A cool yet beautiful Saturday morning found four riders arrive at the south end of Moorpark Road for the exciting traverse of the Los Robles Trail. A 5th and 6th rider named Reuben and Friend also showed up but chose to ride a different route by themselves. Perhaps I should have showered the night before.

Nevertheless, we four riders, amazingly enough all with 3-letter names--Ali, Joe, Rod, and Rob--started the climb up the Los Robles switchbacks. At the top we continued on until at one point in the ride, just after 2 tight downhill switchbacks, the trail crosses a private fireroad. At the downhill intersection is a stop sign that virtually everyone ignores. Well today Joe almost got arrested and hauled away when he did not stop at the sign and there was a car coming down the private road that was driven by one of the property's security personnel. But Joe turned on the charm and after a brief scolding was released on his own recognizance.

Finally we arrived at the intersection with the top of the Rosewood Trail and Bench. I forgot my camera this morning, but Rod had his camera phone with him and so provided us with some shots of the ride.

At this trail intersection we decided to head west towards the Portrero end of Los Robles. We had the steep uphill and 2 steep downhills to tackle along the trail as we wended [hi Uncle Louie ;o) ] our way towards Portrero Road. Just before the trail terminus we stopped and after a brief rest, turned around and retraced our "steps"--or is that our "tread"--back to the top of the Los Robles Switchbacks. It was here that we met a large co-ed group of riders from the North Ranch MTB group. I believe they were participating in their holiday ride which was to be followed by a holiday party to which none of us RCYers were invited. Again, I guess I should have showered.

We bid adieu to North Ranch and headed for the downhill thrill of the Los Robles Switchbacks. At the bottom we had one last thrill with the short ride on the Whoop-de-doos before we arrived back at our cars, ending a great Saturday morning of singletrack mountain biking.