time. From there we went to Thomas Mountain. Nice little group of people, amazing ride!

Nice little ride with @DSM8 & my friend today. Nothing too crazy with little lunch session at Pine Valley before heading back home. Felt like a short ride but will do given the temperatures. Red was the plan, green is the track log. We hit a closed gate which forced us to turn around. I wish it wasn't closed cause it started to get fun. @DSM8 took some pictures so I am pretty sure he'll post them.

Are you gonna go for the same? Dunlop 908? Damn...well I may give them a call sometimes next week because the last time I spoke with them, the lady on the phone did say it was unreliable due to the lack of manpower to keep it up to date but she also said to give her a call and she'd be able to tell me what gate is or isn't open. I'll call them to see why that gate has been closed for years and why it says open on the website.

Yes. I’m pretty sure they’ll open it sometimes though as it was open as of June 24th according to the FS USDA website.

Tomorrow’s Tuesday and it’s my riding day! I haven’t touched the bike in 2 weeks and I think I’m getting sick cause it’s been too long . Not sure where or how long I’ll be riding yet but I’ll post up later tonight what might be the route. As usual I’m open to suggestions. I like to try new trails or routes every time I go and hope that’ll be mainly off road. I’ve downloaded couple of tracks from GPXExchange that I may give a shot to. Anybody welcome. I’ll be riding my 1290 of course.

Report HERE.

I didn’t realize the rdv point was an hour away from most of you so we will be waiting until 8 at the Starbucks. So far @DSM8, a friend of mine and me will be there.

I'll text you now. So far this is the route : We may avoid the Mexican border part as my friend just told me that apparently things are pretty heated down there....I don't know. Never done it but it seems to be 50/50 dirt and pavement. I may feel adventurous and hit the Pine Valley trail. Rendez vous point is gonna be 7:30AM at the Starbucks in Alpine at 2963 Alpine blvd ALPINE 91901. Anybody is welcome to join. The loop is probably 5 hours total.

So it seems that Tuesday the 30th will be covered and 87°F at the highest : Who's up for a ride? I'll be riding my 1290 so chill and relax ride, nothing too crazy. Preferably mainly off road but obviously we'll have to hit some pavement at some point. Unlike my last short notice, here we are with a few days to set that up. So here it is, who's in? Big bike, small bike, any trail, north, south, east (may be a bit too hot though) any route, any time (the longer the better 😉). Let's see what we got!

So far so good...loving this ride. The highest it got until now was 90 degrees. I think I’m gonna keep going. Just stopped to eat. I’ll try and keep reporting, depends on service.

Oh every single guard I put on that bike definitely paid for itself yesterday. That bulldozer wasn't left there, it was scraping the ground and leaving the trail behind piled with sand and dirt.

Man when I got launched the first time and spent almost an hour getting it out.....I was beat and my self confidence took a hit so I had no strength left. Every little loss of balance and I couldn’t keep it up, my arms would just let it go down. I couldn’t even pick it up properly due to where it was laying and was afraid to bust my back.

Haha that was a great diagram! You got stuck in the same spot? The funny thing is that a month ago we went through that trail and I was fully loaded (top case and saddle bags) on the way to Big Bear to camp and I didn't have that much of a hard time. Like I said, today the trail seemed to be sandier than usual. For sure! It was a tough day though.

Just got to the top of Black Mountain and crossed 2 riders going down just leaving the top. What looked to be a DRZ and maybe a CRF?

My route was closed so I decided to turn around and to be honest.....I wasn’t sad that it was. Thomas Mountain really beat me up. Took me close to an hour to get the bike out of that hole it dug in the sanded trench. Didn’t want to exert myself with that heat so I took my time to get it out. It’s highway all the way home now. Stopped for a quick slice of pie though.

Just got on the 74. Took a good beating in Thomas Mountain. Never seen it this sandy. I HATE SAND! Got stuck once and dropped it a few times. It is definitely hot, between 90 & 95 degrees with a nice breeze though. Getting some rest and debating if I head back or keep on going. I’m starting to get tired.

Report is HERE.

Live from the duck farm, I’ll wait 10 mins in case anybody decided to join and then take off.

I planned it using www.californiatrailmap.com (which is awesome by the way, wish I had bought it earlier) and I did not see any locked gate at any point. It does show the gates and their status and didn't see any on the map. I thought that this might be a possibility and if it is the case, we'll just turn around.

Final draft for Tuesday, 75% done in the past, 25% will be exploration, 218 Miles total :

So take off will be Tuesday 07/30 at the duck farm in Ramona (1415 Pamo Rd, Ramona, CA 92065) at 8am. I plan on riding all day except if it gets too hot then I'll turn around. Feel free to join!