SaMaKi

That’s good info, thank you. Hopefully it’ll get better by Tuesday. Even the ones that can’t commit to a full day ride ( @DSM8) can just do a portion and head back if they want. I’m craving dirt and since it’ll be my only day off next week it seems like I’ll be doing that route probably. A friend might join on his 990.

Alright so here’s a first draft of what we can do. But again, let me know your thoughts on temperatures or on how hot it may get. As of right now, it shows that Tuesday will be 77 at the highest. Here is the map, mainly off road, red circled is freeway and the blue circled part I have never done so depends on how it goes, we can explore that together or head back the same way we came in.

Not right this moment but I can cook something up. That’s why I posted this a “little” early so we can chime in together and come up with something using everybody’s experience of heat risks, trails, routes, scenery....etc.

I want to go ride tomorrow. I know it's a little too short of a notice but who's up for it? Chill ride, no racing (I am riding a 1290). Open to changes if better ideas and if you guys think it'll be too hot as well, let me know. Here is the plan (~280 Miles) :

Great ride, great meeting with @DSM8 & @tntmo! It started getting hot at 9AM!! Looking forward to meet everybody else!

Just spoke with @DSM8 on the phone and he made a good point, it’ll be way too hot to do the loop so instead we’ll just meet up at 7am tomorrow the 24th for a quick Black Mountain ride. If anybody else wants to hop on board.

So you in? Pamo Rd in Ramona or wherever works best for you. Most of the highway will be on the way back. But like I said I’m open to changes.

I wanna say 50% pavement, 25% dirt and 25% rocky trails but nothing too crazy really. I’m a beginner on a big 1290 and I’ve done this route multiple times already.

FYI I’m off both day....Tuesday the 23rd & Wednesday the 24th. I don’t mind pushing it to Wednesday if that works better for anybody as I already got my riding fix this morning.

Me? No I was done by 12. Had to work at 2.

Haha. Don’t ask me why but I had a feeling you’d be members. I thought “I may have seen those bikes on SDAR”. I work at 2PM today so I thought I should go for a quick ride before it gets hot.

Hiya riders! The time has come for my 10 day trip. We initially wanted to make it to Colorado but when came planning....time was a little tight. So we decided we’ll ride through Cali up by the ocean, meet the TAT in Oregon west side, ride the TAT east and hopefully make it to Alvord desert if time allows then come back down to San Diego with a stop in Lake Tahoe and visit the ghost town of Bodie. It’ll hopefully be all camping with one night in a cabin at Fremont point in Oregon. The sightseeing in California will be : - Pismo Beach - Valley View Trail - Pigeon Point Lighthouse - Muir Woods - Bowling Ball Beach - Fern Canyon - Lake Tahoe - Bodie In Oregon : - Toketee Falls - Clearwater Falls - Alvord Desert I have many more points of interest I’d like to visit but not sure the time restriction will permit. We will be leaving Monday mid day or Tuesday early morning to be back hopefully by the 17th or 18th. Once again if any of you guys have any input, it’ll be greatly appreciated.

I’m back and even though the trip was a day shorter than planned, it was amazing. Sorry for the late report as I was beat up and had to go back to work but here it is with a little video to sum it up. It doesn’t even do it justice to be honest as how beautiful everything was. The weather was perfect except for the last run of 250 miles on the highway going home where temperatures were at 105. We left Tuesday 07/09 at 10am and I got back Monday 07/15. I’ve spend much more time on the highway that I’ve wanted to but time was of the essence.

Thanks! It’s always tough for me because I love to enjoy the moment but have to keep up with shooting, camera’s batteries, angles etc. And sometimes you get so focused on the shooting part that it kills the fun you know. But memories are always good to have.

Thank you! And that’s the beauty of ADV riding, ”someday” can be tomorrow... Believe it or not, I’ve been into ADV riding for 3 months only.

I rode it last Tuesday and got to the top of black mountain from Pamo rd, didn't see any gate so I guess open?

Thanks to @Oracle & @Bp619 we made it to Big Bear off road. My friend just got back from a 3 months ride through Europe and Africa so got tired and we left the Thomas mountain trail then hit the highway to Big Bear. My first time camping was exhausting (low quality gear) but it taught me a lot about what I should upgrade for our big trip next month. The weather was perfect, not too hot. Had a little flat tire on the way there but nothing we couldn't manage. Here is a quick video I put together :

Thank you. Editing is always time consuming and I try not to let my trip focused on shooting so I did with whatever I was able to capture. I actually just replaced the video to get rid of the music. Hanna Flat Campground (I think?). Definitely since I was freezing all night! Hehe.

Hello everybody! As mentioned in my intro, my friend and I are planning a 10 day trip to Colorado but to "practice" and test out camping gear and else, we are going tomorrow to Big Bear lake from San Diego, sleep there and come back on Wednesday. From that, I made two tracks using GPSies & TRXTrailhead : - San Diego to Big Bear - Big Bear to San Diego It is a mix of twisties, highway and trails. I know it's a little too late to ask but if you guys could take a look at it and give me some feedback as to what trail we may going through will be closed or what not or any other input (time too short, distance too long...etc) would be much appreciated. I am a novice at these kind of trips and this will be a practice for me. Thank you!

We made it back Tuesday. I haven’t forgotten to report, I just have been busy with work but I’ll try to put a little video recap of our trip in the report section. Again thank you guys for your help!

Tomorrow morning. Hopefully taking off by 7am or so. First real trip, pretty excited. I’ll report as soon as we come back. 😬 Meanwhile if anybody has any camping or fishing tip for there. I’m all ears!

I got all your tracks guys! Thank you! I'll link those two to get us warmed up with Black Mountain. Your tracks do go to Green Valley Lake. My goal was to fish Big Bear Lake when we get there unless it's too late at night but we'll probably leave San Diego around 7AM so we should probably be fine unless we hit a snag. Any of you ever fished Big Bear? If so, where did you camp near the lake?

You guys rock. @Oracle I’m a little confused about the first part in Santa Ysabel and Black Mountain. As for Lost Creek rd, I love that road...the paved part is also a blast, been there couple of times and the first time I ended up in Chihuahua Valley rd and made a left to connect to the 79. When we went to Santa Rosa, we crossed Chihuahua Valley rd that time and went all the way to Anza. If you have a GPX of what you mean for the Santa Ysabel / Black Mountain, that’d be great.

I had a feeling you'd be the first one to pitch in....thank you! I'll PM you my email right now!

Hello all! My name is Salah and I’m from France, been in San Diego for 8 years and totally in love with the weather here! I’ve always had street bikes (R1, GSX-R...etc) and about a year ago, I got a Kawasaki Concours 14 which I thought that’s it, it’ll be my bike for life as I loved that thing. A friend of mine owned a KLR and whenever we’d ride together, he’d get annoyed when he sees dirt and I have to stick to asphalt. So 3 months ago I told him ok, let’s go to the auction and I’ll get myself a KLR as well to see what’s the adventure riding fuss is all about. Little that I knew what I was in for and how this comment will change my life....haha. So we get to the auction and something I haven’t mentioned is that I’m 6’5 and close to 300lbs (yeah I know, big boy!) and as soon as I sat on a KLR, it just turned into a low rider with the engine case serving as a third wheel. So that ain’t gonna happen...... We keep walking the auction lot and come across a KTM 1190 Adventure R. My friend asks me to sit on it and I tell him to leave me alone as it is not “me”. I cave and sit on that thing. You can’t imagine the feeling when you’re my size, sit on a bike and for the first time in your life, feel like a regular human being and have only your toes reach the ground. Haha. It was love at first sit (pun intended)! My initial $1000 budget for a KLR just multiplied by 5 to try and get that 1190. I finally took it home with the intent on keeping both, the 1190 and the Concours as one for the street and one offroad. The 150hp of the 1190 quickly made me forget the Concours for the street. First ride happened in Pine Valley where the trail beat me up so bad but gave me a rush like I’ve never experienced. Since then I’ve been completely hooked on offroad riding, a junkie I’m telling you. I sleep thinking dirt, I eat thinking rocks and have nightmares about sand trails as those are still not my forte! Haha. My friend drank the orange coolaid as well after riding my 1190 and we found him a KTM 990 Adventure. A month later I took my beloved Concours and traded it for a brand new KTM 1290 Super Adventure R. Yes, those are big bikes but that’s what it’ll take to haul my fat self. I have purchased a Magellan TRX7 and have since then been on probably 10 trails around the San Diego area and still exploring new ones. I have seen a post here not too long ago from a member who planned a 2 day trip to the top of Santa Rosa which made me want to go, and we did this past Tuesday (thank you for the video as it helped locating the trail!). We are planning a 10 day trip to Colorado across Nevada and Utah next month with camping which I’ve never done before. We are also planning a two day trip to Big Bear (camping / fishing) to test out the gear before the big trip. I work weekends and my days off always fall in week days which is when we mainly ride. Anyway I’m looking forward to ride with more people, get some advices from more experienced guys!