RR: Box Springs/Two Trees Thursday Ride

[sdyeti]

Denmother and I arrived early for our ride and were soon joined by osmarandsara and Alex for a Thursday a.m. ride up to Box Springs. We waited a few extra minutes in case any of the 'maybes' showed up and then pulled into the road to make a left for the short road ride up to ATM. As we waited at the light, a car drove up and the driver yelled, "Are you guys the STR group?" It was mtb4fun, who got stuck in traffic. We pulled onto the sidewalk to wait and I discovered my front tire was pretty flat. So, Alex lent me his hand pump and I got it all fixed up.

We headed off up the road and ended up crossing under the 60, then went off on a jeep road.

A creepy crawly crossing our trail


We got a nice little warm up, then took a tour through the neighborhood streets, ending up at the start of the ATM (Around the Mountain) singletrack.

Warm-up climb


denmother


Os, our ride leader, and Alex


This was a fun trail with swoopy turns, short little climbs, and fun descents. Hey, we even found another "Wall"...looks like Fontana's not the only one! Anyone wanna sprint?!?

Riverside's "Wall"



Train through the flowers



We continued on to Box Springs Nature Preserve, where we stopped to rest a bit and take some snaps.

Taking a break


From here, Os gave us a choice: flat trail or go up the hill for some singletrack. Which do you think we chose?!





The wildflowers were a real treat with gorgeous brilliant yellows, purples, and pinks. There were butterflys galore that kept flying around...really cool. We had a quick descent down to a creek (dry) crossing.

Alex, sizing up the g-out


It was more like a g-out and when denmother went across, she smacked her pedal on a rock. Upon inspection, her left crank arm had rotated upward and the cranks weren't level.



Still not right...(hey, this isn't one of those hand-cycles, is it?!)


After some pushing and tugging, Os and denmother managed to get the cranks almost level (though later on, Roger discovered they were stripped). With the mechanical out of the way, we turned to head back up the hill. This was a long, slow climb and represented the biggest push of the day.

Beauty and the Beast (razor wire with a flowery background)


Once up the hill, we were greeted with blue sky (okay, if you looked up) and the sight of a nice singletrack descent ahead of us.




We were running late on time, so we opted out of Skyline and instead headed down Two Trees. Os warned us about the waterbars and then about the copious poison oak that would be flanking the trail. The waterbars (more like trenches) were horribly done and pretty annoying but other than that, the trail was a blast!

denmother and mtb4fun railing down Two Trees


The Crew


I even cleaned a pretty long rock garden which was a technical challenge. We rolled through some green areas (poison oak all over and encroaching on the trail) and before I knew it, the descent was over.

Trail sign looking back


We rolled back toward UC-Riverside's campus and then did a quick road ride back to the cars.

All in all, we had a nice ride, and I was glad to get out on some new dirt. We rode about 14 miles and got about 2300 of elevation gain!

[DirtymikeTDB]

Hmmm, All My attempts to get out to Box Springs this week have somehow or another been foiled. Its all good, we are going to get out and Pound out Mtrail and two trees!!!!!

[sdyeti]

We had a fun ride...hope you get to enjoy just the same~

Originally Posted by DirtymikeTDB

Hmmm, All My attempts to get out to Box Springs this week have somehow or another been foiled. Its all good, we are going to get out and Pound out Mtrail and two trees!!!!!

[dirtmistress]

That's so pretty. Where is that? San Diego area?

[mtb4fun]

Thanks Os for putting together this ride Thursday and thank you all for waiting for me. I was really glad to catch you before you all split because I don't remember the trails. It was fun meeting all of you in Riverside. Here are some pictures from my phonecam.


Comparing bikes
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Group photo 1
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Group photo 2
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Can you find what's wrong with this picture?
0320081048.jpg

Steph, I found this picture of you through your weblink. Hope you don't mind me sharing it. Some recognition for the well deserved. I can't believe you cleared that rocky section with ease today. This girl is strong!
6DHjan13.jpg

[osmarandsara]

Thanks for a great ride!...........Stephanie rolled through that rock garden like it was a walk in the park........

I hope having to ride through a Poison Oak tunnel didn't put a damper on the ride, hopefully nobody's itchin' right about now!

Thanks for the pics!

[osmarandsara]

Originally Posted by dirtmistress

That's so pretty. Where is that? San Diego area?

It's in the hills right behind UC Riverside......very close to where the 91 and 60 fwys intersect...

This is the ideal time to ride here, because in about two months, its gonna be HOT.

[Alex]

Thank you all for the great ride! And Oz, thanks for showing us the ATM trail: I would never had found that on my own.

[TURNERob]

Sorry I missed the ride, decided to do San Juan tomorrow.

That's pretty crazy about that crankarm Denmother. Were the pinch bolts not tight enough?

[sdyeti]

Thanks for the fun pics!

Nah, I don't mind It's amazing what you can do with 5-6" of travel on a bike!

Hope to ride with you again sometime soon!

Originally Posted by mtb4fun

Steph, I found this picture of you through your weblink. Hope you don't mind me sharing it. Some recognition for the well deserved. I can't believe you cleared that rocky section with ease today. This girl is strong!
Attachment 16742

You could say that...

Originally Posted by TURNERob

Were the pinch bolts not tight enough?

[denmother]

Originally Posted by TURNERob

Sorry I missed the ride, decided to do San Juan tomorrow.

That's pretty crazy about that crankarm Denmother. Were the pinch bolts not tight enough?

Nope! My mechanic replaced all the bearings and forgot to tighten them. Doh!

[DBD]

Originally Posted by denmother

Nope! My mechanic replaced all the bearings and forgot to tighten them. Doh!

So your doing your own work now eh?

Looks like a great ride.

I think I will just lay down here in this field of **with echo** poppies, poppies, poppies ...**fade out**


Yes, they are not poppies but hey ...

[ghixon]

Good to hear you guys/gals had fun up there. I couldn't get out with you, but I ended up riding it later on that afternoon around 4 or so.

It looks like Oz took you guys to the right fork at the end of Two Trees. If you went left, there is a fun split that has a good mix of high speed rocks and some short drops.

[richie_rich]

Wow...I should have gone on this ride, looks amazing I didn't think I would make it through the Corona traffic nightmare unless I left the OC at like 6 and I was definitely still in bed zzzzz.... Next time, thanks for the picts and write-up!

[mtb4fun]

Rich, Traffic driving east on 91fwy into corona is normally not bad at all. It's going west around that time that is horrible. Perhaps next time.

[DirtymikeTDB]

Well, Finally I got to get out and head down to Box springs..... Man I love that place, Insted of hitting two trees though, we went up for the Big M!!!! SOrry no pics....All I can say is how much fun it was

[osmarandsara]

Originally Posted by DirtymikeTDB

Well, Finally I got to get out and head down to Box springs..... Man I love that place, Insted of hitting two trees though, we went up for the Big M!!!! SOrry no pics....All I can say is how much fun it was

When did you ride? cuz on Tue. night we saw some crazies shuttling M trail in the dark on DH rigs....

I say crazies because 1) You still have about 1 1/2 mile to ride up a steep hill from the parking area to reach the beginning of M trail and 2) You have to be crazy to "like" to ride M trail.....and much more so at night.

I rode it once....that was before I used to think Two Trees was "scary" ha ha ha...