Laguna Coast

[CalEpic]

I'm not trying to be the trail police, but ******* is not a legal trail. If you are going to poach it, please don't post about it in a public forum. A docent there told me there is a core group of hikers that is pushing to ban MTB there. Please don't add fuel to the fire.

edit: it's not legal for hikers either. I understand it crosses onto private property.

Thanks.

I hear ya CalEpic. A couple times when we were there at the entrance of "that" singletrack, a Ranger drove right by us and didn't say anything. Anyhow, you do bring up a good point regarding poaching. There isn't any sign posting "hiking only" or "no bikes" at the top, but I agree it is best to keep it on the DL.

mcgrath, you should still cruise, i can guarentee there will be sections of Laguna Ridge that we will be walking. I'm not the fastest climber by any means, but I still clean the climbs(most of the time) and have a blast charging the singletracks.

[mcgrath]

I'm in. Keep me posted, PM or whatever it is that people do to get in touch. I think my number is in my profile, but in case it isn't (949) 939-8117.

[TURNERob]

Originally Posted by CalEpic

edit: it's not legal for hikers either. I understand it crosses onto private property.

Thanks.

Well if it isn't legal for hikers either then we don't have to worry about running them over

Today's ride was a blast. Overall, everything was in pretty good shape. We went up Willow Creek, made a right and found ourselves at "Trail X" and it was great at the beginning, about the 1/2 way point the trail really took on a different look (pictures to follow post), then, after that section everything was heavily overgrown. We climbed back up after "Trail X" and made a left to hit Old Emerald ST, down that and then climbed the very exciting fireroad back out and headed over to Laguna Ridge. After resting for a couple minutes it was on. Dropped down the small two foot ledge at the beginning and made our way down the tricky rocky/rutty section (walked about a 10 yard stretch of it * *) then continued down. The grass was overgrown in most areas but it made for a challenging ride, as it hid some dips and ruts. As I gained speed, there was a downward right hand turn that I had a little too much speed for, my front tire drifted off the leftside of the 12 inch wide dirt ST and onto the long/slick grass, it slid and then bit on the edge of a rut and my bars turned clockwise 180 degrees and I did a forward somersault over the bars and landed in the soft grass. Rob was a few seconds behind me and busted out in laughter when he saw me impaled in the 18inch tall grass. It was awesome. I brushed myself off and continued down. We got to that rockdrop section, thought about it for a minute and decided we should just walk it, then we made our way down through some of the other tricky rockgardens and cleaned those and walked one of the more tricky ones with a small drop. Then we were on the 133, made a left and headed back to the lot.

McGrath did a great job keeping up with us and was a great sport. He hasn't been riding that long and if I had known this, i'm not sure we would have taken him down Laguna Ridge, but he did great.

Here is a shot of Rob and Pat (mcgrath) on "Trail X".

Click the link to see a few other shots of the trail erosion on Trail X.

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/foru....php?cat_id=22

[mcgrath]

Thanks guys for putting up with me for the day. I had a great time. I got my first taste of singletrack and enjoyed it a lot. I really liked the first trail we took even though it was overgrown. I think the biggest thing I learned was that if I would just go a little faster, It will help me bounce over the rocky parts to the trails. Any advice or thoughts you guys may have to help me along the way is appreciated. Look forward to our next ride.