RR: Oaks, Some New "Old" Friend's

[maxwell]

So, yesterday morning I was planing on riding, but I wasn't sure where. I saw Tuesday night that there were some guy's meeting at Aliso. Been there way too often lately. Another was riding up Coal Canyon. I haven't done that yet, but didn't want to sit on the 91 FRWY at that time in the morning.
Wenesday is the one morning that I don't take Lacey to school, so I generally go do a climbing ride, solo, right after work.
Oaks is close, so I thought, "why noy just go there"?
And then on the way over, I figured I'd just park at the back entrance to Peter's Canyon, and pedal through there, just for a little more pedaling.

I usually pedal up the singletrack and ride along the ridge right off the bat. It has a couple of pretty short, steep climbs. But, on this morning I would just settle on climbing up through the center of the park, and head straight over to Oaks.
On the way over I thought, "man, that was pretty lame, I'm supposed to be on a climbing ride".

Once I got over to Oaks I made the decision;

up the three "B's"
down Grasshopper
up Powerline
up Anita's (aka Anahiem Hill's trail)
down Chute's
and back to the car through Peter's.

It was a GREAT choice!

I hadn't been down Grasshopper since we worked on it, and before that, it had been a couple of years.
Why? I really don't know.

Man, had I been missing out!

It's short, but fast, and flowy. With some rain to pack the dirt down, it's gonna be a REAL TREAT!

After you reach the bottom, it's time to pay back the DH god's.

Powerling is really good at collecting!

It's loose, and the dirt is deep enough to sink into in spots, but once again, with some rain it'll be another good, hard climb.
It's a cool feeling to be riding a "legit" trail, and have your tire tracks be the only ones left on the trail!

I stopped and took a few pics along the way back up.

Powerline...pure singletrack!





I heading up there, and it's getting steeper!





My Dawg's paw prints!



Looking back down at the up.



Since this was gonna be a climbing ride, well I might as well make it HARD!
One you get to the top of Powerline you have two choices. Go left, and climb back up "B" number 3, or go right and do Anita's.

When I first started riding Oaks 10 years ago, my friend and I came up the first two "B's" and then made the right turn down the fireroad (Anita's). When we got to the bottom, and hiked back up the road on the other side, I swore I would never make that turn again!

Well, 10 years have past, and I'm dumber now than when I started.
I made the turn.
Towards.....Anita's.....ARRRHHH!!



It's one steep mother!



This is looking back down at the first couple of wide switchbacks.....



and back up with more to come!



Almost to the top.



So, once at the top, (and no, I didn't clean it, or throw up) I made my way on down Chutes.

Fun, fun, fun!

Back into Peter's, and I'm feeling really good. I look at my GPS, and it say's I'm just over 12 miles, with nothing but down the center left to go.

Or so I thought.

Big Red is now in sight, and there is a lone rider going up it, along with quite a few hiker's.

Good thing I'm done with my climbing for the morning!

As I start to ride past the next set of hikers, they are watching the rider make his way up....

Don't ask....don't ask....

They asked....."hey are you going up that too?"

Sure thing!! (WHAT?!!)

So yes, I went ahead and went up Big Red (cleaned it) and followed the lone rider on back across the ridge, up and down the last couple of hill's, and ended my ride with the nice bit of doubble track descent, back to the car.

All in all, it was a pretty cool ride. I rode sections of my local park that had been forgotten over the years, but have now become part of my ride again.

And for a park ride, it dished out some decent miles!

Distance (mi )14.54
Elevation Gain (ft)+2,870 / -2,917
Ascent Grade 38.8
Descent Grade -31.5

[Chewyeti]

sickness! pure sickness!

[Winger]

Anita's....that's the name. We climbed that last week and I didn't know what to call it other than "that trail that goes below robbers peak".

Looks like a great ride!

HA HA....you got suckered into Big Red. Never fails that when I decide not to do it, there's some spandex wearing hottie somewhere nearby that visually encourages me to do it.

[dstepper]

Darien what climb do you think had the 38% grade? Does anyone know the % grade of Big Red?

Dean

[superwow]

Awesome pics and descriptions. Just curious. How long did the whole ride take?

[maxwell]

Originally Posted by dstepper

Darien what climb do you think had the 38% grade? Does anyone know the % grade of Big Red?

Dean

Hey Dean, I'm pretty sure it was part of Anita's.....

Originally Posted by superwow

Awesome pics and descriptions. Just curious. How long did the whole ride take?

It took me an 1:47 ride time.

Here's a link to the MotionBased site;

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5535440

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by dstepper

Darien what climb do you think had the 38% grade? Does anyone know the % grade of Big Red?

Dean

dean not sure how truly reliable since i only running 205 (think 305 has better measures) but stats on elevation from last weeks taco ride. just assuming max grade was big red?

Grade Average (%)Maximum (%)
Overall Grade-0.0--
Ascent Grade 4.4 23.2
Descent Grade -4.9 -31.4

Darin - nice ride!!!!

[zipsbiker]

Originally Posted by maxwell

Big Red is now in sight, and there is a lone rider going up it, along with quite a few hiker's.

Good thing I'm done with my climbing for the morning!

As I start to ride past the next set of hikers, they are watching the rider make his way up....

Don't ask....don't ask....

They asked....."hey are you going up that too?"

Sure thing!! (WHAT?!!)

I frequently ride through Peter's on the way back from Oaks to get home. So often after a long ride I always plan to skip Big Red during my ride between the parks, but I never do. There are always hikers around when I get to Big Red and for some reason, I feel obligated to climb it. Even when I really don't want to, I make that left turn at the fork in the road, and from that point, there's no turning back. I never regret it though.