Blackstar To "Smashface" AAARRRRR!!!!

[maxwell]

So, a few of us met at The Path for our Sunday ride.

The plan was to ride up Blackstar, accross Main Divide for a while, and drop down Smashface.
Smashface is a totaly legit trail that drops you down into a creek bottom, where you hike the creek for a "few " minutes where it hooks back up to a trail with some hike-a-bike, then drops you back down into Silverado Canyon.

A few years back, some local riders rode this trail in the afternoon, and missed the turn from the creek back up the hill, and ended up spending the night out there.

Now I know pretty much why they had to spend the night in the canyon........

Our ride started out normal, everyone with high spirits, with the chance to ride a "new to us" trail.
We met up with J-Sims at the Blackstar gate, and he rode with us until the Smashface turn off.

We headed down Smashface with a lot of smiles after all of the Main Divide climbing behind us!
Two of the guy's got pretty far ahead, and we never saw them again for the rest of the ride.

Raul (aka Chivo) and Martin heading down.....
Notice the trail we were supposed to head up in the top left corner.




At the bottom is where the creek begins. Our guide for the day said we'd be hiking down the creek for 15 minutes, the turn up for the H-A-B, to the real fun DHing.



Just 15 minutes. Uh huh, sure!

After about 25 minutes of hiking the creek bottom, or guide decided that we've missed the turn. He's not sure how far back it was, and the best thing to do, would be to "just" hike down the creek back to Silverado.

With most of us running out of water, we started our addventure down the creek.

This is what we'd done so far, and why we didn't want to hike it back uphill.



We took a little break while Chivo fixed his flat. Then got back to it.



Hiking through this really SUCKED!




We even got our feet wet a few times!



After Joel got his bike down in it, he tried to ride it. It didn't work.



There was plenty of bouldering chances.
Martin get's this one done.



It seemed like there was no end to it!



This was just to show how I was feeling at the moment! We had run out of water, but used water from the ONLY clear pool along the way. Our guide had Iodine tablets with him. You just drop one in, wait 10 minutes and you have drinking water.
Yummy!



We finally found a way out!



Then down the road we went. We ended up on Ladd Canyon Rd. which put us out to the general store there by the Silverado Cafe.

It was PARADISE to us!





Durring the "ride", I'd have to say it truly SUCKED!

After we were done though, we all had a GREAT laugh, and were happy to be back. There were truly no hard feelings about missing the turn, and I don't think I could have done it with a better bunch of guy's!

Oh yeah, the two that got ahead of us, made the turn off, and finished the ride 3 hours ahead of us!

[Kid A]

Good stuff and RR; Sounds like a good call for next newbie ride .

[CPATCRASH]

Sounds like Maxwell continues to put the FU in fun. I am sorry I missed it and went to San Juan.

[Code Blue]

I missed it....

Glad everyone was ok

[MTBBill]

Nothing like a good "Death March" to spice up your ride calander. All is well that ends well.

[Code Blue]

Nothing like a good "Death March" to spice up your ride calander. All is well that ends well.

That is what I was thinking

Non riding related scratches........poison oak........

ahhh..........memories

[J_Sims]

I was wondering what happened to you guys... I saw your cars still there on my way back from the Motorway...

Sounds like I made the right choice. I only had to climb another 1600 ft of elevation before the wonderful ride down...

Good to hear that all is well

[dft]

maxwell, sounded wild!! reminded me of some of my past lost/hike-a-bike adventures. i have done a trail a couple times that is close by. it starts off of silverado motoway and ends where ladd canyon road meets silverado road. i call it ladd ridge, i think the warrior dudes call it crosses. its a wild one, some steep sections, good stuff!!! i need to really give this one a go (with the correct turn though

[OMR]

Max,

Did this with Keith and the rest of the Warriors last year .... I kept asking "What trail??? There's no trail here!" ... especially when you get down to the creek. there was so much PO around you had to stay in the water most of the way down. Never did really find the "payoff" either... just ended up at the store... where we drank ourselves silly! Glad you made it out OK.

[Winger]

Where's the turnoff? Sounds like a really fun adventure!

[BrewMaster]

Looked like more hike and very little bike. Glad everyone came out safe.

[maxwell]

Max,

Did this with Keith and the rest of the Warriors last year .... I kept asking "What trail??? There's no trail here!" ... especially when you get down to the creek. there was so much PO around you had to stay in the water most of the way down. Never did really find the "payoff" either... just ended up at the store... where we drank ourselves silly! Glad you made it out OK.

Yeah, not much "trail" at the top, no trail going down the creek, and we missed the payoff of the lower section of Three Crosses.

i have done a trail a couple times that is close by. it starts off of silverado motoway and ends where ladd canyon road meets silverado road. i call it ladd ridge, i think the warrior dudes call it crosses. its a wild one, some steep sections, good stuff!!!

We would have been dropping the lower section of Crosses. We were all bummed that it didn't happen. I'd like to hit Crosses up. I don't think I'll be doing Smashface again anytime soon.

Where's the turnoff? Sounds like a really fun adventure!

I wish I knew. It was fun afterwards.

[CalEpic]

Sounds fun... if your into cougar hunting.

Wrong area, the Foxfire is a little further East

C

[MTBBill]

I'd like to hit Crosses up.

I could be in for that as well.

[Pain Freak]

I've done some of this, but missed that psuedotrail too. I'm still willing to give it another go, as I feel that trail owes me.

[Chewyeti]

can you see the trail (or supposed trail) from google earth?

sounds like quite the story!

[mrmountainhop]

...it makes a great story.

I once did something similar down Rustic Canyon in the Santa Monicas. I remember thinking, "These hills aren't even mountains, and I'm gonna spend the freakin' night out here?!"

Yo, two dudes who made the cutoff, can you PM me with deets?

[Abui]

can you see the trail (or supposed trail) from google earth?

sounds like quite the story!

CNF seems to be totally mapped by Microsoft's Windows Live Local. The Bird's Eye view is spectacular.

The views are more detailed than Google Earth and you can view from four directions. If you want to see a trail going down a mountain face you can choose a position perpendicular to the slope.


Somewhere on Silverado

[Dirty D]

maxwell, sounded wild!! reminded me of some of my past lost/hike-a-bike adventures. i have done a trail a couple times that is close by. it starts off of silverado motoway and ends where ladd canyon road meets silverado road. i call it ladd ridge, i think the warrior dudes call it crosses. its a wild one, some steep sections, good stuff!!! i need to really give this one a go (with the correct turn though

Sounds like quite the adventure Maxwell.

Your photos and description bring back fond memories of the Webster Trail located in Idywild that our friend dft convinced us into exploring.

It was literally a "trail to nowhere". We descended appx. 2K into a ravine infested with Poison Oak, and lots of boulder fields. The only option of getting out was either backtracking or bushwhacking and scaling out of the ravine - we chose the second option. And I tell ya', the option of having to spend the night out there did cross my mind several times since we were running out of daylight fast. We finally crawled out of there and finished in the dark.

In the end though it's just another adventure to log into memory.

D

[MTBBill]

fond memories of the Webster Trail located in Idywild that our friend dft convinced us into exploring.

HA HA HA HA

Been There Done That. Thought my "friends" were going to gut me and spread my entrails all over the bottom of that ravine for leading that ride.