DigDug 0 Posted June 30, 2007 Sorry, no pics. I had taken the battery out of my camera to charge it, and guess what? I forgot it. No wonder the power wouldn't come on... Well, Dirt Dame, No Shift, and I met up at the trailhead mentioned in the post. We quickly got ready in the 90 degree heat and started moving to get the airflow. Nice brisk pace along some very scenic fire roads up towards the antennas at Santiago Peak. About 2/3rds the way to the towers, we stopped to take a break in a shady ravine when we hear coming up behind us another bike. Up pulls tntmo. He had gotten caught in traffic and arrived late - good thing we stopped for a break. As a group of 4, we continued up to the antennas to check out the view. Great view!!! There was a haze hanging low over the valley (which we were fortuntately above), and we could see the tops of the mountains of both Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands. We continued along until time started getting short - pretty much returning the way we came. This area is pretty neat. Mostly easy forest roads. Friendly to both big bikes and newbies, although the more adventurous can take the short "side trails" for more of a challenge. I'm not saying that we did that - I mean left the main road or anything - but IF someone were to - I bet it'd be a blast on some of the single track sections. I was able to find an official trail - single-track type road, a nice little shortcut that moved me from sweep to ahead of lead... I think the phrase I heard used was "the road that never ends". This thing went on for probably 40 miles. One of these days, it'd be a good trip to go all the way to Corona for gas and lunch, then head back to the trucks. I had a great time everyone!!! thanks for keeping me company... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dirt dame 561 Posted June 30, 2007 Well, I couldn't tell who was gonna go and who wasn't and didn't even know I was going until the last minute, then I p m'd Dig and said I'd meet him at the place we all met for the Pinnacles ride and follow him up. I loaded up the little green slug, because it hasn't been out to play since the Hixon trail ride a couple of months ago. The last time I rode it, the KLX seemed to behave poorly, washing out in turns and finally throwing me off. Papaalex didn't seem to notice any problems when he rode it, so I thought I was having an off-day or something. A couple of days ago I was moving the bike in the garage and dicovered that it had a completely flat front tire. I changed out the tube and put in about 17 pounds of air. I figured that there was my cause of bad fortune on the previous ride. Our ride we did today proved that. The trails, dry, dusty and full of rocks, sometimes silty and sometimes slick were no problem for the little green guy; it handled perfectly (or at least as perfectly as it ever was gonna) and there was no real technical sections to speak of. Noshift (or Shiftless) joined us at the staging area and TNTMO (or what ever his handle is, there isn't enough vowels in it for me!) joined us at the ten mile mark where we were enjoying the shade and some pesky face flies. We covered miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles on a never ending ridgeline. It was one panarama after another. occassionally a plane would fly by in the distance at about eye level. The ride had started at around 2:30 and by the time it was 5:00 pm we were out 30 miles. We decided to turn around and head back, since Digdug had to go pick up his wife somewhere. I liked our ride, but felt we need to get out early in the morning so we can poke around without being in danger of having the sun set before we are done. Nobody had any crashes or bike problems and the company was great as usual So another good ride on the books, except for no photos. I'll have to break out the new Nikon and hopefully not break it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tntmo 896 Posted June 30, 2007 Shiftless joined us at the staging area and TNTMO (or what ever his handle is) joined us at the ten mile mark where we were enjoying the shade and some pesky face flies. Yep, that's me! I didn't know for sure if I was going on this ride until it was almost too late. I headed out of home base a bit behind schedule but would have made it if I hadn't met up with two accidents on the 15N. I had planned to pick up a new adventure pass since mine was expired, and also top off the bike since it wasn't full. Both of those plans got put aside as I sat in stopped traffic on the freeway. I got to the staging area about 2:50 and saw three vehicles. I quickly unloaded, geared up and hauled ass down the trail. I stopped every time I got into a clearing to look for dust and listen for bikes but didn't hear any. I was moving pretty quick but after almost sliding off the edge of a trail I slowed it down a bit. A few miles in there was a split in the trail so I just went the way I felt looked the most fun, up. Sure enough, I ran into the group shortly after that. Everything else was without issue, except for the fact, noted earlier, that I didn't top my tank off. I was low on fuel and switched to reserve a few miles before we got back to the antenna towers. I kept figuring I was going to run out around every corner but luckiyly made it back to the truck. There I found a notice for not displaying an adventure pass. I'll be picking one up today to cover that. I got caught up in my own PPP, piss poor planning. Anyway, it was a good time and I want to head back with a full tank of gas and a few more hours of daylight to check it out. Hope to see you all at the BBQ next weekend. Tom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
