Harding to Joplin Sat morn?

[ECOdork]

I've never done Harding or Joplin, so I'm highly interested in doing this ride before the heat returns or before I have to leave the state.

If anyone is interested I'd like to do this tomorrow, Saturday morning. Since it's not super hot we can probably start around 8:30.

I'm thinking of either parking at the gate on STT, riding down to Harding and skipping the luge on the way back OR parking at Cooks, riding to harding via modjeska grade road, and finishing up with the Luge.

I have no idea how long this ride would take.

[dubjay]

It's quite a long ride - check it out.

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route...=1&route_id=17

The superhumans finish is with moving times of around 2 hrs, 30 mins. I would think mortals would complete the entire thing in 4-5 hours, including breaks.

I'd love to give this a try sometime but the poker ride is tomorrow.

[ECOdork]

Thanks for the link dubjay.

I am aware that it is a long ride I guess I'm just not sure how long it's going to take me. I'm certainly not superhuman and I think your estimate of 4 -5 h is on target.

I forgot about the Poker ride. It sounds enticing. I know the money goes to a good cause and there is a raffle and it is being sponsered by one of my favorite breweries, but I'd prefer not to pay to ride this weekend.

Originally Posted by dubjay

It's quite a long ride - check it out.

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route...=1&route_id=17

The superhumans finish is with moving times of around 2 hrs, 30 mins. I would think mortals would complete the entire thing in 4-5 hours, including breaks.

I'd love to give this a try sometime but the poker ride is tomorrow.

[ShinKen]

Originally Posted by ECOdork

Thanks for the link dubjay.

I am aware that it is a long ride I guess I'm just not sure how long it's going to take me. I'm certainly not superhuman and I think your estimate of 4 -5 h is on target.

I forgot about the Poker ride. It sounds enticing. I know the money goes to a good cause and there is a raffle and it is being sponsered by one of my favorite breweries, but I'd prefer not to pay to ride this weekend.

u can always come up and do the loop w/ us bub!!

[ECOdork]

I don't know...I'm a little concerned that ye'olde Steven Jackson will run me off the trail and leave me at the mercy of the ducks

Originally Posted by ShinKen

u can always come up and do the loop w/ us bub!!

[Andrew]

I'm a bit torn on whether I want to do this ride. The Joplin descent has me a bit intiminated, but I've been wanting to do the route as well. Does anyone know what the conditions are like on Joplin? It doesn't look like it is too long, so I suppose a good portion could be hiked if necessary?

[dukethenuke]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I'm a bit torn on whether I want to do this ride. The Joplin descent has me a bit intiminated, but I've been wanting to do the route as well. Does anyone know what the conditions are like on Joplin? It doesn't look like it is too long, so I suppose a good portion could be hiked if necessary?

I would describe Joplin as the most technical single track in Orange County. That being said, it's a very fun trail. I rode this about one month ago and other than there being plenty of ticks the trail is not overgrown. I'm canceling my San Juan ride to join Lance on this ride.

[ECOdork]

you da'man duke!
Glad this ride is shaping up as I've been wanting to do it for a while now.

The plan is to meet at Cooks Corner at 8:30. We'll head up modjeska grade to Harding then do the luge on the way back. Not much of a "point of no return" on this one since the vehicles will be all the way back at Cooks.

I don't know what to tell you Andrew since I've never done the ride either. I'm certainly not a fastest climber on the site nor am I the king of dH. I'm expecting a fairly advanced ride with lots of climbing followed by some gnarly ST. But I am known for walking sections that I consider ridiculous. If you want some background info the geoladders link was posted earlier and the cats at OCRider have a video:
http://www.ocrider.com/Rides/2006/ri...Joplin54mb.wmv
If you think you can hang, you're more than welcome to join. I don't mean to be presumptuous but since we've never ridden together I don't want to assume anything or mislead you about the difficulty of the ride...

Originally Posted by dukethenuke

I would describe Joplin as the most technical single track in Orange County. That being said, it's a very fun trail. I rode this about one month ago and other than there being plenty of ticks the trail is not overgrown. I'm canceling my San Juan ride to join Lance on this ride.

[LBmtb]

Sorry Lance, I agreed to hit up Del Cerro with Bret and Aldo. That should be a milder ride then this one. Might work out better for me since I'm riding Sunday also.

[ECOdork]

No sweat!
You guys always come down south to ride so I'm sure hitting the neighborhood trail will be a nice change of pace for ya.

The jury is still out for me on Sunday. I'll just take it one ride at a time, eh?

Originally Posted by LBmtb

Sorry Lance, I agreed to hit up Del Cerro with Bret and Aldo. That should be a milder ride then this one. Might work out better for me since I'm riding Sunday also.

[Andrew]

Have fun guys, I'm going to take a pass this time. I'll probably end up doing a different loop over there (whiting-old camp-luge I'm thinking).

[ECOdork]

Good move passing on this one today Andrew! But we'll have to meet up for a ride sometime soon!

I think I "over did it" at Aliso yesterday evening and starting cramping up 6 miles into Harding. I managed to push myself another 2 miles or so before I felt I was nearing the point of total leg lock-out....NO GOOD....My heart, soul, and lungs were all really into it and could have made it, but the legs just flaked out. So I turned around and blazed it back to Cooks. It worked out well that duke was sleeping off a hangover and didn't make it out either.

So I'll have to revise my earlier post about the point of no return. I'd say as long as your not going down Joplin, you can turn around. It was mostly downhill the way back on Harding and Santiago Canyon except for a few small climbs.

I'm not sure how close to the top I was, but Harding wasn't so bad. Imagine a combination of Main Divide, STT, with some Maple Springs sprinkled in there. Once you get into the canyon it is really beautiful! I'd say if you can ride to Old Camp (especially by way of whiting) you can do Harding, no problemo.

Anywho, now I'm even more motivated to do this ride, so I might try to pull it off one of these mornings mid-week or next weekend...we shall see...post if there is any interest.

[ocrider]

Harding is defenintly a long grind, but once you get to the Laurel Spring Sighn your over half way and the next few miles are the easy half theres even a 1/2 mie DH.

[ECOdork]

Either I didn't notice that sign or I didn't make it there. ...probably the latter.

I stopped at a clearing that had evidence of campfire. With the extra milage from cooks, I was probably around 6 miles up Harding.... It was on a bit of a ridge but it was so cloudy that I couldn't get my bearings.

Next time...next time...

Originally Posted by ocrider

Harding is defenintly a long grind, but once you get to the Laurel Spring Sighn your over half way and the next few miles are the easy half theres even a 1/2 mie DH.

[bananaseat]

don't sweat it bro, tomorrow's another day...

[Pain Freak]

Yeah, I've done that ride a few times. It sounds to me you weren't far from the dh part and then the last little bit. But there's no fightin the cramps when they get that bad.

[singletrakk]

what a shame if I knew you interested i would've waited till sunday.I did harding to upper and lower holy jim saturday.I had never done upper holy jim before so I wanted to try it out very technical.I would have to agree with dukethenuke.I did joplin over a month ago.Upper half of joplin to old camp is very technical,loose steep and the turns are very tight lots of hike a bike.That bein said let's do it.I'm up to do it sometime this week if you're still interested.

[ECOdork]

I did it a week or two after that OG post with bananaseat. I'm not really interested in doing it again, but we will be doing San Juan trail this weekend. I'll post that ride up later.

Originally Posted by singletrakk

what a shame if I knew you interested i would've waited till sunday.I did harding to upper and lower holy jim saturday.I had never done upper holy jim before so I wanted to try it out very technical.I would have to agree with dukethenuke.I did joplin over a month ago.Upper half of joplin to old camp is very technical,loose steep and the turns are very tight lots of hike a bike.That bein said let's do it.I'm up to do it sometime this week if you're still interested.