Flightline Riders Blog

Where is everyone riding these days? FlighLine is still closed…where oh where?

Noble Canyon is a great ride and I have been neglecting it all winter. I know people that have been going up there and dealing with snow and ice throughout the winter…but now it is time again to ride Noble Canyon!

Does anyone want to organize a group ride for this weekend? Let us know…

The ride at Elfin Forest yesterday was fun. As usual, it was a hard ride up to the top but a little less brutal due to the overcast skies. About half way up, we hit a rain cloud that all but squashed the wonderful views but kept my body temperature at a moderate level avoiding overheating exhaustion.

I’ll try to give a little more notice the next time we ride.

Side Note: In the winter time, Elfin Forest opens the gates to the public at 8:00am and closes at 5:30pm sharp. If you are parked in the parking lot, you’ll have to wait until the following day to get your vehicle (unless you parked on the road, dodging the no parking signs). Yesterday was the first day I have ridden Elfin since the time change, and the park is now open to the public until 7:00pm. Also, Elfin allows dogs on a leash and horse back riders along with Mountain Bikers.

A few of us are going to ride “The Way Up” trail this afternoon at Elfin Forest. I know it is short notice, but anyone interested in a short but great workout…we are meeting at the parking lot at 4:00pm.

It is a 1.4 mile ride to the first peak climbing around 700ft. The majority of the “Way Up Trail” is all switchbacks with washouts, loose gravel and some steps designed to help with run off. The skill level of the trail is minor, but you will need some lungs to clean some of the steps towards the top.

Our normal ride, once we reach the first summit, is to continue around the  Enquine Incline Loop trail to the Lake Hodges overlook trail. This trail is both fire road and some semi-technical rutted out switchbacks with some steep up and downs.  At the end of that trail is a 1 mile loop around the mountain with views of both Lake Hodges and the new reservoir. The total trip takes us about 2 hours maybe two if we really slack and take a few extra rest stops.

If you have the time..we’d love to see you there.

I was planning on heading over to Noble this weekend but decided to pass due to all of the rain. It is really important for all of us to respect and understand the sensativity off all of the trails we ride after the rain. Thanks Howler for giving me some insight on “preventative” trail maintenence.

A few random trailbuilding links.
From IMBA Pete….

http://www.imba.com/trailsolutions/index.html
http://www.trailbuilders.org/
http://www.hoots.ca/
http://www.highlandwildcat.com/trailoverview.htm
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/F…f?OpenDatabase
http://photos.nsmb.com/browseimages.php?c=11
http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/o…work/3.4.shtml
http://www.singletrackworld.com/foru…hp?f=9&menu=31
http://www.trailswales.com/
http://www.kennett.co.nz/services/index.html
http://www.russellburton.co.uk/
http://www.traildynamics.com/index.asp
http://www.arrowheadtrails.com/
http://www.talontrails.com/
http://www.omba.org/Freeride/index.htm
http://www.nsmba.bc.ca/structures/na…aturalhigh.htm

Has anyone seen the Jim Carrey movie called “The Truman Show”? If you haven’t you should, but I’ll still give you a little history on it so you understand this picture…which reminds me of the Truman show.

Truman lives in a world that is a giant TV studio, but he doesn’t know he is the star of a TV show or that he is in a studio. Eventually, into his mid 20’s (he has been secretly filmed since the day he was born) he breaks away from all of the actors paid to be his friends that tell him he shouldn’t leave his home town and starts sailing out into the wild blue yonder. He eventually sails right into a wall that is painted to resemble the sky and extending ocean, esentially, it is the end of the world. Very surreal…

This is exactly how Forrest (pictured) and I felt while riding the FlightLine trails a couple months ago when we buzzed around a corner flying out of the coastal scrub only to see, “the end of the world.”

This picture speaks for itself.

I hope everyone enjoyed their thanksgiving…and enjoyed riding off all that stuffing and gravy afterwards. Check out the Illuminating Mountain Bike shining on my turkey!I took this picture while frying a turkey to show how to improvise while cooking outside once the sun goes down. This thing was good…

Did anyone get out of town with their bike over Thanksgiving? Where did you ride?

So, one of my buddies, (the one that sold me rad bike) told me that now that I have been hitting up Noble regularly and was riding FlightLine before this fight to save the trails began, that I need to go ride the San Juan Trail in Orange County. Maybe we should organize a bit of a ride for this weekend.

Does anyone have any advice, input or strategy for the San Juan trail? If any of you have ridden it before and you are interested in leading a ride, we should organize a group.

Post here if you are into it!