Chorro Grande to Ortega trail September 20th

I'll be on the road at 0345 slamin monsters and eating shelled peanuts. My route will be 15N, 91W, 71N, 57N, 10W, 101N,.

 

I just did this ride today, and I should probably give some detail on the trail top to bottom just so people know what they are getting into.

The ride down from Pine Mt. to the 33 (Chorro Grande) has a lot of off-camber and loose sections. Everything else is pretty normal, but just make sure you're good at extended narrow washed away sections. When you get down into the meadows and it looks like the trail ends right at a dried up creek, head down the creek to your right down a bunch of cobbles, and you'll see it turn into a trail again in like 50 feet. Keep going across the slickrock feature you get to next even if it looks like it doesn't go anywhere. The middle half is pretty overgrown and tears up your forearms good (mine look like torture scene right now). The upper half has some interesting rain-rutted sections that you can come into really fast.

The climb from 33 up to Ortega Hill will suck. There's no way around that. We shuttled each trail individually, and I would not want to do that fire road climb. Once you're at the end of the fire road, you go through a gate sorta thing to your left, and you climb for a while more. A lot of this stuff you probably will not even want to pedal on, because it's LOOSE up there right now. It's just churned up shale/gravel kinda crap.

Once it looks like you start descending, you go down a fun steep-ish old fire road sorta thing, then it crosses a dried up creekbed, and then you're climbing again for a while to get to the actual top of Ortega trail. You're about 2 miles PAST the top of the drive-able fire road at this point, which is about a mile and a half or 2 miles in itself. Once on Ortega trail, the first half will mostly be flat or uphill with one rockgarden thrown in right when you get on the singletrack. Basically once you go through the two switchbacks in a row, you're in the clear for the descent. The descent is amazingly fun, fast, and rougher than hell. If you don't have energy left by this point and you're just a passenger on the bike, it won't be very enjoyable. But if you do, it's pretty awesome.

In all honesty, if I had to climb up the fire road from the 33, I would rather just go down to the Ortega trailhead at the bottom and hike up to the top of the rocky bit. It's probably significantly less hiking this way, and you get the enjoyable part of the trail. It's even probably less hiking than the route we did which was the shuttle dropoff at the top of Cherry Creek. Just don't expect to be able to pedal the whole route from the bottom of Cherry Creek fire road all the way through Ortega. Bring LOTS of water. It will be hotter than hell by the time you guys get to Ortega. Reason #2 I am opting out of this ride, with reason #1 being the climb required through the middle of the ride.

Riding my KTM on it really seems to flatten out the rolling bits that are actually laborsome as hell on a MTB...

Don't let me make you shy away from the ride though. The actual descending sections of the trail are quite fun, and not your average MTB trail. But the climbs are probably going to be a bit harsher and more abundant than they appear on the map. Just be aware.

 

I've seen worse

Extra armor for the first third, check. Thanks for mowing the lawn, start time is gonna be relative, always count on contingencies....
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If anything I would wear the extra armor on Ortega. If you can flow through rough stuff you can get going seriously fast through some loose gnar. No really serious sections on CG, but sleeves are a good idea.

 

If Disco and I did it, any one of you can do it. I appreciate your honesty, awesome that you scouted the top of Pine Mountain to the Chorro Grande. This is a ride for strong riders no doubt even on the dh of Ortega. If you pick your right lines you will have a blast.

That is a terrific ride report.

I'm still in.

 

Well, my other big observation is that the "dirt" may be a whole hell of a lot looser than you'd expect right now. I've been going up there on the moto since early spring this year, and haven't seen it that churned up yet. Pedaling through it was basically a nightmare. The hardpacked stuff is still hardpacked obviously, but the rest feels almost like Mammoth pumice through some spots.

BTW, the start of Chorro Grande is marked at the top with a big ol' sign. Can't miss it. It's at the very end of some campgrounds that are nestled in these big rock features (VERY cool campsites btw - amazing views all the way out the the islands and Mt. Mugu).

The sign at the bottom of Chorro Grande however is missing right now. There used to be one. Not that it will matter for your situation anyway, but it comes out right across the 33 from this dirt "Mesa" with a pink flag stuck in it, about 2 turns E on the 33 from the beginning of the Cherry Creek climb.

FYI - the gate at the bottom of Cherry Creek IS open right now as you may have gathered. No key required. Ya know, just in case someone wants to take the easy way up...

 

So the gate is open at Cherry. If that is so we can shittle this portion and instead of pedaling too much. DISCO and I did HAB for about 1 mile in total through different sections. With one van and one truck this can be possible.

Well all start at Chorro with truck left at Pine Mountain turnoff.

With Rosses approval his van can be left at Cherry and 33. Once off of Chorro we can hop in the van and get to Ortega hill.

Once at bottom of Ortega hill and we can use any one of the cars to take one of us up for the van and truck. My truck is a dakota can fit 5 uncomfortably.

This is cool, can't wait to get back out thar call me sadistic or OCD, I just want to ride.

If guys start pulling out of this, I guess I can offer a Farm friendly ride.

 

I say keep it simple, without a ride -shuttle-ride thing. I'm sure some of the other riders don't mind some uphill in return for the promised downhill. I am actually looking forward to a real epic ride out there.

 

I'd avoid using a "car" on Cherry Creek. Just bumper clearance issues through the waterbars and stream crossings. Could probably get away with it on Pine Mt Rd just fine tho.

 

I was just throwing an option out there. I say earn it also, way more dh than uphill.

 

Ain't no backing out now. I'll be heading out to T.O. with Hattrick about 5:15am on Sunday-ouch! We'll meet up with Epicriderat and almost everyone at the Taco Bell off Wendy Dr/101 around 6am. From there, the adventure begins...

 

I hope DISCO makes it.

If your out that reading this thread I can bring a fork for you.

 

3.75 miles of continuous quality descending at the end of Ortega. 6-6.25 total miles of climbing/flat stuff before that from the bottom of Cherry Creek at the 33. About 1/2 mile of descending thrown in there during the climbing bit too, not really singletrack.

Definitely going up from the bottom next time.

 

Sinister you are awesome. How many riders went with you, why no flicks for RR?

 

3 others total, one had mechanicals and drove the bottom part. Had originally planned on 5 riders total and just doing a bunch of runs on Chorro. May still do that at some point.

Wasn't really planning on a ride report. With the hundreds of different trails I've done between both motorized and non-motorized bikes, my harddrive and photobucket account would be a complete clusterfvk and almost impossible to wade through if I were taking pictures all the time. I usually just stay moving and stop only at forks to make sure everyone gets through.

I gotta say though, there could be some EPIC shuttle opportunities off of Pine Mt. Ridge. If there were a choice of trails to drop from the top of that ridge down to 33 I would be up there every month. I will be giving this area a very thorough examination at some point, mainly when someone lets me borrow a dual sport bike...

 

I thought this meant 6:45 in TO. I'm still in but may camp up there somewhere Sat night. Where do you plan leaving vehicles at the bottom?

 

There is a campgrnd near the Ortega end point some can leave vehicles at a forest service pass is required. 0600 in . T. O is the plan.

 

I'll be driving a car that can shuttle 3 of us and haul 3 bikes. This should nor affect the shuttle capability but will affect initial
parking at bottom of Ortega. My truck is too jankey and has no brakes or shocks it would be rather unsafe for all the expensive bikes.

 

My bike is fine, both the brakes and the fork have since been renewed. Put a timing belt on the car last weekend and new fan clutch today so our shuttle is tip top. I'll send BIO my house # and will be waiting for him on the corner @ 4:30.

 

Ok I'm ready for it