Deer Springs/San Marcos 8/8

[SpaceCowboy 52]

Great ride today, with a five of us all together: Mike, on the bmw 510, ryan on the ktm 500, brian on a husky 350, joe on the drz, and myself riding my wr400. Only went about 40 miles all together, but it was much more technical than initially expected, some exciting climbs, steep down hills, and some sweet single track towards the end. All together, about 4 hours total ride time including stops and street. Anyways, I'll get on with the details. If I got anyone's name wrong, let me know I'll fix it asap.

Started off from our meeting point and headed west on the 76 for a while.
I thought that I'd try a little trials riding first, though. I rode up, popped a wheelie, but didn't stand up. my front wheel lofted over, and my rear wheel hit, bucking the bike up, launching me up and over the bars. I landed, head first, in front of the bike, completely upside down. Basically the bike bucked me into the air and I landed upside down pretty hard, head first. I'll definitely need a new helmet, its got a good gash on the top:

After those shenanigans, we proceeded to the real riding. It was tough going for the first little while, before we got to the break point, ampm station. Here Mike was having slight trouble, stuck in a rut. The rest of us watched and heckled:


Ryan is a great rider. He's quick and made everything look easy: Yes, it looks like he's going down here, but he is just that good. He flew up this hill no problem.


A more difficult section. Joe rode up pretty handily:


Then he veered off the trail. He was probably distracted by my strikingly good looks:


Next was Mike: (same hill, different angle)



Then Ryan had a go. Again, he makes it look easy. Smooth as butter:


Finally Brian's turn:


He made it up, and promptly slid off the side into the brush. Instead of helping him lift his bike out, I did the gentlemanly thing and snapped a picture:


After this, the AMPM was around the corner. Mike decided that he had had enough, and took the highway home. And then there were four. After our break, we were all loosened up, and our pace increased along with the difficulty. Great fun. We rode around, Ryan knows the area well, and showed us a cool rock to climb and we cruised around the trails for a little while. At one point, we decided to look for a pit bike track that, he said, has a cool, long hill climb leading to it. I said I knew where the track was, so I took the lead again. Almost instantly, I took a wrong turn and we found ourselves on a hill that seemed to be way too steep for anything. I was first, and knew that I couldn't stop. There was no grip. I simply tried to avoid obstacles while flying out of control down the slope. I somehow made it to the bottom, and Ryan was close behind me. He and I stopped around the corner, so we had no idea how Brian and Joe were doing on the hill. I still don't know what went down back there, but Ryan and I waited for a while before Joe and Brian finally rounded the corner.

Then we proceeded to ride to the pit bike track, and took on this hill climb that Ryan spoke about. His words were "Just a 2nd gear climb" in a very nonchalant tone of voice. When we started, he took off and made it look like nothing (what a surprise). Then I went up, slid into a rut, and stalled. Joe was right on my tail, so I killed his momentum, too. Brian was smart enough to wait at the bottom until we were clear. from there Joe and I helped each other up the hill. The entire thing was incredible, long, grueling. I was in first slipping the clutch most of the way. Brian aired down his tubeliss to something crazy like 3 psi or so, and he made it up without complaint.

After that climb, we started making our way back. There were a few other fun trails and hills and descents that we hit and overall it made for a great day. Thanks for coming out guys!

Special thanks to Brian for being very patient riding sweep all day.

Let me know if I need to adjust picture size or format.

[350thumper 336]

Nice team work.

Good pics.

[dirt dame 559]

Good pics

[darylhunter 1]

Was off this past week on a family vacation and just got back. Otherwise I would have loved to join you guys out there.

I have a lot of GPS tracks for the area that I could share if anyone is interested.

Many are fine for the 500 EXC but a few are more suited to the trials bike.

[RobATK94 1]

Looks like an awesome time!! Please post next time you head out.

Darylhunter-I would really appreciate any tracks you have of the area. I haven't been in the area for several years.

[CL300CAPT 0]

I've ridden that area several times and get a quezy feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. Several nice areas, but some really tough, rutted out crappy ones too. Seems I get hurt almost every time I ride there. The area seems easy and innocent, but watch out!

[RP415 0]

Super fun ride and really good write up Truman. Can't wait to do it again!

[Sneeker 29]

I've ridden that area several times and get a quezy feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. Several nice areas, but some really tough, rutted out crappy ones too. Seems I get hurt almost every time I ride there. The area seems easy and innocent, but watch out!

Yup, that place is treacherous in the summer. Ball bearings on glass. Off camber downhill turns will getcha. Broke a bone in my hand out there a couple months ago, all good now.

Thanks for the write up, glad you guys had fun. I'll have to join up for the next one!

[Bp619 104]

That was a fun ride and good ride report. Im still finding dust in my ears and nose. After airing down to 3psi the traction was out of control for that rocky trail after that was almost too much traction pulling wheelies up hills.cant wait to do it again

[robertaccio 405]

nice, summer ride.

[Bluhdow 16]

Super stoked to have joined this "intermediate single track" group for my first ride back after a long break and on a new bike! If you're not scared, you're not learning! Can't wait for the next one guys!