The West Coast boys had another epic mountain bike ride yesterday. We had the full crew of Ron, Hector, Scott, Juan and Tim. It seems inconceivable, but, this was a ride I've never done within Sycamore Canyon. Anyway we all arrived at 1600 in Sycamore. The summer crowds are long gone and its the perfect time to do some trail poaching. We started at 1615 in cool breezy conditions and took the fire road to Boney Mountain Trail. Juan apparently hasn't gotten the memo that "cotton kills". He was wearing some sort of jumbo cotton hoody. Did I mention this trail is off-limits...and we're bad, bad, bad, bad for riding it. But, the trail is good, good, good. Very narrow singletrack and pleasantly rideable. In other words, bikers haven't tweakered it up. It might be perfect except for the ridiculous gradient that starts after a few hundred meters. Did I mention this climb is hard? Think "Hell Hill" but longer and more technical. We all struggled a bit on the climb, well at least Scott, Juan and I did. It seems Ron is turning into Iron Man material and Hector just is very aerodynamic with those roadie legs of his. The reward of this climb is amazing views from about 1300 ft of the Pacific Ocean, Serrano Canyon and the Oxnard Plain. Attached photo is taken near the top. The other reward is the descent. Think 18 inch wide singletrack with a rolling descent into a canyon. You can really bomb this. Something I started to do until Hector started screaming at me about a "pipe"? Pipe? Bro - I gave that up a long time ago. Well, said pipe ends up being an exposed (open) drain pipe that sits directly next to the trail at a pretty deep gully. Hit this too fast and you will have a problematic encounter with the pipe! Its one of the few technical features on this part of the trail. Ultimately you hit the bottom of Serrano Canyon and basically ride that out back to the main trail. It actually quite dark and overgrown in the canyon and filled with poison oak. There are a couple walking sections through the drainage...but otherwise pretty good. Great trail and Scott had Dos Equis on ice for us at the end. Sweetness. Look forward to doing this trail with you...
Length: ~11 miles
Elevation gain: ~1200 ft
Yikes: Pipe (see above), Poison Oak, Juan in cotton
Temp: 65 degrees
Tim
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