It's about 15 degrees cooler in the mountains 07/24/16

[dirt dame 559]

The San Bernardino mountains, anyway.  Haven't taken ol' Bentley The KDX out for quite a while, so off we went. The 215 was closed (for about 5 hours) near Menifee because of some nut job running around loose on the freeway with a (jammed) rifle.  What a traffic jam and resultant delay that caused!  This caused me to arrive at the staging area much later than expected.

Weather was perfect.  I didn't see one other motorcyclist out on the trails during the entire time.  I managed to hit reserve before the end of my 110 miles, on the 3.3 gallon gas tank.  A few little cumulus cloudettes dotted the sky later in the afternoon.  They were like a precursor to what will (hopefully) happen next weekend...some summer thunderstorms!  I'll try to go back for one of those storm days, for sure.

Oh noes!  A tree fell across the trail!

Ta da!  Five minutes of applying a little elbow grease to the limbing saw that I keep tucked in the tool pack, and I was ready to continue.

Late afternoon near Heart Bar.

[Dress4Less 162]

Good thing you carry that saw!  Nice pics...

[dirt dame 559]

Just now, Dress4Less said:

Good thing you carry that saw!  Nice pics...

Yeah, that little Bahco Laplander has gotten me through plenty of stuff over the years.

[Dress4Less 162]

8 minutes ago, dirt dame said:

Yeah, that little Bahco Laplander has gotten me through plenty of stuff over the years.

[Honda90 0]

Very nice. If you ever decide to part with one of your Kawies, I'm interested.

[Wierdrider 187]

Nicely done Mimi!??

[MacDuncan 131]

Heck, that looks like a great ride!  Way to go!! 

"that little Bahco Laplander" --   it looks like you carry a saw - I was recently worried about...  Thanks for the insight   

Safe fun riding to you!!  

[wildwood 11]

Nice pic's Mimi, my next target.  :-)

[Ptkatoomer 114]

I definitely want to get up there for some rides.  That looks great. 

[RobATK94 1]

What area are you riding in?  These look like some fun trails to explore. 

[dirt dame 559]

13 hours ago, RobATK94 said:

What area are you riding in?  These look like some fun trails to explore. 

There's so many miles of trails out there, it's just crazy.  Plenty of variety from wide gravel back roads to some truly gnarly stuff and single track.  OHV riding from Pinnacles staging area will get you to places like Silverwood lake, Deep Creek, and out towards Crab Flats campground where you can find Redonda Ridge trail trail, further east and north are White Mountain trail and John Bull trail.  Dishpan Springs road has some black diamond moments on it also.  From Big Bear you can run down to the desert on dirt roads and trails for lunch at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown.  There are literally hundreds of miles of dirt roads and trails.  The ranger station has lots of free OHV maps that can get you started.  I explore the night before on Google Earth, then rely on what routes I saw when I get out there the next day.  You could probably spend a 3 day weekend up there riding all day and not cover all the dualsport and trail exploring opportunities that are available in the San Bernardino mountains.

Depending on where I want to start and end my ride, I stage at Pinnacles, just north of Fawnskin, at the Big Bear airport, or at Heart Bar.

Just remember that a majority of the access is for plated vehicles, so DS bikes will get you the widest range of riding freedom.

[Bp619 104]

Yup been up to big Bear last year for 3 weekends all 80-130 mile days and still only done probably 50% of trails and lots of good fire roads and tons of gnarly stuff scattered all over the mountains 

[dirt dame 559]

When I first joined SDAR back in 2007, forum members posted up some big group rides all the time.  DIgdug was here then, and he usually led those rides.  The technical guys would ride over Redonda Ridge, and the not-so-technical portion of the riders would follow me on forest roads to Big Pine Flats campground where we would meet the guys at the other end of their trail, who often arrived minus some bike parts and skin, but happy.  We always seemed to end the day with a crossing at Devil's Hole before heading back to Pinnacles.  Fun times.

[PastaPilot 17]

22 hours ago, dirt dame said:

Yeah, that little Bahco Laplander has gotten me through plenty of stuff over the years.

 

A small hand saw is a necessity for mountain riding. I always pack one and on a previous group ride I asked the other riders to bring theirs and was met with resistance. "I'm not driving that far to do trail work". It's not trail work. Removing a tree or some branches may be the only way to get down the trail.