Sullivan Canyon via Caballero Cyn

Part I

Saturday

10-01-05

 

Saturday morning saw 5 RCYers (Rod, John, George, Mandeep and me) start out from the Caballero Canyon Trailhead off Reseda Boulevard.  Little did we know that our number would soon double.  At the top of the Caballero climb we met Nelson, Joe and Jamshyd (who, upholding a proud tradition, needed to use the "facilities" and so hitched a ride with Joe to start from the Top o' Reseda) and the now 8 of us proceeded to climb Dirt Mulholland over to the Sullivan Canyon firegate.  It was there that we met AaronY and Shah who had pedaled up from the Westside.  And thus it was 10 of us who struck out for the thrills of Sullivan Canyon.

 

Midway thru the wild singletrack of Sullivan, the group pauses for a photo

[from the left: Nelson, Joe, John, Shah, Jamshyd, George, Rod, Aaron, Mandeep....

my presence can be noted by my Intense Tracer reposing in front of the group ;o) ]

 

Back on the bikes......

 

Shah ready to ride a dropoff during the descent of Sullivan

 

Joe riding a chute

(note his face mask in case we hit smoky air

 from the week's fires....fortunately we did not)

 

At the bottom of the canyon, we bid farewell to Shah and Aaron as they headed back home and we, recognizing the beauty of Sullivan, turned around to ride back up the canyon.

 

Mandeep (our newest member) approaches

a water crossing on the return trip

 

The weather was warming up as we climbed the last steep uphill section out of Sullivan Canyon.  We rode back to dirt Mulholland and headed west back towards our start.  But not before some of us took a detour onto the technical singletrack that I'll call the RedCar Trail.  I stopped to take photos at the steep, rocky, loose downhill section near the start of the trail.

 

Jamshyd focused on the rutted descent

 

'MadDog' John hangin' off the back of the saddle of his new Giant

 

End of Part I

  

Sullivan Canyon via Caballero Cyn

Part II

Saturday

10-01-05

 

As I was saying, we were tackling the tough downhill on the RedCar Trail....

 

Nelson enjoying the challenge on the loose rock

 

Seeing double?  2 Rods are better than 1?

Rod midway thru the rutted downhill and again starting the tight turn at the bottom

 

George concentrating on his line

 

George, followed closely by Mandeep,

 negotiating the tight turn at the bottom of the rutted hill

 

We continued on the very narrow singletrack until it dropped us onto dirt Mulholland.  From there we headed down Caballero Canyon to our cars to end a gloriously fun day of mountain biking in the Santa Monica Mountains.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Robco Baggins