Kanan 3rd Tunnel East

April 17, 2005

Part I

A slew of riders showed up for today's ride on the BackBone Trail.   Twelve manly men decided to tackle the narrow, twisting, rutted, overgrown singletrack on a beautiful spring morning.  The sun was shining, the air was cool, and we were ready to ride.

The initial STEEP climb up and over the tunnel is always a very difficult challenge.  Today was a virtually impossible task.  The recent rains have washed away much of the earth, leaving deep gorges paralleling the trail up.  I don't think anyone was able to ride the entire climb....coming down would also prove to be difficult for the few who later attempted it.

The ride thru the first of the 3 sections of trail leading to Corral Canyon proved to be tiring but beautiful.  The rains may have damaged sections of the trail, but also provided deep watering that has allowed abundant, lush growth....including poison oak, which hopefully no one will suffer from.

The group, after completing the first section at Latigo Canyon Road, pose for the year book

(from left: Mitch, Joe, Rod, Dennis, Warner, David, Andy, Matthew, Brian, Sam, & Jamshyd {with Robco behind the camera})

Although I believe that Warner (nice to see you back in the saddle) soon turned back after this point, the remaining 11 continued on with the second and third sections of singletrack.  Some photos at one of the Moab-like slickrock switchbacks on section 3....

David with Brian close behind

Andy sticking out his tongue, apparently at

the frog that seemed to be a theme of his today

Jamshyd, that fashion icon,

 with his new MTB shoes to go with his new disc brakes

Rod negotiating the turn

Dennis completes the turn

End of Part I

As you may recall, we were at the slickrock turn....

Matthew concentrating on his line

(or contemplating his trip to China next week....bon voyage, Appleman)

Smilin' Joe loving it

Sam at the turn

After shooting these photos, I turned around to look towards the lush valley into which we were headed.

Looking east toward Corral Canyon

Mitch on the singletrack in that valley

A view of one of the "damaged" watercrossings....

it made for some dismounting and hike-a-bike

We all arrived at Corral Canyon where Matthew brought out the apples and we ate, rested, and yentad.  But then, in true RCY fashion, we broke up into 2 groups with 4 heading back along the singletrack and 7 heading up the fireroad towards the top of Bulldog.  But we all met up again at the juncture of trail sections 2 and 3, where a different group of 4 decided to take the singletrack back to the cars while a new group of 7 took the fireroad back to Latigo Canyon for a road ride back.   Some of us then drove home while another contingent headed for some grub and gab at Chuy's, ending a satisfying albeit exhausting ride.

Have a great week, muchachos.

Robco Baggins