SuperBowlishous Mystery
Ride
off Las Virgenes Canyon
Road
Sunday
02-05-06
To celebrate Super Bowl Sunday
as cyclists should, Rod treated us to a mysterious, magical mountain bike
ride to a heretofore unknown area. Nine arrived with helmets and balls,
ready for the big game.....er, ride. Starting from the bottom of Bell
Canyon we rode over to the Vanowen entrance to the Ahmanson Ranch property
(which I believe is now called something like Upper Las Virgenes Canyon).
Riding thru the property we exited at the Las Virgenes Canyon Road
trailhead. From there Rod took us south on Las Virgenes just past the 101
freeway to the new trailhead near the southeast corner of the 101 freeway and
Las Virgenes Canyon Road. (If you haven't already seen it, check out Rod's
GPS plotted topo map of our journey at http://snipurl.com/m9x4 for an
excellent view of our route)
At the new
trailhead....7 of 9: Nelson, Rod, Rob, John, Dean, Dave and a "digitally
inserted" Joe kneeling....
at the moment Brian
was busy taking care of "business" and Reuben was getting a head start up the
trail
Reuben heads up the
fireroad from the new trailhead
After a steep fireroad climb
we took a sharp right turn onto a singletrack trail that led us thru the
mountainside east of Las Virgenes Road; again look at Rod's topo map to get a
sense of our winding route. Some photos:
Dean, Reuben, Joe,
and Nelson riding a rocky section with steep dropoffs
A panorama digitally
stitched from 4 photos....look closely and you can see three riders on the trail
near the middle of the photo
Rod gave us the
option of bailing out at this point.
Everyone
wanted to continue the exploration and so on we all
pedaled.
Some downhill, more
uphill, thru overgrown mustard plant and over rocky trail we pedaled, unsure of
where exactly we were. But when the trail ended at the top of a steep,
rocky series of switchbacks we found ourselves in an upscale construction
project at the very top of Parkway Calabasas! We had to wend our way down
to the pavement which then took us down, down, down to civilization. Here
we got separated into 2 groups as some of us stopped to explore other possible
routes to take in the future. And so it was that 5--Dean, Brian, Joe,
Nelson and Reuben--headed back to the cars via Valley Circle Boulevard
while the remaining 4--Rod, John, Dave, and me--decided to head back thru
Ahmanson Ranch. Although we initially planned to go back thru the entrance
at Las Virgenes Road, the ever-exploring Rod suggested we try a park entrance he
had notice off of Mureau Road. We followed our Magellan-like leader and
were in fact able to pedal up to Laskey Mesa and thru Ahmanson back to the
cars.
Rod pedaling in
Ahmanson--even the oak trees were tired
A burned oak tree
surrounded by green grass
With over 3 hours of actual
riding time, 25 miles in distance and almost 2900 feet of climbing, it was
late and the four of us headed for home. Later I learned that Dean,
Brian and Reuben had gone out for an after-ride meal. As for me, I figure
that I burned a heap of calories on this ride but am sure I ate and drank more
than enough to replace them when I feasted on food and libations later
on at a Super Bowl party.
Hiccup....
Robco Baggins
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RCYMountainBiking.com
