russell_bynum Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Weekend before last, I spent a day on the DRZ buzzing around the SoCal mountains. I was hoping to do Coyote Canyon, which I'd read quite a bit about. It's rated 7 out of 10 on the difficulty scale, but honestly you can't tell much about that. The difficulty ratings are aimed at 4x4's rather than bikes and sometimes stuff that's really hard for a Jeep is easy for a bike and vice versa. Anyway...After almost 80 miles bumbling around on the pavement (mostly wishing I had stayed with the stock gearing instead of gearing down like I did) I finally hit the dirt. It started out pretty easy, then I got a nice little rutted climb. Unfortunately, at the top of the hill was a closed gate with a document posted on it full of legal mumbo jumbo saying that the road was closed. Damn. I gassed up, then decided to hit Palomar Divide road. Palomar Divide is pretty easy (I'd ridden it a few weeks prior with some friends from work), but it's got some pretty scenery and I was hoping some of the flowers from earlier in the month were still out. Palomar Divide starts with a crossing of a sandy wash...which I forgot to stop and take a picture of. It's funny though...I used to be afraid of sand and really hated it. Now it's one of my favorite places to play. I love the rough approximation of traction. After the wash, the road starts to climb quite a bit. Here's another look down the hill...the squiggly tan line is the road. The green patch at the end is where Phil and Carole live. If you look closely, you can see Phil in a brown lounge chair having what appears to be a glass of red wine. Some of the local Flora seemed really happy to see me. My pictures never do the scene justice. The sky at this point was a very deep blue, there was a great contrast between the light and dark greens on the left side of the road, and the white flowers on the right side really stood out. Around another corner and suddenly there were pine trees. This was also the point that the coolant temp light came on. The previous owner had some crazy ideas about weight reduction. He removed everything he didn't think he needed...stuff like exhaust pipe heat shields that keep you from burning your thigh while you ride, countersprocket cover, etc. Also, minor things like the radiator fans were removed. It hasn't been a problem so far, but the temp was up over 100F and I had been climbing and hard on the loud handle with lots of sideways powerslide hooligan antics...which pushed it over the edge. A few minutes rest to snap some pictures and all was well. Fire lookout at the top. I haven't figured out how you actually get there. These purple guys were MUCH thicker and more vibrant two weeks ago. The white dome is the big 200" Hale telescope. Those of you who have enjoyed Palomar's South Grade Road from highway 76 up to Mother's restaurant can thank that big 200" mirror for the perfectly banked constant radius corners...the road was built for the truck that carried the mirror to the top. Palomar Divide is somewhat less suitable for trucks carrying one-of-a-kind precision-ground mirrors, but absolutely perfect for carrying a 6'4" idiot and his cheap dirt bike. This was quite stunning...about 150 yards of these purple guys over 6' high. Again...2 weeks prior they were twice as thick and the smell was wonderful but almost overpowering. A bit after that, I came flying around a corner sideways and hit a sand washout. I knew I was in trouble when, at full throttle, I hit the steering lock. Fortunately, I drifted into a berm which pushed the rear back in line. I skidded to a stop and then promptly fell over laughing. I love this freaking bike. As you go along the ridge, it isn't uncommon to have sailplanes riding the updrafts along the mountain overhead. Last time we had one "buzz" us about 30 feet over our heads. This time there was just one solitary glider circling lazily overhead. Unfortunately he was too high for any decent pictures with my little point and shoot. Then I came across and old stone building that looked to have recently been involved in a fire. The earth around it still smelled like fire, but there were a few places where there was fresh vegetation growing up through the burned areas. I love stuff like this. My trusty steed Then the road turns paved. But it's not the sort of "paved" that you'd want to bring an RT on. I switched gears into Supermoto mode and blasted down the hill doing wheelies out of corners and kicking the rear out on the brakes at corner entry. From the bottom it was all paved back home. In the end I wound up with about 180 miles for the day, which is quite a long time considering the seat is made of granite. Now I know why dirtbike riders stand all the time. Overall a really fun day. Things didn't turn out the way I hoped with Coyote Canyon, but Palomar Divide was lots of fun. And the best part...this stuff is 20 minutes from our garage door.
Firefight911 Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Thanks for rubbin' my nose in it! Awesome tale from an awesome day!!! Looking forward to the dirt duo with you again.
OoPEZoO Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Thanks Russell.....I just about had myself talked out of buying a dual sport. Well, back to craigslist
Whip Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Nice!!!!! I wish Texas had some places to play like that.....all our land is privately owned. Whip
StretchMark Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 It's really not a dual sport ride tale unless you say "this trail was a lot steeper than it looks in the picture." Fun stuff! Still looking forward to my first DS ride of the summer
Joel Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Yeah baby! +1 :smirk: "... rough approximation of traction" rings true with a certain Bumble Bee who recently dumped his overgrown pseudo DS in that stuff 2 weeks ago, with Mrs. Bee on the back, no less. Just when I thought I saved it from a slide (that would be the rough approximation part) bam, down we went. Fortunately, nothing more than pride and metal were injured. Oh, and consider yourself admonished for posting non sport-touring content.
steve.foote Posted July 8, 2008 Posted July 8, 2008 Nice ride tale, Russell. That area looks really beautiful this time of year. Looks like it was a lot of fun.
russell_bynum Posted July 8, 2008 Author Posted July 8, 2008 Nice!!!!! I wish Texas had some places to play like that.....all our land is privately owned. Whip This was a forest service road. We're actually pretty fortunate with that sort of thing. As crowded and restrictive as CA often is, we've still got quite a bit of land that is available for public use, including quite a few fun forest service roads. I can go 20 minutes in any direction from my front door and be in some fun dualsport roads. We also have a dedicated OHV park pretty close to the house, but honestly I don't really like it much. It's small and confined...I always feel like a big lion in a small cage at the zoo or something. That's one of the big reasons we went with street legal bikes. There's also a motorcross track that is open to the public about 15 minutes from home, but I haven't built up the stones to try it yet. Any time you want some fun, come on out. Best time is late fall/winter/early spring when it isn't too hot, but if you don't mind the heat, it's pretty fun right now. We don't have anything as spectacular as the Alpine Loop out of Ouray, but it's still pretty fun.
TyTass Posted July 9, 2008 Posted July 9, 2008 Thanks Russell.....I just about had myself talked out of buying a dual sport. Well, back to craigslist +1
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