RR: 2008-03-22 - Strawberry Peak Backwards..(vid and pics)

[kanga]

Great ride today.... I was feeling like crap and haven't taken a day off the bike in over a week. The scratchy throat I was feeling yesterday had gone a bit deeper, but I wasn't bed ridden, so I rode.

We started out at Clear Creek as planned.... twelve riders. The climb up the Gab from Switzers is a good one, with only the waterfall section being a HAB. We came across a crew of downhillers, one of whom yelled rider up. My immediate thought he was telling his buddy behind him that we were climbing, but it turned out he was trying to get us (climbing) out of his way. He ended up hitting three of our riders as he rode past, the last of which stopped him and almost sent him off the side. There were fresh tracks and dust clouds on some cuts that had seen lots of riding since the last time I rode the Gab three months ago... one of the cuts is so severe that the once six-foot wide trail is now down to about 18", with a landslide mound on the trail below. No need to rant here, but that guy is the type that is getting us kicked off the trails.

Climbing the Gab:





Ray and Hans ride the log bridge:





Downhiller's trail cut... the original trail is 90% eroded away now:



Garo's Derailleur Mechanical:



Garmin Edge Before:



After:





From Redbox, we climbed the Mt. Wilson road to Eaton Saddle, the trailhead for Valley Forge. A quick food break, and we headed down. Riding Valley Forge is nearly always like skating since there are so many leaves on the trail. It's really slippery and really fun... the trailwork we did last year has the tread in good shape overall, but the snow and ice had brought down a number of trees. We moved one of them and made a log-over out of it, but others were too big to move by hand and will need a saw.

During the trailwork days last November, we build a log ride along the side of the trail, just after a bend half way down. A few of us were able to clean it, but others had difficulty. You have to cut wide guys...! It was pretty cool to ride something you built legally and with the encouragement of the FS.

The views of snow-covered Waterman from the trail are always great. From the bottom of the trail the group kept together and did the Gabrielino trail climb out. It's very technical, with lots of creek crossings that are too deep/rocky to ride (unless you're a trials guru). Coming out of the camp Garo hooked a rock and twisted his XTR derailleur into his rear wheel. His hanger was twisted about 40 degrees. It took a good twenty minutes to hammer it back into a workable shape, but he was able to ride out. Garo is 73 years old, BTW, a stud by any measure. But with his bent hanger he took the fire road out.

On the Gab after all the creek crossings the climb out is very steep, with a few rock and log steps. It's a tough grind, but I cleaned it up to the stairs at the top. Then, hopping back on my bike at the top I hit a small tennis ball sized rock as I was lifting my leg over the bike. It stopped my momentum and I dropped the bike. I wasn't even riding! I looked down to see my garmin edge in about 6 pieces... lcd screen, cover, battery and circuit board. It looked like when my handlebars hit the ground, the edge slid sideways out of the mount and hit the ground. I gathered the Edge pieces and rode the last few hundred yards to red box.

I was able to get the screen re-attached, and put the garmin back together, holding the case closed with duct tape, and it worked (much to everyone's surprise, including mine). But it will be going back to the factory... I don't think it recorded the whole ride after that. I learnt a bit about the guts of the Edge....but not how I wanted to find out what's inside.

Valley Forge Video (Hi-res version click here):



At Redbox most of the guys on the ride were running short on time. The incident with the downhiller, some trailwork to close off the DH'ers shortcuts, Garo's mechanical and Brian's flat at Red Box put us a bit behind schedule. Everyone decided to skip Strawberry/Colby and ride back down the Gab except for El Presidente and I.

The two of us continued on and cruised up around Strawberry and had a great ride from there out. With just two of us we moved pretty quickly, stopping only once to eat after the climb out of Strawberry Potrero. There were a few small patches of snow on the back side, but none on the trail. We didn't see anyone except some hikers coming down from the peak, and a few fellow riders eating lunch at the strawberry/colby junction.

The ride back out to Colby Saddle was in pretty good shape. There is some notable exposure on this section, but it is all ridable. We took another quick break at the saddle to armor up for Colby.

Colby was in great shape, cleaner than I remember it from last year. Hans and I were able to clean the whole thing, bar a few of the creek crossing at the bottom, and the short climb after the camp. I shot helmet cam vid of the run (below).

Colby is only 2.2 miles, but has some extremely tight switchbacks at the top and near the bottom. I'm able to roll them on the small Bionicon, but Hans has to hop his Large Titus around them. There's one short boulder section that comes up on you right after a 90 deg turn... hard to line up for when you don't know it's coming. We did stop there to get a second approach to clean it.

After that there is some significant exposure... sections where the trail is 12 - 20 inches wide trail with a fully vertical drop of about 50 feet or more to the creek below... not a place to make a mistake, as is much of the trail. When I used to hike the trail, that section sketched me out. Now there's a retaining wall so it's a few inches wider, but the penalty for failure is extreme. In the vid, the exposed sections are hard to see, but look to the right in a few of the sections around the 5:50 mark...

The sections at the bottom are difficult to connect, and neither of us felt like sessioning them to get through. We'd had a great time and felt pretty satisfied....

Colby Canyon Video (Hi-res version click here):

[Esqo]

Nice report! Bummer about that jerk rider and your Garmin though.

[dirtmistress]

Fantastic Steve!! I would LOVE to do that trail but honestly, I think I'd be way to scared. It may be over my head. The exposure? Oh no, the exposure didn't bother me. The rocks? Oh for heavens sake no! Must be the drop and the remoteness then. Please! Are you kidding me? No!!

Did you SEE all the Fucca Yucca's on the 2nd video?? That strikes terror in to my heart! Nay..into my shin! Great report..and yeah, need to do that. Thanks!!

[Zippy]

AWESOME RR! Thanks for taking a bunhc of pics and vids. Do you think it's possible to ride the entire Gabrielino Trail from JPL to Chantry Flats as a shuttle? I solo backpacked it once and some sections look very difficult to ride, even for a technically proficient rider. OT, I know, but what do you think?

[kanga]

Originally Posted by Zippy

AWESOME RR! Thanks for taking a bunhc of pics and vids. Do you think it's possible to ride the entire Gabrielino Trail from JPL to Chantry Flats as a shuttle? I solo backpacked it once and some sections look very difficult to ride, even for a technically proficient rider. OT, I know, but what do you think?

Absolultely it is.... there are a lot of Hike-a-bike creek crossings (not in the vid) on the Gab between Valley forge and Redbox, but most of the rest is do able. If I hadn't been hacking my lungs up and feverish, my original plan was to ride up the Gab from the bottom to meet the group. I've done that several times before.

Originally Posted by dirtmistress

Fantastic Steve!! I would LOVE to do that trail but honestly, I think I'd be way to scared. It may be over my head. The exposure? Oh no, the exposure didn't bother me. The rocks? Oh for heavens sake no! Must be the drop and the remoteness then. Please! Are you kidding me? No!!

Did you SEE all the Fucca Yucca's on the 2nd video?? That strikes terror in to my heart! Nay..into my shin! Great report..and yeah, need to do that. Thanks!!

Actually there's another plant that's more bothersome... not sure what it is, but it's prickly (not a succulent) and scratches the hell out of your arms and is growing fast right now. Yuccas on Colby aren't too bad.

We've had intermediate riders go down Colby and yes, there is a lot of hike-a-bike if you're not comfortable with exposure or tight switchbacks. Just do it! It's one of the most rewarding trails around.... and you can session it a couple of times in a day by climbing Josephine.

It is, however, one of very few trails that I won't ride alone. Too much possibility for serious error, and not a lot of traffic....plus you could go off the trail in places and not be seen or heard from the trail by hikers. It's a long way down...

[kanga]

OK... I'm tired of crappy youtube compression artifacts. Here's the real deal in higher res. It's a big improvement, but unfortunately, can't be embedded on the page. You can also add comments to the video, right on the timeline... pretty cool technology.

2008-03-22 - Valley Forge:

http://www.viddler.com/kanga/videos/9/

2008-03-22 - Colby Canyon:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/kanga/videos/8/

Mods: any chance of allowing embeds from certain approved sites (such as Viddler?)

[bighit8]

1) the dh dude, pure jerk
2) same problem with the throat, it get so dry it is hard to talk
3) came down that trail and the exposure is scary, ITS A LONG WAY BACK TO THE TOP I YOU WANT TO ROCK AND ROLL.

[RustyIron]

Originally Posted by kanga

OK... I'm tired of crappy youtube compression artifacts.

To the end of the youtube URL, add "&fmt=18". The video will then be delivered in high resolution.

[dirtmistress]

How cheery!

Originally Posted by kanga

Absolultely it is.... there are a lot of Hike-a-bike creek crossings (not in the vid) on the Gab between Valley forge and Redbox, but most of the rest is do able. If I hadn't been hacking my lungs up and feverish, my original plan was to ride up the Gab from the bottom to meet the group. I've done that several times before.



Actually there's another plant that's more bothersome... not sure what it is, but it's prickly (not a succulent) and scratches the hell out of your arms and is growing fast right now. Yuccas on Colby aren't too bad.

We've had intermediate riders go down Colby and yes, there is a lot of hike-a-bike if you're not comfortable with exposure or tight switchbacks. Just do it! It's one of the most rewarding trails around.... and you can session it a couple of times in a day by climbing Josephine.

It is, however, one of very few trails that I won't ride alone. Too much possibility for serious error, and not a lot of traffic....plus you could go off the trail in places and not be seen or heard from the trail by hikers. It's a long way down...

[kanga]

Originally Posted by RustyIron

To the end of the youtube URL, add "&fmt=18". The video will then be delivered in high resolution.

Thanks for that tip, but that doesn't work with embedded vids, and doesn't seem to make that much difference. I really like the feature set on viddler (full screen, original size, 500MB limit vs youtube's 100mb, timeline comments, link directly to a time in the vid, timed comments, etc) even though embedding isn't supported on the STR board.

[luna]

Sweet video. Which brand helmet cam did you use?

[OMR]

Strawberry Peak brings back very good and very bad memories. That's the one trail my wife (Ranger Nancy) will NOT let me ride again. About 5 years ago while riding the "right" way, the weather had turned from temps in the 50's at the beginning of the ride to the 40's. As I was passing a particularly nasty drop off to the left, the shale trail colasped and took me over the side with it. All I remember is trying to grab a tree branch on the way over.... they are only able to do this in the movies!!! Next thing I remember was coming to at the bottom of the 70 foot cliff with this strange warm metalic taste in my mouth. Although disoriented, I looked down and saw that there was blood all over my jersey. I shakely got up and looked up and saw one of my bus looking down at me. It then hit me that I had taken a huge fall down.

I went to pick up my bike and realized that several fingers were broken and both ankles were starting to hurt and swell.... but I wasn't leaving the bike down there. I couldn't hike back up and had to go a ways perpendicular to the trail and started to climb slowly back up. It was then that I also realized I had broken ribs... wonderful... my wife was going to be really pissed!

Finally got back up to the trail were one the riders told me that someone had gone for help. 15 minuted later a group of firemen showed up who had been doing practice rescues in the area. They had called for a chopper to come and pick the body up. My buddy who had gone for help thought I was dead.

The helicopter was able to do a "soft" landing on an outcropping with the help of the firemen who had cleared a landing zone. The flight to the hosital was quick and there I found out that I had a collasped lung as well as 147 stiches that were required on my face and in my mouth. The hardest part was calling my wife and telling here I was in the ER (ouch).... so you can see why my wife doesn't want me to go back to Strawberry Peak...even thought it is a lot safer these days.

I'd love to snaek back there and do it again... but that ain't gonna happen...

So really appreciated the RR and pics... I'll just have to live vicariously through your posts.

[kanga]

Originally Posted by luna

Sweet video. Which brand helmet cam did you use?

A canon still camera on video mode... I made the mount myself out of an old tripod head and an aluminum plate.

OMR: I've heard of your adventure up there before. That section is still sketchy, and even though some new retaining walls have been put in over the years, they have just filled in with alluvium from above and the situation is only slightly better.

I have strawberry peak trail footage as well, and will put some of that together soon. I figured fewer people know Valley Forge and Colby, and chose to do those as vids for that reason.

[dirtmistress]

Those new vids are great Steve!

[TrojanInsomniac]

Fantastic ride report and footage. I haven't ridden the San Gab's in over ten years........I'd love to ride with you guys one of these days.

[Abui]

Originally Posted by RustyIron

To the end of the youtube URL, add "&fmt=18". The video will then be delivered in high resolution.

Great tip! I tried it and it works. Once you use the code Youtube puts a link under the video to allow you to switch between HQ and LQ.

[OMR]

The Viper Video that you shot in Jan is one of my favorites... really catches the joy of backcountry downhilling! Should required viewing for any body thinking of doing this trail....