EISPIRATEN

Arright nerds, I’m rebuilding an old mtb (1993 Mongoose Rockadile) my buddy gave me and I wanna do some rides. Not cool boy fast downhill stuff, but slow stuff far into the cool areas, like all of Cucmonga Truck Trail for example. I’m looking for ideas and inspiration. Here are my ideas off the top of my head.

-All of Cucamonga Truck Trail. I’ve done the stretch from Baldy Rd to Cucamonga Canyon before, and I’ve gone canyoneering down Bull Cyn, which sucked and involved lots of bushwhacking through buckthorn. I got torn up on that one. Would be bringing loppers to kill buckthorn on this trip. I plan to take 2-3 days for this.
-Up Devils Backbone on Baldy, down Bear Creek. Apparently that’s the way to do it. I’ve never been down Bear Creek, believe it or not, so that would be nice. I mostly just wanna go up to the summit via bike. Been wanting that for a while.
-Up Islip via Windy Gap - east ridge, down south ridge. Nothing crazy, just wanna do it.
-Some sorta bigass ride that involves going up Monrovia Cyn to White Saddle, down Rincon into the Canyon I always forget the name of, then up that one road to the 2, to Chicago I think. Can I ride on the Silver Mocassin Trail legally?
-I wanna cross the SG’s entirely on dirt. The previous entry is an attempt to describe that plan.
-Maybe down to Cabin Flat from Wrightwood, then down Prarie Fork which I’ve done once upstream at night after descending Fish Fork, then up to Vincent Gap. Biggest suck would be after road ends in Prarie Fork, and when the trail appears in East Fork.
-a bit of an easy trip, but I’d like to go up Bear Creek far enough and camp. I’m well aware of the wilderness boundary and am not planning on bringing my bike in there, etc. Would be a nice chill overnight.

Some key points are that I’m used to bushwhacking, I don’t care if there’s a lot of stuff I can’t ride/have to push, I prefer to spend multiple days out (important to me), etc.

Is riding the Cucamonga Truck Trail even feasible? Do Silver-Fish rd!

Yo dawg, I’m planning on hiking silverfish with my girlfriend soon, once things are more normal. I looked at it a few weeks ago from Mt Bliss. I think I went off-roading on it in the early 90’s, but I could be wrong. I’ve only hike the part from 39 up to the top of the ridge, which was total shit and took a lot of crawling and chopping.

Cucamonga Truck Trail will be a lot of work, lots of cursing, chopping, cutting, etc. A lot of it is rideable though. I expect to spend the better part of a day just dealing with the overgrown section. Wanna go? You can help carry the ultralight carbon fiber gardening tools.

Here's my latest from Islip last year: Fill In The Blank

When last I tried CA-39 as a return to CA-2, the way was blocked. Edison is doing work up there, and have a full-time security person guarding the gate. I had to return via Windy Gap Tr. This was late last summer, they may have finished the work. The Little Jimmy/Islip Ridge/Windy Gap loop is my new favorite San Gabes ride.

RE: Silver Moc, it's all legal except the first mile out from Three Points.

RE: Couc (naming is funky...same road as Joe Eliot Tree, San Sevaine in the east?), the most recent report I found for this told of San Sevaine start with westward travel, then a forced bushwhack down Deer Canyon. Apparently the road is completely scraped off the mountain west of Deer Canyon.

Please, PLEASE post of your exploits, especially your quest for a trans-Gabes dirt route.

I'm down to try any of these, just say when.

Cucamonga rd would be epic! Around 6-7 years ago I hiked a bit of it by Deer canyon. It wasn't really passable even on foot back then. And Sean and co did this: calamity-peak-5800-t7425.html

Edison had the upper 39 closed in the fall: mt-islip-south-north-ridge-some-part-of ... t8172.html Don't know if it's still closed, but that should be find-outable.

Tom, I think I read that report of Cucamonga on SoCal Trail Riders. I saw their pics and have been in that canyon, I think, and don’t feel it would deter me, but I am me and I climb technical piles of rubble for ‘fun’.

I haven’t gone through the closed section of 39 for a few months. I have brought my old gravel bike and my late touring bike (rip) up and over Windy Gap to avoid it before. A bit of pushing but just such a nice area. I really like it. I took the little trail that goes straight from the 2 directly up to Windy Gap once on a ride from Randsburg to LA once a couple years back. Very steep but short.

I should post more. I am running out of rides I haven’t done up there, but I don’t post anything, mostly cause I can’t really post pics anymore. I’ll do my best to write more.


Dima, good. I will keep you in the loop. Again, I expect it to take 3 days, bringing loppers, machete, maybe short clippers too, so I can cut a half ass path through the worst of it.

I’ll look at your links now, guys. I can’t at the same time as reading this, as I’m using my iPad and it will refresh the page and lose my text. Thanks so much for the response.

Tom, my buddy and I recently went up South Mount Hawkins to the toilet at the summit. First time with my bike up there. Road was a little rough as you said in your trip report, but not bad. Did 90mi or so and 9kft gain from my house. One of my favorite rides ever. I was very happy. Beautiful up there! I would like to camp at the summit sometime, if you’d like to meet us, like a SGMDF potluck or something.

Hey all, long time lurker on this forum. I have information on the Cucamonga Truck Trail that may interest Taco. My brother and I completed about 5 miles on the west end of the trail (between Cuamonga and Deer Cyns) on January 14th 2019.

Conditions: trail tread is fair to excellent single track or wider from Skyline Road until just past saddle 4736 (follow the road on the topo to where the road dips behind the north side of the ridge after the switchbacks). There was a fellow we met who has been doing maintenance along this stretch and beyond.

Once the road dips behind the north side of the ridge, it is a thicket of 10ft buckthorn, significant deadfall and all kinds of unpleasantness. Looking at satellite photos, you may be able to find a clear path along the ridge top, but it becomes increasingly like the conditions described in other trip reports to Calamity Peak, Bull Canyon, and the like.

The man we met has been trying to stay true to the old road bed and it is slow going. I haven't been back to check progress on the road, but we spent an hour or so chopping whitethorn and the man had loppers and a saw stashed back there. It's a project, but the cleared sections are fantastic riding. There is zero shade before you reach the overgrown section. Good luck and hopefully I can help if you have more questions.

Taco wrote: ↑ I would like to camp at the summit sometime, if you’d like to meet us, like a SGMDF potluck or something.

Excellent idea...when the snow melts!

Thanks Joe. I would be trying to stay along the road bed as well. Sounds like ‘fun’. I will look at the map a little more closely now.

Tom, when we went a month or so ago (what day is it?), we had a fair amount of snow for the last 1/2mi to the summit. I bet there’s a fair bit more now after all this rain.

Have you done the entire Santa Clara Divide Road?

"The 10 to the 14" Lytle to stockton to notch to San Antonio to Baldy Village via Bear to Cattle Cyn to East fork to West fork to shortcut to Charlton to Chileo to Santa Clara Divide Rd to "viper"?

Sean, is that the one from Gleason in the west to the Nike site in the west? If so, yes, I did that stretch during the LA Tourist Race in February of this year. I think it continues east to the 2 past Horse Flats. I’ve done the part from the 2 to the summit of Pacifico, but not from Pacifico to AFH.

Anarchist, is viper a benchmark? I’ve done almost all of that with my ‘all road’ 650b bike, except the closed part of Cattle and Cow Canyon where the ranch is.

Taco wrote: ↑Sean, is that the one from Gleason in the west to the Nike site in the west?

Yes. It is 3N17. It runs from the 14 at Whitney Canyon going east to Wilson Saddle to May Canyon Saddle to Bear Divide to North Fork Saddle to Mt. Gleason to Mill Creek Summit to Alder Saddle and to the ACH at Three Points. I've done everything except the stretch between Wilson Saddle and Mt. Gleason, which was closed for several years after the fires.

Viper is a singletrack trail at the end of that ride and would be spicey with touring gear. Probably better to stick with fire road.

Ah! Well I haven’t yet done the section to the 14. It’s on my radar. I can do it on my current everyday bike, which is like a road bike but with 2” wide tires. You should ride bikes with us.

Anarchist, gotcha. My setup is all streamlined, no racks normally, so I could do it but I still suck at mountainbike type skills so I’d probably eat it regardless.