Topanga Canyon State Park Turnout

[Epic_Mtn_Biker]

Pete (pshloss), Alex (TheFarLeft) and i got to ride down Will Rogers Backbone trail today, it was great. and had a little rattlesnake adventure.

i was descending first, and encountered a rattler barely missing it's rear half on a semi tight singletrack section, as soon as i passed it i stopped and yelled "SNAKE!!!", Pete, Alex and a few other that joined us for the down hill stopped before they got to the rattler. i tried to "motivate" it with a long stick to slither onto the brush and out of the path of the trail. it got a little pissed off and coiled up in front of all of us. i'll tell you one thing, *that rattle sound is pretty wicked. so the guys and me created a human chain to cross the bikes around the path thru some bushes. so in an effort avoid having any other trail users come up on a coiled up rattler. i grabbed a leafy branch tried to get it go somewhere else, and it finally did decide to leave the path. all of us (6 total) were pretty astounded by the rattler. so becareful out there guys!!!!!

Pete and me *wound up doing 27.5 miles, it went great
the trails that we did were:
Start point: http://www.socalmtb.com/socal/trails/caballer.htm
from Caballero @ Mulholland we started this loop:
http://www.singletrackmind.com/Trail...ng%20Index.htm
and we also included the Eagle rock loop from the Hub along the way

[TheFarLeft]

... I was flying to keep up with you and pete on the backbone... Never thought I could do it so fast . The rattlesnake episode added a nice little twist to the ride . I thought you'd stabbed yourself before you yelled 'Snake!'
Leo (the guy with the HT) showed me the route to bienvenida, which ended up being a nice little 3 miles of near - vertical climbing. I got home alright, but at 12 15.


great ride - now I'm looking into mt. wilson and the places pete was telling me about. looks like there's lots of trails I'd never heard of