Ride Report Aliso/Wood Cnyns Park - Mentally Sensitive opening

opening day! i got up nice and early to prep the bike and eat a nice breakfast, left the house, through the park past the lake, into woods and rode up meadows to make it up to the trail head by nine. i was thinking there was going to be a ribbon cutting or something fun like the pictures i saw from the grand opening of car wreck. no such pageantry, i was i little sad.. rode down it with some cool dudes at the top whom i have never met before, who were equally disappointed that there was no ribbon cutting or ceremony (now that im thinking about it, we may have just missed it or something..but there was still no sign of anyone, and there was no one up there). sam, mike, darwin, and sam. they said i should take the lead (which is never a good idea for anyone to suggest to me as i am usually the slowest rider), and after some huffing and puffing i obliged. it was way steeper than i could have imagined and was very, very sandy. had to stay really loose, float behind the saddle, and break hard most of the way down to control the speed. nothing too technical in the way of rocks, but there were some blind turns that you entered into from a very steep grade. make some tight turns down super loose dirt and it starts to level out a bit along a spine on the ridge line. it is really fast and flowy through this section. there was some fire damage i think, and the dirt here gets black and harder packed in this part and it looks pretty cool to ride through. then it gets really steep again around a left hander and, seeing that the end is in sight, let go of the breaks and fly fast and loose down the last chute to the paved road. i had a great time riding this track. i was on the breaks pretty much the whole time, but it was fun to navigate and stay loose. i have said loose about 100 times. i think that is the key to this trail, at least with its current conditions. there were not a lot of riders on it at the time me and the guys were out there. hopefully it will get some business, some rain, and start getting hard packed. with harder dirt, some berm action, and more line choice the whole trail could end up like the very steepest sections of meadows, and that would be awesome! thanks everyone who put in the hard work making this trail happen, from approval to grooming, etc. it was super fun and i cant wait to ride it again next weekend. go ride it, pack that dirt down and take some pictures (which i failed to do...)!!!

 

I dropped into the new trailhead a little after 12 today, and discovered that this trail is a real work of art. Fast, steep and flowy; it's more of a luge-type trail, and a very nice addition to Aliso Woods. I did the prescribed loop, up Meadows and down Mentally Sensitive, and enjoyed the 20 minutes of slow grind up for a fast 5 minutes down. The loose dirt everyone has been mentioning was not much of an issue; it was probably packed down by earlier riders (thanks guys).

I liked the exposure and view from the edge of the ridge. About 2 minutes into my dowhill run, I realized that I had cleaned the upper half, so now I was on a mission to complete my initiation without putting a foot down. I had to throw in some drifting turns, switchbacks, and bunny hops, but I cleaned the lower half as well, so I was pretty pumped by the time I hit the bottom. There's nothing not to like here; thanks to the various bike clubs and the rangers for this early Christmas gift.

 

I've Been Mentally Sensitized

I work up early, drove 30 miles, and proceeded over to Meadows. Meadows is a relentless climb which has a few sections that level out so you can recover a bit, but the trick is not blowing up before you reach them. Since I was running late, I punished myself to keep a decent pace (I am a slow climber) to I could make it to the Mentally Sensitive trail head before 9am. Fortunately I made it with 15 minutes to spare, but to my surprise, there was no one there. The overcast sky, light fog, and my steamed up glasses provided an ominous look to the trail head. I explored the surrounding area just killing time, and found a fun little trail heading down the hill on the opposite side of Mentally Sensitive. No doubt a local trail for some of the residents to connect up to the main trails.

It was now 9am, and other than a couple of other riders, it was evident that there would be no ceremony, no ribbon cutting, no speeches, no politicians kissing babies. I guess I was thinking there would be something more like the opening of Car Wreck, or that I would meet half of STR up there. I should have known that a new trail opening still can't pull people away from the Fully Loop Ride!

By now a group of 5 riders had reached the trail head, stopped for a second and then started their decent. With a few riders ahead, and a couple riders I knew would follow to sweep my pieces off the trail I case I went down, I opened the suspension up to full squish and took off. Like Rockit and Lynx, the trail starts out with a twisty, flat single track. There are a few rock sections, but nothing too tough. However, all too soon the trail becomes very steep. The trail conditions were a lot different than I expected. Seeing the photos of the trail work, I expected lots of soft, newly plowed dirt. But the trail seems to be hard pack with an extra amount of dry, soft dirt, which actually aided in braking. Soon my Avid Elixirs were making that seldom heard, low pitched groan, something I usually only hear when descending Joplin or over-cooking my drop down the Luge. I am sure the rotors were glowing red trying to slow down my Clydesdale carcass. I chickened out of one steep section around a tree, which had a sharp right loose turn at the bottom (or I can just say I stopped to take a picture). I had to save something to clear for the next time on the trail. A few sections had some real exposure, but nothing to worry about unless you are really out of control. I reached the rock section that has been fenced off. Looks like it would have been a good challenge, but the route around the fence is no walk in the park either. No rocks, just steep and loose with a right hand turn at the bottom leading into another steep section. Keeping your speed under control is the key to this trail. Going off your line could put you in a world of hurt. The lower section is a little more mild, so I started to open it up a little. The last left hand turn is loose and off-camber, but the tires seemed to grip well in the loose, thick dirt.

Heading out, back up the road, you could hear the squeal of disc brakes echoing through the canyon. You couldn't really see the riders come down the trail, but we knew they were having the same fun we just experienced. I took the new connector trail back to the base of Meadows. This trail is bumpy and needs to be bedded in. I suppose it is intended to keep riders off the pavement, but most of the riders with the big bikes stayed on the road.

Here are some pix:

Base of Meadows - Mentally Sensitive connector

At the top...no people, no ribbon, just fog.

Looking back up one steep section

Looking down from the same section

The trail continues along the spine way down below


Another steep section

The Fence!


Looking up from the down of the trail


The road leading back to Woods Canyon

The last steep, off-camber turn, looking up from the bottom




Some happy riders. Everyone let out a victory yell once reaching the bottom


Looking back up the mountain, where the upper and lower sections transition. You could hear the riders up there, but it was hard to see them

The start of the connector trail back to the base of Meadows


So this new edition will add another option for some fun loops in Aliso.

 

Thanks guys! Looks like a ton of fun. Gotta go check it out this week.

 

Glad everyone is enjoying this trail. According to the RMP there are several more that will be opened in the future. The good news is that Ed (ranger) continues to push hard for this. We are so fortunate to have this in our backyard. Enjoy the trail... it will only get better as it matures... C U all at the next trailwork.

 

Would love to see a go-pro of this. Looks like fun.

 

What's the story on the name? Mentally Sensitive

It sounds like the politically correct version of something else.

 

My understanding is that there used to be a sign there that said "Environmentally Sensitive Area", but someone scratched out the "Environ" part. So now they just kept the name as Mentally Sensitive.

 

Thanks to everyone who designed and labored on this, and thanks to Ranger Ed for championing the cause.

We're looking forward to it.

 

Just rode mentally sensitive tonight with a buddy. Found out on meadows that I'm a lot more out of shape than I thought. Took the full 20 minutes to get up with a lot more walking than I like to admit.
It's a fun trail. To me it was like a cross between Lynx and meadows- with a lot more sand. There are a few small technical rocky spots but they are short and you can mostly glide over them. The sand does slow you down a bit to help you control your speed. It's like loose sand on top of semi loose sand so you tend to grip a bit (instead of sand over hard packed dirt where you slide out)

I crashed on that steep off camber left hand switch back around a tree. As I was flying into a bush, I noticed a nice hole the shrub where I presume someone landed before me. Thankfully it was a very soft landing and all I had to do was brush myself off and get back on the bike.

As you come down the lower section on the spine it gets a little more flowy and less steep allowing you to get off the brakes and really carry your speed. It's a very fun trail now and a good way to transition onto harder steeper faster trails like car wreck. It just has something for everyone. I can't wait for it to "settle in" a bit more after some rain and more packing, and some berms.

Thank you to all who contributed to the making of this trail.

 

Nice Trail

Rode the trail last Sunday.... pretty awesome and fun; however, it would have been nice to keep the original name down and durky. That said, nice trail and thanks to those who put the effort into re-opening!

 

I am glad I got to help build some of the new trail, enjoy.

 

Does anyone have video footage, yet?

 

I rode it yesterday afternoon with Scott_stafford. It's fun but really loose. Every turn had me worried my front tire would sink in the sand. Finally on the flow part towards the end it did. My bike went left and I ended up running down the trail. It's fun but I think I can wait for it to pack down a bit.

 

This trail is going to be a classic back country trail once it gets worn it. Yeah, we need rain to firm up some of the areas... but don't wait. It's very rideable right now. Actually it's pretty easy to control speed with the resistancve from the dirt... but do watch the sides of the trail as they are loose. We are so lucky here in SoCal to ride year around.

 

I had the opposite idea coming down.. I figured if I crash, I crash. lol

This was a great trail for me to practice taking my butt of the seat and leaning back further than I'm normally comfortable doing. It was steep enough to where I felt I needed to do that but I still had a great time coming down the trail. Glancing at my speedometer every so often, it looked like I was holding a pretty consistent speed of about 8-10MPH all the way down - I could only imagine how fast guys are powering down the trail if they weren't riding the brakes like I was. The only problem I had coming down that spooked me a little bit was the rather steep drop that rolls right into a sharp left hand turn. If I had been going any faster, I probably would have rolled right off the trail. Over all though, I thought it was a fun addition to an Aliso loop and will certainly be riding it again!

 

Just got back from giving this one a try. I took my Kona Stinky out which was pretty punishing on the climbs up, but I didn't find having a big bike to be any kind of advantage on the down. This trail is definitely more about controlling speed and not losing it in the corners than navigating a rock garden or drop. My friend commented that it was a little more difficult on his XC bike because of the steeper angles and twitchier handling, and not because of the lack of travel. Since its not a very rocky trail, and it's still not seeing enough traffic to have braking bumps, you would do just fine on a short travel bike or hardtail.


That said, its a REALLY fun trail. Difficulty wise I would put it right between Five Oaks and Car Wreck, but it's hard to draw comparisons because its a very different kind of trail. Much thanks to everyone who had a hand in getting it opened. Can't wait until the next rain and trail day so we can pack down some of those nastier turns and get some flow going!

and I meant to get a GoPro video but didn't have time to get it set up beforehand...so you will just have to ride the trail to find out what it's like!

 

I just rode Mentally Sensitive today as well. I rode it on my Tallboy. We climbed Meadow's to get there, what a PITA, and I didn't feel all that great this morning. I agree, this trail is all about controlling speed and not losing it in the corners which are still very soft, we need a good rain, that would really help conditions. There were four of us and we all ride XC bikes, and yes the steeper angles mean twitchier handling, but ya know 3 out of the 4 of us ride 29ers with 4" of travel and it's not problem, albeit my KS dropper post was just what the doctor ordered on this trail.

Yep, I too think its a REALLY fun trail, although not the easiest to get over to. I liked how steep it was and how I only had to dab twice total. Two of my buddy's thought it was a little intense. Difficulty wise I would put it between Lynx and Car Wreck, (We don't ride 5 Oaks, so can't make that comparison), and I totally agree, its a very different kind of trail. It's not about speed, rather it's about bike control...

As mentioned by Garrett above, many, many thanks to everyone who had a hand in getting it built up and opened.

 

Oh, I forgot! I love the goats hanging out before meadows! I kinda wish we had them all the time.

 

second that. love the goats.