As of April I had ridden: Skinsuit, Smashface, Silverado Motorway, Coldwater, San Juan, Old San Juan, Upper and Lower Holy Jim, Trabuco, Bell Ridge (and BGR) and Buckthorn. By my calculations then, I still had Yeager, Chiquito, Joplin and Los Pinos.
Well, I definitely got sidetracked and lost a lot of valuable riding time due to other concerns. The good news is that in December I was able to ride Joplin and Los Pinos.
I rode Joplin in mid-December, just before we had the big rain, the big flood and all the slide damage. The trail was in great shape, probably the best I'd ever seen it. Unfortunately, it seems that the trail has since taken some damage. The report I read said there were plenty of big ruts, but no fallen trees or impassible sections. Not catastrophic, but it won't be like it was. I'm hoping to do another descent in the next few weeks. I will give an update then.
Richard on Los Pinos. Looking toward Santiago Peak.I rode Los Pinos on the last day of the year - a magnificent sendoff for 2010. Richard, Chris and I set off on the San Juan trail mid-morning. The parking lot near the hot springs was packed, as crowded as I have ever seen it. As we climbed toward Cocktail Rock we were beset with riders shuttling the downhill. There was about 20 people at Cocktail waiting to descend. It was hard to find a place to put our bikes. This was only a week after the big rain. All of the "local" OC parks were closed, Trabuco was mostly inaccessible, Blackstar was a mess and the Luge was a slide zone. So, everyone was on San Juan.
The good news is that everyone was concentrated on the new San Juan. We didn't spend much time at Cocktail Rock. We took a left onto the Old San Juan Trail and entered a different world, only passing one rider between the rock and Blue Jay. There were plenty of cars at Blue Jay, but not a single rider on "The Wall" or Pinos. We had the whole trail - all eight miles of Pinos ridgeline - to ourselves. And the trail was magnificent.
I've made the mistake of riding Pinos in the summer. Hot summer days when the sun bakes into the rocks and the manzanita scratches your dry skin like a giant brillo pad. I've cowered under those same shrubs, looking for some respite from the sun. There isn't much shade on Pinos.
Every trail I know took a beating during the big December storm. Pinos only seemed to get better. That's because Los Pinos is not really a trail. Well, sure it is a trail, but not in the conventional sense. Pinos is a ridgeline full of transistor radio-sized rocks. On a cold day in December, all the rocks seemed frozen together...like permafrost. There was ice on all the eastern slopes, but it wasn't slippery. The ice made the trail sturdier, grippier and fun. It was eight miles of ego dirt, but it wasn't really dirt at all.
That's not to say the descents were easy. Pinos is a challenge. More than 5,000 vertical feet of challenging downhill. Almost every downhill section is followed a steep hike-a-bike. There are reasons why we were alone on the trail. While it is an adventure that shouldn't be taken lightly, it is an experience not to be missed. After the climb up Main Divide ("The Wall") there are two short climbs to Pinos Peak. Chris, Richard and I were treated with a panoramic view - the San Bernadino Mountains to the east, San Jacinto Mountain to the south and San Clemente Island to the west. Lake Elsinore is directly below and to the southeast.
New Years Eve on Pinos Peak. Seriously folks!Past the peak there is a small descent and then a monstrous descent, followed by a long, steep hike-a-bike up a pointy precipice I like to call Witch Mountain. After Witch mountain the trail continues on the ridge line allowing for more descents and about six more hike-a-bikes. Wear comfortable bike shoes on this ride!
This photo was taken from atop the first big climb. If you look carefully you can see the trail cascading down the ridge line. Click on the photo to enlarge.The last couple miles of the trail contain the most technical downhill sections. After a steep plunge, the route drops into a meadow. From the meadow, one can look up San Juan Canyon toward Long Canyon. On this day, at the top of San Juan Canyon, there was a magnificent waterfall. As Chris said, it looked like something you would see in Hawaii. We were several miles away, but the falls looked to be about thirty-feet wide and fifty-feet tall.
After the meadow, the trail switchbacks down to the canyon. There are few technical rock sections with tight turns and microwave oven-sized boulders. The trail ends at a church camp in San Juan Canyon. The final adventure was crossing the swollen stream (three times!) as we pedaled down the canyon road. I kept thinking about that waterfall as we splashed through the roaring water. When we arrived back at the car, the parking lot was full of riders, but we were the only ones with wet feet.
Happy 2011 to all. I'm still working on my goal for this year.
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