RCY RIDE
REPORTS
Exploring New
Trails
2 Days
Saturday and
Sunday
03-24-07 &
03-25-07
---------------
Top of Reseda to Santa
Maria Road
Saturday
The Top of Reseda has become a new
"tradition" for the Saturday ride pick. Lately, few individuals seem to be
riding on Saturday with the RCYs, except for George and Joe, and since they like
to ride from here, this is where the pick has been. But this Saturday
we had a better turnout. SteveK, Jamshyd, Dean and I joined George and
Joe at the top of the boulevard. And on the drive up, after several
of us stopped and talked with Efi and a couple of his friends who were getting
ready to ride up from Caballero Canyon, we decided to meet up with them on
dirt Mulholland.
Thus it was that 6 of us climbed the
steep dirt road up to dirt Mulholland, turned left to head towards the top of
Caballero Canyon, turning around when we met up with Efi and his friends Eitan
and Israel. Eitan had a plan to explore a couple of trails he had seen off
of Santa Maria Road, and we all decided to follow him. So we 9 riders
pedaled west on dirt Mulholland, soon passing the yellow fire gate on Mulholland
and arriving at the turnoff for the paved Santa Maria Road.
After taking a short break to attend to some bodily functions, we
headed down Santa Maria Road, past horse ranches and rural estates, eventually
descending about half-way down the steep street to a trailhead on our
left. The short trail wound its way to some beautiful rock
formations. Moab-esque....
The group poses on some
slick rock
From the left: Dean,
Israel, Jamshyd, SteveK, Eitan, Efi, Joe, and George
Steve shows off his cool
new Ellsworth Epiphany
After a visit to 'the
pipe', we hiked down to "the cave"
A closer view of the
beautiful rock cave filled with ugly cyclists
;o)
We had a near catastrophe
when another cave started to collapse.
But Jamshyd and Dean came
to the rescue.
We left the cave and rock area,
returning to Santa Maria Road and another trail on the other side of the
road. This trail brought us up to a street that connects to Topanga Canyon
Blvd. But we turned around here and did an out and back.
I took some liberties with
this photo of our group crossing a bridge on the singletrack
trail
Steve leading a group of
riders back up the steep pavement of Santa Maria Road
Pedaling back on Santa Maria Road, we
headed back to dirt Mulholland and the top of Reseda to end the
ride.
After a failed attempt to eat at a
new restaurant The Humus Bar (which was closed), several of us headed
on over to our old reliable local favorite Greystoke Grill for food and
chat. Having enjoyed a couple of new trails, albeit short ones, little did
we realize that the next day's ride would also present us with new, never before
experienced pleasures.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sycamore
Canyon
Sunday
Nine riders arrived at the end
of Wendy Drive for Sunday morning's MTB ride. We headed past George's
Bench, down the black bitch, through the main canyon via the 2 Foxes Trail,
eventually arriving at the base of the section of the BackBone Trail known as
the Wood Canyon View Trail. We climbed this beautiful trail up to its
terminus near the top of Hell Hill.
Rod pedals at the top of
Wood Canyon View Trail
At the top of Wood Canyon
View Trail the group listens attentively as Jamshyd tells a
joke
From left: Reuben, Steve,
Jamshyd, Rod, David, Andy, Joe, Matthew
We all continued climbing
towards the Guadalasca Trail. Despite heavy bike traffic coming up the
trail, it was a great downhill ride. At the bottom of Guadalasca, our
group split up as Andy, Steve and Reuben lost all common sense and decided to
go over and climb Hell Hill. The 6 remaining riders headed up Wood
Canyon Trail, climbing out via the paved road to the water tower at the
top. It was here that we made a new discovery. There are two trails
that start at this point. On the water tower side of the road is what
I think is called the Coyote Trail which is of questionable legality for
bikes. On the other side of the road is another trailhead that is also
unmarked as far as legality so we decided to try it. It started with a
very tough, steep climb, eventually opening up on top of a ridge.
Joe, Jamshyd, Matthew, Rod,
David and I rest at the top of ridge after the steep climb
I created
a painterly view of a photo of shooting star wildflowers at our rest
point
Unfortunately as we pedaled
on, Jamshyd picked up a stiff branch that tore thru his rear
derailleur.
Here we all contribute a
little to removing his derailleur and turning his bike into a single
speed.
Fortunately we were able to continue
on, eventually descending on the trail towards the valley below. We met
several friendly hikers who seemed to have no problem with us being there, and
one of them said that the trail was called the Hidden Pond Trail.
The view down to the paved
road that leads up to the water tower in Sycamore
Canyon where we had
started up this trail.
David leads Jamshyd and Rod
down the trail overlooking Sycamore Canyon
Eventually the trail dropped us off
at the paved road we saw from above. We then pedaled over to the main
road, up the Black Bitch, past George's Bench that was being appreciated by a
family on a hike, and back to our cars.
A hearty lunch at the Side Street
Cafe ended a great day of biking and a weekend of new trail discoveries by RCY
adventurers.
Have a great rest of the
week,
Robco Baggins
