Hungry Valley Ride, 08/23/09

Dustin, Dave, & Matt
Frazier Mountain Summit, 8,000ft

Man, we had a helluva good day! We rode 50 miles, only 5 of it on pavement. We started out of the lower parking lot at Hungry Valley and quickly ascended several thousand feet of narrow, mountain-goat steep, loose and dusty single track up the east side of Frazier Mountain. Parts of the trail were very technically difficult, when all the above conditions combined at once. Just brutal. The single-track eventually reaches the ridge of the mountain and joins with a conventional fire road. We were able to really open it up and soon we were on the summit, which is home to several communcations towers and a decomissioned USFS fire tower.

After a break we followed the fire road down the mountain to the west and ended up in Lockwood Valley. We soon linked up with the Long Dave trail which single-tracked through a pretty canyon. Too soon we were climbing the south flank of Frazier. We were able to link to several more miles of single-track called the Gold Hill trail. This was the best portion of our ride and I'm glad we were descending it because, in places, it was hairy. I'm mean hairy. Hair-pin turns around trees with cliff on one side, off cambered boulder slides, sketchy washouts. This trail had it all. We even located a couple derelict mining operations, notable only for the debris of old lumber and corrugated tin.

Pretty soon we hit the Gold Hill Rd, which is where all three of us were reminded of how nice it is to have the flexibility of street-legal status. Before long we were back in the vicinity of Hungry Valley with all the flat-landers. We goofed around on some of the trails in the Valley for a while, but they were nowhere near as good as what we had riden earlier. 50 hard miles in about 3.5 hours. Yes, I did put the bike and myself down hard one time. I'll pay in spades tomorrow. Me and my friend Advil are going to spend some quality time together.

In the above picture of Dustin, you can see in the upper right corner the I-5, which is basically where we started from. Lottsa elevation gain.

Matilija, all weekend.

I had the weekend to myself, Ruth being at work, so on Saturday I headed up as far as the West Falls on Matillija. Had a superior day lounging and swimming, reading, having lunch. Can't beat it. Then Jason Scott wanted to head up there on Sunday. I had no other plans so we went, all the way up to the North Falls, as far is reasonable to hike in one day. My gps puts the mileage from the gate to the top falls at 7.3 miles, so most of 15 miles round trip. That makes a pretty good workout on any day. Sunday was another superb day to swim, the weather clear and hot.

We Ride Once More!