Just when I thought there wasn't any nearby new adventures to be had, it turns out that all I had to do was look just north of San Diego county a little harder than I had in the past and all kinds of new dualsport adventure opportunities would open up for me. (There, is that a long enough opening sentence for ya?) I am also lucky to have good friends to share these adventures with. So when I rolled in at Maze Rock road this morning at Anza, Christi, Becky and Betsy were already there waiting and ready to go. It promised to be a great day. I hadn't had the pleasure of going on a DS ride with Betsy or Becky yet, but Betsy is involved in offroad activities not limited to bikes, but also cars and horses. Becky has been riding for a year and although she had a couple of shorter DS rides (on easy stuff like Palomar Divide and the dirt road to Anza), this would be her first all day excursion on uncharted trails and some intermediate terrain. So I would play it by ear for the day's venues, so that everybody could have a good time, see some scenery and enjoy each other's company. Four happy explorers. Hey, at least there was one Husqvarna there. So we set off in search of scenery and fun trails. Our first stop would be up at the fire lookout station near Hixon trail. After that, we descended Hixon trail. What a great trail that is! Turns out that Becky came through with flying colors and really enjoyed the challenge. So after that, I was confident that we could pick about any type of trail we wanted and everybody could make it and have fun doing it. Near the bottom of Hixon. We headed over to Bee Canyon road from there, but not too far up that road we dropped away onto a narrow trail that Christi had spotted on our last ride in the area. It led into a beautiful canyon that had lots of exploration opportunities. We checked some of them out. Becky is undaunted by a glitch in the learning curve. We found this old adobe house on a hill. We found us a new set of wheels. And then we discovered a canyon oasis, complete with a creek, some palm trees and a hot spring. More to come.....
Since I had injured my leg in a crash on Wednesday, I could not make the climb down into the canyon (heck, I could barely even walk) to see what was down there, so I turned the camera over to Betsy to get some shots. I guess that it was sort of a warm spring more than a hot spring from the girls reported to me....and Christi must have a death wish or never heard of giardia, because she had a drink out of the creek while down there. But I'm sure that I'll get back there soon and get to see it up close for myself. There were crazy roads and trails out there and the scenery was wonderful. We climbed north and eastward hoping to hook up with a forest road. Christi caught at the exact moment that she realizes that the batteries are dead in her GPS unit. Somewhere up on Peach Tree Springs trail. Becky has perfected the royal wave. [ And we eventually found our way back to the forest road and popped out on 243 not too far from Banning/Beaumont. It was time to put the jackets back on and slab it into Idylwild for a lunch stop at Jo Anns. Christmas decor was in place. That little choo choo train up near the ceiling in the background actually ran around the perimeter of the dining room while we ate. After a meal and a fuel stop, the day wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Secret Legit trail loop. Here, Christi and I get a mild case of bark bottom while we sit on a fallen pine tree. Becky is singing something for us all here. Nothing quite like live entertainment out on the trail. We put about 100 miles on for the trip and got back to Anza at around 4:00. It was so much fun. Thanks to Christi, Becky and Betsy for enjoying this adventure with me. Those guys (I mean gals) are the best!
First off.....you all look great ! It amazes me at the way the terrain is so variable... goes from high elevation desert scrub to lush green..sand...rocks..a little bit of everything really great photo's thanks for sharing Dirtdame
Thanks and thanks. Yeah, after I looked at the pictures, I realized that we covered a lot of altitude changes and the plants and trees changed a lot too. we had high chaparral, then low elevation scrub (and palm trees), live oak canyons, then we ended up in the pine trees before we ended up back at Anza. It went from warm to chilly throughout the day, too.
DirtyD; I liked it a lot ! Awesome trek and it was fun tagging along with you gals, seemed like a very good crowd BTW it’s cool that you posted it “in house” and didn’t redirected us somewhere else..... , , nudge, nudge, say no more...
Yeah, well it's a lot of work to post something over here, that I just posted "over there", but you guys are worth it. Maybe I ought to just save my energy and only post over here.
Actually you can always just right click, copy and paste for that coveted “made that just for you” warm feeling...
Dirt Dame you and Woodsie are just the tops when it comes to reports and photos. You put us blokes to shame. Keep it up and have your mates join us at Cafe Husky the collective intellect and beauty will soar.
ride Great photo's. what kind of elevation change did you have ?? nice to see cafe husky memberts enjoying their bikes and the great weather. it was like summer today.
Excellent stuff, Dirt Dame My kind of report, what with the mysterious hot springs and food and all Looks like y'all had a great time together, and the newbie had a good ride to build some confidence I sure wish we lived closer, we could have a ton o' fun riding together! Hey, what happened to your leg? Didja crash last week? WoodsChick
We started at about 4100 ft at Anza. The lowest spot was probably 1600 ft in the bottom of the valley near the adobe house and the highest point was north of Idylwild at over 6000 ft. We had to avoid some of the mountain trails and roads due to icy snow residue. This was mostly near Pine Cove.
Yeah I wish we we lived closer together, too. Last Wednesday, Alan and I were out on our trials bikes checking out some freshly marked brand new riding trails at Corral Canyon. As we went up this one trail, I noticed a tree off to the side....and that was the problem, that I noticed it off to the side. The tree limbs were sticking out further than I thought and they were sticking out at an angle so that they were pointing at the oncoming rider (me, in this case). I clipped the end of the limb with my left hand, causing my TXT to fold up and highside into the rocks. At first, I was concerned with my hand that was bleeding like a stuck piggy, but after Alan put a bandage on it and I started to walk a bit, I noticed that my right leg wasn't feeling so hot. I couldn't kickstart the bike. Alan started it for me so I could ride it back to the staging area (and of course we were in the middle of a technical trail). I might have torn a ligament or maybe sustained a fracture. Whatever it is, there is no visible bruising and my lower leg is very tender and particular about what kind of angle and how much force it can bear. I wouldn't have even gone on the Friday ride, except for the fact that I was the one hosting it and I really was looking forward to it.
I got to glace at this early this morning before work and the pictures stuck with me all day. I really don't mind snow or the cold...but looking at how beautiful everything is down there (and warm) sure doesn't help any... Good Post DD. Looks like you 'Gals" had a blast.
