A couple years back I read reports of this Mt Wilson Shuttle service. There were a lot of controversy and lots of people were against it saying how you had to earn each climb and trails would be blown out even by mtb'ers. It never really occurred to me to give it a try. Last weekend my buddy asked if I would be down to shuttle and why not I've hiked a bunch of these trails before but never really thought about shuttling so I thought I'd give it a shot. As much as I love going to Snow Summit it's got too much jumps for me and not enough single track riding which is what I prefer. Not much of a RR but just some pics to share of the ride. I'm grateful for meeting a fellow rider we hooked up with that showed us the way around up there. We opted to skip Mt Lowe and rode the fireroad to Sam Merrill trail to start just before reaching Inspiration point there is a turnoff to the right. I walked down this section it looked a little bit sketchy to me Instead of going down Prieto we rode down some horse trail that was rutted and very interesting. Although it smelled like horse poo, it was a lot of fun. Wow am I hooked now than ever to go back and ride Mt Lowe and Prieto!
It's a RR on a trail you've never ridden before - STOKED FOR YOU!! I love love love Sunset!!!!!! PM abuck55 (my pal!!). He rides there almost weekly. He'll love to show you El Prieto too. Nice work......
It is not so much earning the downhill as it is how phobic the hikers are out there and how the love to complain to the Forest Service about being runoff the trail. For the past 10 years I have worked will CORBA maintaining those trails we stopped when the shuttlers arrived. They do not maintain nor do they like groomed trails. Their idea of trail work is not a xc riders idea of a trail work. They like loose rutted rocky runs I don't so I really don't ride out there much any more. If I owned a gravity sled or better skills I may feel different. Dean
I read somewhere the other day that President Obama declared the San Gabs a National Monument. Hikers, Bikers and Horseback Riders have no choice but to get along now cause nothing is going to change. Nice RR. I had a blast my first shuttle run.
Just the back country. They didn't include the area above Pasadena which pissed off the enviro-nazis. Only about half and it was mostly if not all federal land that was dedicated to the monument. As riders we need to watch out what happens now. Seems that the powers that be have turned over the planning of the "master plan" to the nature conservancy and the sierra club. Two groups that really support mtb's ..... as long as your on fireroads and not on singletrack. Hope corba and the imba are keeping a close eye, not that it will do much good. - Lloyd
To be fair, the shuttle company does encourage their users to get involved in trail work and they offer free shuttle credits for anyone that joins a trail maintenance day. Compared to other areas there is very little in the way of illegal trail mods by DH riders.
It's sad to read this, Dean. I am in poor riding shape, so the other day I wanted to ride laps down Lower Sunset's .5 mile into Millard Campground as casual training. The trail condition BLOWS. Longitudinal ruts for major sections threatening to swallow a bike tire. Skid marks turned into giant rain ruts. It's no fun. Lower Sunset has suffered from shuttle-riders onslaught. BTW, if any trail repair guru wants to spend a day on this section of trail, I'm in.
Shuttles here are pricey. Rather just climb and get the calorie burn. Just did bootleg and it was $5 a run. That's right $5 a run. Mofos here charge 5x that.
Lol, that's why I ride my dirt bike more these days, for $20 worth of gas I can go 200 miles of riding basically up to big bear and come home on 1 tank of gas but the nice thing about the shuttle is you don't have to maintain the vehicle and time wasted driving around the 2 to shuttle it. You know what's expensive now, bike parks like Snow Summit. $45 a day. Used to be $25.... just a couple years ago... sigh
