Saturday, 5 friends (Sorni, Miles Todd, MTBBill, et. al) and I decided to journey up to Idyllwild to
ride the control roads and surrounding areas. Since only one of us had been there before, we figured
it'd be a great chance to explore and hit some new trails
When we left San Diego, the weather was crappy but as soon as we gained some elevation the skies
cleared up and we knew it would be a warm one.
As I found out, the rides in that area are basically a bunch of short loops that you just connect
however you feel. We ended up looping by the vehicles two different times although we only stopped
one time for a snack. The trails up there are all fantastic. Smoother than the rocky stuff we're
usually riding in SD so that was a nice treat. Another bonus was being able to ride through the
trees which are a definate scarcity in most of SD (The cuyamaca's are the exception of course)
The best thing about these trails is that all of the downhills are singletrack and the connecting
trail back up the hill is a grind it out fireroad. So, you have all of the fun on the donwhills and
the incentive just to get the climb over with on the uphills.
One trail that our leader wanted to try was called the Webster trail. He scoped it out on maps and
from some online sources and this trail was supposed to be a singletrack all the way from the top of
the hill down to a stream running in the canyon below. There was supposed to be a fireroad just a
stones' throw away from the bottom so we'd have a grunt back out. Well, about halfway down the ST we
though that the trail didn't get ridden very much. About 2/3 of the way down (and you'll notice some
of this in the video) we started thinking that this trail not only didn't get ridden much, it didn't
get hiked much either!
AT the stream, we had to wade over the boulders through the stream (in cycling shoes no less!) and
"try" to find the trail. after about 30 minutes of stumbling through poison oak we finally found the
trail. By trail, I do mean the "flat" section of the hill that was still covered with grass and
other vegetation.
The "trail" went up and up and up. It was not a ridable climb so we pushed and pushed and pushed
some more. By now the temperature was in the 90's and we began conserving water (why we didn't have
any water tablets with us I'm not sure, but I think it probably has to do with the fact that there's
rarely water in any southern CA streams so nobody thought to bring any).
After at least an hour and 15 minutes of pushing we got to the fireroad and saw the creek way down
below. A brief rest and we started riding again. Boy did this hurt. About 15 minutes into the climb,
I was the second to last rider to run out of water. Because it was a fireroad, the grade was pretty
constant but it still hurt and it seemed to go up forever.
Finally, we rounded a turn and saw the cars. It's been a while since I've been that happy to see the
vehicles at the end of a ride but I knew that as whipped as I felt, I still had a wonderful day on
the trails. No major issues on the 5+ hour ride/hike other than two flats by the same rider so
overall the expedition was a success.
These trails weren't technical but were an absolute blast to ride. The downhill speeds were never
that high either. So, I opted not to make a rock video by using fast heavy music on this one. I
found the trails sort of meditative so i went with music that followed that theme. I thought it
worked so I hope you do too.
Thanks to Mr. Porter for hosting the video yet again. Bill also has a page for this ride on his web
site at mountainbikebill.commountainbikebill.comOpen ↗ with far better trail directions than I could ever give (if
you want to get horribly lost, hten let me know and I'll post my directions).
see the video at mountainbikebill.comAlvinMeadows.mpgOpen ↗