Cheeseboro

Final summer ride

October 28, 2003

For the 2003 season, I've been really lucky. I've had a mountain bike partner who's ridden with me every Monday or Tuesday, and sometimes on weekends. Chris actually bought my Fisher hardtail, and as luck would have it, she's been a great biking partner this season (and next too :-).

This trip we went to Cheeseboro. Cheeboro has a network of trails, but I've been riding the same one for a while. It gets harder the further along you get, but it's an awesome ride out in the Santa Monica mountains, not to mention the great views.

One of the reasons I love Cheeseboro is the constant changing of the trail terrain. The scenery changes on the trail itself from open trails to forested trails to rocky (similar to Arizona) trails.

The first part of the trails is a nice fireroad then becomes some sweet singletrack. Definitely one of my favorite sections in Cheeseboro.

The singletrack eventually makes a sharp right, and becomes very forested. In the photos, Chris is demonstrating to us how roots can be successfully ridden.



After the nice forest section (way too short), we hit the what Chris refers to as the "Arizona" section of the trail. The trail opens up again (no more shade, and this day it was 99 degrees) to more beautiful views, but more technical terrain. You can also see how sandy it is (in this section of the trail it was REALLY sandy) because of the dry summers.



Next comes "the Wall." This is a short but very steep part of the trail. The first time riding the trail, it comes as a very rude awakening. I have never made it up this, but I finally got the courage to go down it (and cleaned it too!). The wall required some scouting because of the amount of sandy patches that were in
random places and affected the line you picked.

What's great is on the way back you'll see a sign that says "Cyclists dismount." There is at least one more on the Sulpher Springs trail. All the "dis" has been scratched out. In the first picture, you can see the "dismount" sign. The next two photos show Chris sizing up "the Wall", then me at the top of the descent.

Route taken: Sulpher Springs trail from the Cheeseboro entrace about 4.5 miles out, and back.