A beautiful day at Corral Canyon 04/28/010

[dirt dame 561]

Turned out to be almost as perfect a day as you can get for trail riding at Corral Canyon. It rained all the way out to the campground and then the sun came through, and the rest of the day was cool, windy and partly cloudy. MCtrails was there with his KTM200, and the upwardly mobile hippies were there with their cats running amok. I went over to say howdy and inquire if the calico kitten was still there, but the guy told me that he had given all the little kitties away already. Whew, that was a close call! I might have ended up with a new little furball to bring home.

So Alan and I hit the trails, both on our "perfect" sized trail machines. I was still a bit leery of the sticking throttle slide business on the KDX220, but since I replaced nearly everything between the throttle tube on the bar and the airbox boot, I felt that the problem HAD BETTER BE SOLVED.

The dirt was about perfect; no dust and a few muddy spots, but for the most part just pure traction. The ride hit a lively pace and the KDX did not have any throttle issues for the day. We did the back loop of Espinoza trail/Sky Valley, trail 4. Wrangler, trail 8 (my fave) and a few others. Somewhere out on the trail, we stopped for a break. I parked my bike on the trail and draped my helmet on the bar end as I so often do. The bike was standing a little tall due to the slope of the dirt beneath it. Alan and I were chatting about this and that as the sky clouded up again and the wind started to come up, and then it happened....a gust of wind pushed my bike over. There was a loud crunch as the helmet was driven into the dirt by the throttle grip side of the handlebar. Alan commented that it didn't sound very good and he picked the bike up for me while I retrieved my newly mashed Bell 7R out of the rocky soil. It was totaled. There was nothing to do but put it back on my noggin and continue to ride, so I did. The helmet didn't even feel right. Alan suggested that if I fell, I should try to fall on the other side of my head. We did a leisure ride all over the place and finally ended up back at the campground. When I left, I think that Alan might have been contemplating just one more little spin around CC before packing up. We didn't ride the new trail today, but had a blast. Thanks for riding with me today, MCtrails.

When I got home, I sat down at the computer and googled up Bell 7R. It was my favorite and most comfortable helmet, much better than my Moto8. They were originally a 200 dollar helmet but haven't been made for about three or four years so if any were floating around out there, they would probably be pretty inexpensive. Iron Pony had the exact same grey and green one in an extra small for 49.99 plus 8.95 shipping, so a replacement is on the way.

[rexr 0]

Sounds like the ride was good. Sorry about the helmet Mimi.

[TrophyHunter 15]

Nice day to put some miles on. Bummer on the head gear...fortunately as you said...a model from a few years ago. Great deal on that!

Glad u & Alan got out there.

[mctrails 38]

Thanks for a great ride Mimi! You were rippin' today. It was fun chasing you around. Conditions were awesome today. The rest of you really missed out on a good one today.

Here we are at the rest stop on trail 4. See the helmet on the end of the handle bars, well you know the story...

This is on trail 9 (one of my favorites.)

After Mimi left I headed up to 4 Corners to ride our Adopted Trail, Kernan, down to the road and back because I haven't ridden it in a while. Today was the perfect day with excellent soil conditions and no one else around. It was great as expected. At the bottom I realised that the trail seemed pretty open and wide. Someone has gone the complete length of the trail and cut the brush back. Plenty of visibility in most places now.

I was kind of surprised to see it as I don't remember hearing about any trail maintenance days on THAT trail in a long time. I guess the forest service had someone (probably inmate crews) go through and cut the brush back. Unless someone else knows something about this I will contact Ranger Tull and find out about it. I feel this reflects bad on us for not being proactive and getting it taken care of ourselves. Will be interested in hearing what Ranger Tull says about it.

[dirt dame 561]

Thanks for a great ride Mimi! You were rippin' today. It was fun chasing you around. Conditions were awesome today. The rest of you really missed out on a good one today.

Must have been the brush up course that I took on Sunday. Went to school to break my bad habits I have gotten into over the last few years. I was riding around today, going into turns, saying to myself "butt on the outside edge and keep that outside elbow up".

[daijones 0]

Glad to hear you both had fun, other than Mimi's helmet, wish I could have been there, and great pics.

Alan, Kernan trail was smoothed out and made wider probably 9 months ago at same time they did several other trails (#1 and #6 most notably), seemed to be to make them more ATV friendly but also to help prevent erosion. Personally I think while it has opened up visibility on Kernan it has also made it quite a lot faster so I am more concerned about hitting someone coming other way now so I rarely ride it now and prefer the tighter / tougher trails, especially the new single track, where you can push yourself a bit with less risks.

[signit98 0]

Where exactly is this particular Corral Canyon, if I may ask? Thank you.

[DigDug 0]

Where exactly is this particular Corral Canyon, if I may ask? Thank you.

Right here: LINK

(sorry it was too easy)

South of I-8 at Buckman Springs road. just past Pine Valley (south of the border patrol checkpoint)

[signit98 0]

I did the search without the OHV stuff and it led me to the Malibu canyons... I knew that couldn't be it... smartass

Thanks... so, it's one of those "I have often driven by but always ignored it" type of deals... worthwhile, it seems!?