SD to El Paso Mnts the long way, a solo venture

[kato 53]

packed my dog bags with a few pairs of underwear, a tent, a sleepingbag + pad, photocopied pages of the cali benchmark, some gps files hacked together and uploaded in my phone, a couple sandwiches, and left thursday morning with a big smile.

My trail ride, which ended unexpectedly Sunday night, looks a little something like this on a map. There is very little slab, mostly only to refuel really:



Here is my ride and some pics.

Rode up from LaMesa to Ramona and got on dirt in the pamo Valley. up Santa Ysabel TT, BlackCanyon and on to the Chihuahua Valley to Anza (looks like my hightek GPS aka phone screwed up at recording the tracks on that part and just drew a straight line).

SYTT in Ramona:


The awesome Chihuahua valley trail:



Refueled in Anza and back on the dirt towards Idyllwild, which apparently I missed all together because the trail i was on was so much fun that I kept on riding, and riding.. The trail I found up to the 74 was pure beauty, lots of trees where I took a sandwich break around Noon, and later on as I got to the top some beautiful views of the valley. came upon a few gates on the way but all were open.

A couple pics as I was getting pretty close to the 74:


A little further looking west I think this is Hemet down bellow, but I kept on riding North and the trails took me down and back up those mountains to the right of the pic, towards Banning. You can see the trail winding down on the ridges, awesomeness:


A few minutes later, by those ridges:


Rode respectfully through some lemon fields as I approached the 74, crossed it and found Bee Canyon TT on the other side. Here is a pic as I entered Bee Canyon:


There was a lot of trails there and it all became a maze to me, but when i finally seemed to have found the way out (I could see Banning down bellow) I was rewarded with a tight single track with no fresh tracks that took me all the way down the mountain, can't say that was the safest way, but hey.

About to enter banning to refuel, but first a quick pause to reward myself to have made it this far. The mountain background of this pic is 'the maze':



Took the scenic Oak Glen rd recommended by Tim up to a barrage on Greenspot Rd that looked fairly new, and got on dirt on Alder Creek Rd as the sun was beginning to set. This is where i started my bigbear ascent. the Barrage viewed from up on the trail:


Still a lot of trail riding to do at that point and it quickly got really cold as i was pressing on to reach Crestline, had to ride with a balaclava and a sweater under my jacket. For a while I was riding with a beautiful sunset to my left, was hard to focus on the riding. Maaany rocks, a jeep (first human I came across on any of the trails I took that day), and a few water crossing later I finally reached the 330. It was peach dark at that point and I was forced to ride without my goggles because I couldnt see with tints and forgot to pack clear ones. With the cold air let me tell you that sucked bad, my eyes were killing me and I did consider slabbing to Crestline for the night. In the end I decided against it and slabbed the short way up the 18 from Arrowbear to reach 3N16 and ride dirt. Back on rocky grounds with my stock headlight, I crossed a fairly deep creek, passed crabflat campground, and quickly found myself in unsafe terrain. I had never been on these trails before. After riding down some pretty serious stuff i decided to stop and bust out the headlamp to take a look at my map and find a way around this mess. Cool, there are none to be found. so i check my phone, see that I have service, and decide to call my buddy in crestline who's familiar with the area. He checks my position and strongly advises me to turn around, threatening me to bust out his Rhino to come assist me from the other side if I was to decide to keep on going crabflats alone at night. I had been on the trail for about 11h at this point and figure it was no time to take serious risk in the dark on a loaded bike, so I packed my headlamp and put my helmet back on, turn the bike around on the steep slope somehow, and made my way back up the rocks back towards arrowbear, then slabbed 30minutes to Crestline were I arrived around 9:30PM completely spent. Today was a good day!


--- Woke up at 6am Friday, donut and coffee in Crestline by the lake:


and back on the trail by ways of Dart Canyon by 7 or so. then onto 2n59 and Cleghorn (isde97: thanks for the advice, that was a great route)
Cleghorn:



More Cleghorn:



more Cleghorn: (notice in the morning I take a lot more pics than in the evening..)



It was a beautiful morning.
Made my way to the edge of the mountain and here was the 15 way down below in the valley:



Now for the way down I decided to take the smaller side trails, which at times were a bit iffy:



But yet again I pass the test and sometimes later find myself way below, next to the 15 freeway. I quickly spot a dirt road paralleling the 15, got on it, and lucky me it leads me right under it. There I am, on a sandy trail in between the westbound and eastbound lanes, looking at all these crazy people zipping by in their cages, missing all the beauty around them in the process.

once back up the other side of the 15 I shot this pic where you can see the edge of Cleghorn from where I took the earlier pic of the 15 down below (the higher mountains to the left in the background):


From there I rode forest route 3n24 until reaching the beginning (end?) of the Angeles Crest hwy.
3N24:


do care:



Turns out the Angeles Crest was closed shortly passed Mountain High due to a rock slide so I was forced to reroute through N4 and hopefully find other ways of dirt into Palmdale. As I was riding the N4 looking for trails I noticed my rear brake gone dead, and since it was time for lunch anyway i slabbed a little further until spotting a gas station in Little Rock:



I diagnosed glazed pads, deglazed using a rock, ate a sandwich, and back at it with a rear brake back alive. Pocking around i found a lake (littlerock reservoir) that seemed to have a trail at the other end taking me back down to the Angeles Crest. Came upon a closed gate, turned around, and notice a bunch of trail going up the mountain towards the west. probably some local spot i figured, no keep-out sign, hey thats where I m going!
The unknown trails took me all the way to the 14, that works for me!
14 down below, Palmdale to the right of the pic:


whats that a single track on the way down? why not:


The star of the show, power thru almost anything machine:


Got lucky once again and found a trail system following the aqueduc that took me from Palmdale to Neenach. another local riding area it seems, it was packed with hillclimbs, and even a couple more singletracks. great.
After Neenach things got even more beautiful. Check out this deep sand rivers through a yucca forest:



breakingbads always know the good spots



and wait what do I see here, a ton of single tracks all over the place?



Well I'll take this ridge then thank you.
My view in front of me (look at my trail winding down the ridge to the left of the pic):



Turned around and snapped another one from behind me where I came from, blurry but you get the idea...



with a big smile on my face, I rode at sunset through windmills, and finally into the night, again, into Tehachapi. yes my eyes were badly hurting again. killed 2 pitchers of 805 at the local pub that night, well deserved I thought. that was another 12h day on the trail and another good day!!



----
partied a little harder than i wanted in Woodward saturday night. there happened to be a crew of 20+ rollerderby girls at the same time as us. hey I'm down with the program!!




I don't think that's me there on the left.

----
went sleep at 3:30am and had my alarm for 8 on sunday am, but woke up at 7. And shortly after a quick refuel I was back on dirt. Exited Tehachapi eastbound no slab following the train tracks just south of the 58, cool way to warm up and fun waving to a couple long trains who honked back. Crossed under the 58 following the

Aqueduct

and North towards and thru Jawbone. Got to chase a few guys on dirtbike there for a minute flet good seeing people. That area was great too, will explore it more someday. Coffee and gaz and back in the canyons through Dove Springs.



This is in Dove Springs somewhere close to red Rock canyon state park:



Passed Red Rock canyon state park, crossed the 14, and entered the great El Paso Mountains to the east. I could have easily spent 2 days riding there, absolutely beautiful and plenty of challenging trails too (even some single tracks with wood barriers at each ends only wide enough for 2 wheels so 4 wheelers can't get on them). El Paso Mnts was much more demanding and wilder that I had anticipated (at least the trails I took), no cell coverage either, and with so little sleep and already several hours of riding behind me that day I started to feel my body.
It is such a beauty though that part of me didn't want it to end, plenty of colors, some pics that don't do any justice:








and in the middle of the wilderness, these guys:


not far from there in a sandy trail I crossed path with a desert dweller on an older 600r carrying a good size shotgun just slung on his back, ready for anything I guess.

More awesome trails:









Finally managed my (long) way into Ridgecrest, refueled both my bike and my body and decided to slab a little ways on the 395 down to Johannesburg in an attempt to recover a little before heading back into the Mojave and camp in the sand somewhere between there and barstow. It was already past 3pm and my plan was to reach a dry lake bed I could see in the distance before dark, so I grabbed a quick coffee and more water at the station in Johannesburg, get back on my bike, and what do I see? this:


A bit frustrating since I had just changed this cable as part of routine maintenance less than 2 months ago, but it is what it is. sh*t happens and that really isn't all that bad considering...
Didn't even get upset really, considering the many hours and hundreds of miles I logged exploring these great areas it's aaaalll good.

Well what else to do with no clutch to keep shifting to a minimum? flatbed the bike or 395&15 in 5th gear all the way back to SD. I chose the later, 200 miles of freeway and the last hour in the dark. i did consider stopping at chaparral on my way down to maybe try finding a matching cable and head back to Barstow, but it was unlikely and in the end I was in the zone and just kept on going down the 15 until i reached home that sunday evening.

And that's my solo story.

My riding buddy Jon (97xr400r on the forum) texted me "ride smart" as I was refueling in Anza, kept that in mind the whole time. No flats and not one spill on this whole trip if you can believe it.
Looking forward to getting back out there maybe with someone who will ride out to DV the fun way? if anyone wants to check out any of my tracks or info on the areas I crossed let me know

[Afry 1]

AWESOME post - thanks for sharing - you need a Delorme Inreach for these solo trips!

[Crawdaddy 96]

THAT's Adventure Riding - thanks for posting

[Czechsix 1]

Terrific ride report, many thanks for the read and the pics!

[GoGoGavin41 0]

THAT's Adventure Riding - thanks for posting

Agreed, looks awesome. Any chance you have a GPX of your route?

[sdhydro 0]

Hey good stuff Kato looks like a fun adventure besides the broken cable. Oh also regarding this comment," Looking forward to getting back out there maybe with someone who will ride out to DV the fun way".....I already purchase my solitaire tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad.....

[Dress4Less 162]

Kato - that is EPIC! Great pics and post!

[bikeslut 1]

nice report Kato! Thanks for taking the time, and adding pictures... not sure that route is KLR friendly, but I'm ready for some longer trips

[Dan Diego 40]

Just fantastic stuff, Kato! That looked like a lot of fun.

[Mr.JAJA 380]

Super trip, writhe up and Pictures. Can we get the GPS file some how?

[Riggerdan 147]

THAT's Adventure Riding - thanks for posting

+1

Awesome stuff

[paulmbowers 236]

Well done!

[isde97 29]

NIce trip and writeup, count me in among those who would like a GPS track.

[Oracle 195]

What a great ride. I hope to do this someday. Thanks for sharing buddy!

[CL300CAPT 0]

No spills, really?

What have you done with the Kato I know?

[danrider 5]

Nice Job!!! very cool

[Beezzz 6]

Great ride up and photos. Thanks for sharing.

[KTMrad 508]

Kato is the man !

[tvscum 43]

Awesome adventure Kato! Except 200 miles of freeway riding... ouch!

[kato 53]

thanks all.

here are the breadcrumbs from my phone (fixed the glitch. and also the gap you see in bigbear is when i turned around from crabsflat): https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zahkmIcOlO9A.kv1YJJ90J73k I think you're able to download the gpx/kml from that? if you really do plan on riding this let me know Im ready to go back aH!

[Mr.JAJA 380]

I am working on this trip "NOW" Thanks.

[Honda90 0]

Dude. Awesome ride. Thanks for posting.

[Oracle 195]

Awesome adventure Kato! Except 200 miles of freeway riding... ouch!

With NO clutch non the less....dang!

[isde97 29]

Thanks for the track, we have run into some of the same gates. I also learned some new routes through 'areas of interest'.

I am starting to plan a trip to the WSB round at Laguna Seca, 4 days up, 4 days back, if you (or anybody else) is interested. Big Bike friendly.

[kato 53]

Thanks for the track, we have run into some of the same gates.

thanks again for mentioning Cleghorn man, that really made my friday morning. Didnt see anyone on that whole trail.

In fact, I had to wait until after Tehachapi to meet my first rider on any of the trails at all!! (a few riders in Jawbone and 3 more in ElPaso mnts plus the rifle man) the rest only consisted of 1 jeep in bigbear by the 330 at the end of day1, and 2 rzrs also in ElPaso mnts.

Fun story about the rzrs guys: I was on the submit taking in the view and resting for a bit (last pic on my writeup), they stop next to me and one just goes "we didnt see anyone". I'm like "Ok, what do you mean?". He takes a better look at me, then my bike, and goes "you're not over here alone are you?"..."Nah, I'm here with you!"

They did not ask where i was riding from, hopefully they thought I had a truck parked not too far.

anyway, I dont remember too many closed gates really. the one south of Littlerock reservoir, but that was an improvised route (not that the rest was that calculated..) as I was trying to cut back south after fixing my rear brake. that's about the only one which really turned me around if I remember right. where else?