Riders trickled into Wildwood this cool November morning--I arrived a couple of minutes after 7:30 to find Matthew and Jamshyd preparing to ride....a few minutes later Nelson (who returned last nite from inclement weather up in Mammoth) rolled in, followed by Ali shortly thereafter. Thus it was a fearsome fivesome that pedaled up the street to tackle the climb that would bring us up to the backside of the Santa Rosa Mesa. From here we enjoyed the volcanic singletrack across the side of the mountain.

At the top of the Mesa, we talked with a local hiker before starting our descent of the switchbacks. The skies were already clearing and the air began to warm.

On the left, Nelson approaches a switchback....on the right, he completes the tight turn and heads towards the valley below

At the bottom of the switchbacks, Nelson demonstrated some fine riding techniques as we watched him ride back and forth over the length of a long section of large diameter pipe. And it was at this same point that who was to come upon our group, but none other than the long lost Juan (or is that the "long lost one"), out with his wife and kids for a hike. After some catching up, we bid adieu to our old riding companion and continued on up towards Lizard Rock where we then started our descent towards the aromatic water treatment plant.

At the water treatment plant we turned to the left to head upstream. Fortunately, most of the watercrossings had wooden bridges crudely placed across the banks and so we were able to stay pretty dry. We were also treated to some extraordinary riding skills demonstrated by Nelson as he rode/hopped/cajoled his way across the wood and rock crossings. Soon we reached the canyon waterfall.

We followed the river upstream until the crossing that led us up the Lynnmere Trail. Near the top we turned left again and took the singletrack trail over to Lynn Road. Near the end of the trail was a short but rocky drop.

Matthew crashes the first time, but then gets back up on the bike and rides the rocky descent....note the bloody right knee

It was a short pavement ride back to the cars and after some of us went out for a bite to eat and some words to chew, we ended a most glorious day of mountain biking.