St. George, Utah

It's been almost a year since we took this trip. The first day in St. George we drove up to Gooseberry Mesa. That was one unique ride. Just watching these videos reminded me of how beautiful that place is. The second day in St. George we did a short ride at Bearclaw Poppy.

Gooseberry Mesa
I don't think I have the words to really describe this place. Basically, most of the ride is on a sandstone similar to Slickrock. The major difference in this ride is it's relatively flat without any big climbs or descents. It's more of a very gradual climb out and then gradual downhill coming back. There are a few different options of loops you can do. I think we ended up going around 18 miles. The scenery here is just unbelievable though. You have to see the videos and pictures just to get an idea of what it's like.

Bearclaw Poppy
This ride is sort of like a cross between a mt bike trail and a bmx course. There's all kinds of fun stuff out there. It's an up and back that's maybe 4-5 miles each way. The whole way up you're just looking around and salivating at how much fun you're going to have coming back down. Most of the video we have from this ride is at the top, aka - the Three Fingers of Death.

The Videos
Mike and I decided we'd both make a video of this trip, using the same footage, and have a friendly contest on who could make a better video of the trip. It took him a good 3 months to finish his and I just finished mine this week, so neither of us were really on top of things. In what was unplanned, Brian made a video the week we got back using just a couple of short video clips I had emailed him. His is a lot shorter and still encompasses the overall feel of the trip so he gets the top billing here.

Brian's Video


Mike's Video



My Videos

Gooseberry Mesa


Bearclaw Poppy

Cannell Plunge

I finally did it. The Plunge! One of the biggest and best rides in Southern California. After doing the SART earlier this month (from Southfork to Morton Peak and then into Mentone - 35 miles total), this was my 2nd big shuttle in 2 weeks. And just like the first one there was plenty of climbing involved. But also like the first one, there was a whole lot of downhill fun.

- The Facts -
Beginning Elevation - 9200'
Ending Elevation - 2700'
2500' of climbing
A total of 9000' of downhill!!!
All this in 24 miles (although because of a wrong turn I made at the end Geno and I did closer to 28 miles)

- The Ride -
This ride has just about everything.
Fast smooth singletrack
Windy singletrack
Rocky technical singletrack
Narrow cliffside singletrack
Singletrack through meadows
Switchbacks
Steep technical singletrack climbs
Gradual fireroad climbs
A fun rock to play on
Even a stretch that could pass for a trials course
Oh yeah, also a spring about halfway down with fresh cold water

- The Unexpected -
I'd say the only thing I really wasn't ready for were the frozen creek crossing. It's a different feeling to go through a creek, and then realize you're not going through it, but instead you're skimming across the top of it on the ice. Very cool.

This is a great area to ride. Thanks to Geno for setting everything up. I'll be back as soon as I can, which I'm guessing won't be for another 6 months or so due to snow.

The Kona

It's been about a year since I got my Kona. Here's a video of my first ride on it.

Freeride

I'd say I ride my xc hardtail 90% of the time, but I do like to get out and test my amateur freeride skills. Brian and I went out on Saturday and had a little fun.

Palm Springs - The Goat Trails

Previously I thought this was part of the Art Smith trail, but apparently it's not. I've generally followed the geoladders route when I've been, but there are many variations you can make.

With school canceled for the rest of the week and the bad air quality from the fires, it was a perfect time to go down and ride the Art Smith Trail in Palm Springs again. I took the Kona this time. I figured it'd be more fun on the technical section in the last half mile. I can't say it was really worth it on the Kona though. It was over 90 degrees and those steep fireroad climbs got to me pretty quick today. The climbs are tough enough on my hardtail. Don't get me wrong, it was a blast coming down, but for the complete ride experience I think I'll stick to the hardtail for this ride from now on.

Regardless, it was still worth the drive down. If nothing else, I was able to breath clean air and get some exercise at the same time. I also brought the camera so I could get a few pics of the trail this time. Most of these are from the last 1/2 mile section of the ride.


Click on a picture to enlarge it.



Probably the most technical ............................ Nice little drop here. ..........................The last fun section of the ride.......
section of the trail.


This is up a little higher on the ride....................Lots of Rocks!..........................
Notice the steepness of the fireroad to
the left. Also notice the lack of shade.

Hurkey Creek

This past weekend we went to Hurkey Creek. It was everyone's first time camping there. Certainly not a bad place to camp. I had never realized how big of a campground it was, plus there's a whole other campground just a mile down the road at Hemet Lake. Be warned that the Hemet Lake Campground isn't nearly as nice, unless you just have to be near the water.











We did the usual "24 hour" loop. You can check out the full description here. It was pretty overcast, but the trail was in great shape. It had rained a few days before , so the trail was nice and packed.

Palm Springs

I've since been told these are the Goat Trails, although the geoladders route lists it as the Art Smith trail. For pictures you can go here - Goat Trails Pictures.

I finally rode the Art Smith trail in Palm Springs. I never realized how close it was to town. If you're familiar with Palm Springs at all it's not more than a mile or so from the airport. The trail starts right next to a Vons parking lot. This isn't a ride you'd really want to drive far to get to and you certainly wouldn't want to do it in the summer time - there's not a single tree on the whole ride.

I rode it yesterday on my way down to my parents house in La Quinta. It's essentially a very steep fireroad up, with lots of singletrack options coming down. I followed the geoladders route.

I imagine there's many, many other ways you could do this ride. The whole time going up, and coming down, you see all kinds of different singletrack trails that go in all directions. None of them seem to go on for too far, but when pieced together you get a really fun ride down.

The highlight of the ride was the last singletrack option just before the finish. This was the longest one I went on (about 1/2 a mile). It also was the most technical by far. It very much reminded me of Box Springs. I really wish I'd had my camera to get a few shots of some of the rocks and drops. I rode it all, and it was the kind of technical riding where I needed to take a couple of breaks to rest my forearms from all the ground they were absorbing.

If I didn't have a reason to go to this area, this is a ride I probably wouldn't do more than once a year. But now that I've discovered it, I'll keep coming back on a regular basis as long as my parents are still living in nearby.