Saturday we set up the tent at Musch which called for some unexpected hiking on foot since we were told you can't take bikes up the Musch Trail (1.0 mile from main Topanga State parking lot) -so without any idea of whether there is room at the 8 site horse camp, we locked the bikes in the parking lot ($10/day) and hiked in w/o the tent and bags to see what's up. Only one site was taken and the camp is pretty neat - clean, flush toilets, piped water, picnic tables for each site, horse corrals (saw no horse campers all weekend, and a big stand of Eucalyptus in the center of the camp area. Very mellow place with nice views of the valley. No fire rings - stoves only. We head back to the truck, grab the gear and hike back in and set tent up and pay the $7/person fee at the Iron Ranger on site. Hike back to truck, take bikes and head out to explore the Eagle Springs Fire Road up to Temescal Peak. Nice climb, 4-7% on wide fire road with a fair amount of day hikers for first mile and a handful of horses. At Temescal Peak we hang around yak with other MTB'ers coming up from Mulholland Fire Road and they tell us it's a nice climb up from Mulholland so we roll down Fire Road #30 to Mulholland, turn around and come back up to Hub Junction. This is a steady climb, slighty chunky but wide enough and only a couple of miles. We head back down to Topanga as it's getting late and we've spent more time hiking on foot, setting camp up and so forth and we're hungry. Off to Froggy's down the road and we're really amped up when we see this very cool restaurant with a great outdoor patio. WONDERFUL FOOD, BEER & DESSERTS! Check their website out. Well worth the trip.
http://froggystopanga.com/
We're feeling pretty good now and the hike back to the camp in the dark is pretty fun since we've done this twice already today and the trail in is only a mile. Sweet weather that nite. Warm, no wind and quiet.
Sunday we hike back out to the truck and head down to Malibu Creek State Park for the loop up to the Backbone. We parked on Mulholland a few blocks from Los Virgenes since this saves you the ten bucks parking in the park and the Grasslands Trail crosses right over Mulholland and this hooks you up with Crags Road to start into the ride. We hump it through the creek bed - which I confess to not riding more than half - it's only a half mile but kind of busted up scree in a lot of places but no big deal. The climbing in earnest starts at Bulldog and this is a pretty hefty section of work. Felt great to really dig in and get a long (4-5 mile)climb over some rutty fire road with switchbacks. Great stuff. Laura's amped - this is Ukiah riding - up, up and long rolls over lush green valleys. Malibu looks BEAUTIFUL right now. The flowers are in peak form right now. We hookup at the top with the Castro Motorway then on to Mesa Peak Motorway and thats more up/down sectiony stuff with the views now of the ocean and Coral Canyon just kicking this ride up a couple more notches - this is prime riding area up here. We hook up with the Backbone Trail just past Coral Canyon Blvd. (note: the easy way is to go down a 1/2 mi. on paved to hook up with the fire road with the pipe gate which connects to Backbone via fire road rather than some sketchy, hike-a-bike via the upper trail you see just as you get off Mesa Peak Motorway.
The roll up/down Backbone to Tapia State Park is combo of fire and singletrack with just great views and some flowing, some real techy rock jumping. We're going mellow so we're just fine walking the tough rock sections and enjoy a nice lunch of bread and cheese. It's a fine trail, kinda steep near the end and singletrack through some tight sections near the bottom at Piuma on Los Virgenes Road. We put the lights on and climb back up to Malibu Creek on Los Virgenes ( decent bike lane most of the way -it's only about 2.5 miles back up to Mulholland). We head down to Reel Inn on PCH for a decent meal in a pretty cool place. It's a good day's riding - probably about 20 miles and no idead how much climbing - left the altimeter home but it's over 4 grand probably.
Hike back in to Musch in the dark as we decide to leave the truck on Entrada, outside of the park, and save ten bucks on parking. The night is warm again and pretty mellow. One other tent on the far side of the camp site. Nice and quiet.
We break camp Monday morning, hit up the brunch at Reel Inn (hefty quesadillas with fries and bottomless coffee). A good trip, well worth all the clunking around to find that one NICE campsite. The riding up on the Backbone Trail is fine. The climbing is challenging and if you want it, there's plenty of tough single-track rides all over the area. We're planning more rides to explore all the 60-70 miles of the BBT.
Note: Biking into Musch is legal if you park outside the paved spur that the park service uses to truck up to Musch Camp. Ranger told us just park on Topanga Canyon Blvd. near the gate and ride the short (3/4 mile?) section right into camp. Nice to not have to lock, tarp bikes in truck outside while you're camping a mile or so away. Less hassle!
On the map you would be looking for a right hander (the first one) about one mile up Topanga from the Entrada Road intersection)
My camera I forgot to charge properly so, not a lot of pics yet. When Laura gets back home I'll throw up some more pics of the Backbone Ride.
Bikes: nice if you got a F/S - I was bouncing all over on the 29'er hardtail and Laura was working hard to keep that rigid fork on a line.
Water: piped water at Topanga parking lot, Musch meadow and Musch Camp and Malibu Creek visitor center. Never saw any more piped sources on the ride to Temescal and all up/down the Backbone. In summer you know it's blazing up on the BBT.
Froggy's
Musch Trail Camp
