RR: The Santa Ana's

[andy aka rut]

I was invited on an S&M ride. Our plan was to ride up the Trabuco wash, up Holy Jim down a trail to Corona, up Indian Truck Trail to Holy Jim and back out the wash.
5 of us started out early and started climbing HJ. The trail is in great condition; A wonderful climb. We got to the trail we planned on descending and did a quick little wait for some others who climbed up from the Corona side. While waiting Calvin found his way over to us. He started at Blackstar. The man is an animal!!!!
The descent is why we were there. It was amazing-loose, steep, tight, oh, and did I say loose???
Anyway, we had a blast without any flats or injuries. Indian TT was a great climb. There was plenty of shade and finished pretty quickly.

Here are a few photo's
First the trailhead
Next the culprits!

[Keith B]

Nice! Thats looking plenty loose - I've seen enough of the loose stuff for one weekend myself!

[PHAT TIRE]

Originally Posted by Keith B

Nice! Thats looking plenty loose - I've seen enough of the loose stuff for one weekend myself!

Was she hot?

[Pain Freak]

PHAT TIRE the guy in your avatar is a friend of mine, or should I say was. He's now doing 40 to life for murder.His name is Billy Johnson and he was one of 5 brothers from Costa Mesa, four of which have done or are doing time now. He was the baby.

[andy aka rut]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

PHAT TIRE the guy in your avatar is a friend of mine, or should I say was. He's now doing 40 to life for murder.His name is Billy Johnson and he was one of 5 brothers from Costa Mesa, four of which have done or are doing time now. He was the baby.

PF-Sounds like you were/are hanging out with the wrong crowd. Are you still sticking with "I got the black eye on a bike ride story???"

[mtnbikej]

Andy......thanks for the photo.



Here are some pics I took......unfortunately not as exciting.


Riding up Indian Truck Trail


Reaching top of Indian Truck Trail and Main Divide

Hiking up Upper Holy Jim


Still pushing up Upper Holy Jim


Suzanne(Mrs. Mtnbikej) above Upper Holy Jim

Jenny above Upper Holy Jim



Here's my ride report:

We started on the I-15 side of the Santa Ana's and rode up Indian Truck Trail to Main Divide. Did not start out well for me. Decided to take the Bionicon demo bike from the shop and try it out on a longer ride. Had never been up ITT so had no idea what to expect. It seemed like it took for ever for the legs to warm up. At about 2/3 the way up ITT the right hamstring was not happyand I was beginning to doubt wether or not to push on. Shortly after that we hit a small DH and all seemed better. I didn't do a very good job setting up the demo bike for me. The seat was back to far on the rails and felt like I was riding a recumbant bike pedaling out in front of me.

We make it to the Main Divide. Wow....never really noticed the trail(ITT) when going across Main Divide from Holy Jim to Trabucco, but there it is.

Called on the phone up to Andy and his group to see where they were and let them know where we were. We had planned on meeting them at 11:15. I guess they were faster than they thought and were already waiting for us.

We made the short ride up Main Divide to the bottom of Upper Holy Jim. We decided to hike up Upper Holy Jim to save time......apparently the fire road up and around it hellacious and time consuming. So up we hike. Felt like hiking up West Horsethief except that the group was soft and loose and you had to climb up and over rocks most of the way up.

Met up with Andy and his group right at 11:14 according to Steve and started down the trail back to Corona. Trail was fun and swoopy with lots of switchbacks. Then it turned nasty with 2 hika bikes....oh, joy. Continued down and that's when the trail got super loose and steeep. Jumped in line in 3rd place and followed Steve and Drew down the steep loose chutes. Between the 2 of them they produced a dust layer about 12 inches off the ground. Needless to say I was riding by braile. Took one small spill, just a few statches and scrapes.

Got to the bottom and rode back to the cars. Ady and his group took the rest of the water we had and took off.

The Bionicon handled the ride great. It was nice having a large tire up front whent he trail got loose. However right towards the end of the ride I noticed the back end got a little stiff....turns out I lost the lockout lever ont he rear end and it was locked out. Fortunately we were only about 1/2 mile form the cars when this happened.

Good ride......definately glad we were done and didn't have to climb back up and over.

mtnbikej

[Pain Freak]

Did you come down Coldwater?

[TURNERob]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Did you come down Coldwater?

D'oh!

[OMR]

After reading the RR I got bummed all over again... and just when things were returning to normal with all the posts about stuff left behind (including bikes!)

Oh well, that trail isn't going anywhere...

OMR

[mp3]

I think I saw you guys out there talking with two guys on motorcycles at the top of ITT when I passed. Didn't reconize Mtnbikej and Suzanne without the Switchback jersey.

[mtnbikej]

Originally Posted by mp3

I think I saw you guys out there talking with two guys on motorcycles at the top of ITT when I passed. Didn't reconize Mtnbikej and Suzanne without the Switchback jersey.

Yeah, we figured we would try a new ride.

[mp3]

Hope you don't mind that I used one of your RR pics for one of my blog entries.

[sauce]

cool blog mario. nice. don't give too many of your secrets away, especially if you haven't elicited the requisite beer from your audiance.

looks like you guys had fun. awesome pics. endless possibilities in the santa anas! :-)

[mp3]

Thanks!
You've got that right. Speaking of which, I'm seeing a couple of tasty brews pre-Boggs...

[sauce]

only if your advice pays off, and i make podium. :-) hahah

[mp3]

Originally Posted by sauce

only if your advice pays off, and i make podium.

I think that is possible, making the podium, but I'd need to see at least 3-4 hours of uninterrupted riding at race pace before coming up with a realistic game plan. The better the beer supplied the more tailored the plan.