Chasing Clowns & Chasing Cops - Ridge Routes

10-03-09

On my way there I went thru Palmhell and cut the backway towards Quart Hill. Found a raw area south of the aqueduct.

Ended up finding the backway up to the rideg between Acton and the AV.

Ive been looking for a way up from Acton, too many houses to get up there.

Turns out there's a perfect graded poleline road that headed right to the top.

I wondered how it could be I never knew about this, the sign said National Reserve...

Looking north/northeast.

The roads were perfect for this kind of riding.

Got to the top, super microwaves, virgin landscape.

Found an actual paved road down to the Acton area and took it down to the bottom and punched it into my GPS, then back up to the top.

That's Acton and the 14 on the right, Palmhell lake on the left.

The view was simply marvy!

After coming up to the top again I came across this fellow.

I stopped and he stopped and I said g'day, and he asked me if I'd ever been up there before.

Then he told me was running 2 violations, yadda yadda, this is a closed reserve, and it's the forest and the forest is closed blah blah blah.

end of fun here.

I told him I didn't see anything about no motos, he said read the sign more closely..

Oops. Act dumb, that's my moto-motto.

After the constable told me to go home indicating the Acton side which I'd lied about coming up, and did my best McQueen and busted down the Palmhell side before he had a cjance to get to the ridege.

My second mistake was...cutting thru Assholiotown and thinking I could grab a quickie 99 cent bean burrito.

Hmm, lunch hour, one counter person, and several a-holeio's putting in their complicated orders.

Can I get a moca-latte'-2%@89 degrees F? Oh, and green sauce on one taco.

Screwit, try McFuckald's across the street., same a-holios, same scenario.

40 minutes of this crap made me miss my ETA with the ADV groupo.

Up at Lake Hughes and the Rock Inn, business as usual...and not the correct grupo.

So, luckily I had the GPS coor'ds for the Sawmill trail and found it hidden from me all these years, right down the street.

Awesome cool fireroads.

Met this euro-dude in a razer several times and chatted. Neither of us knew where we were going evidently.

Here's a snippet from the trail from the ride I didn't miss after all...

Forks in the roads everywhere.

This is farther northwest, the burn area from 2 years ago, looking just fine I must say.

You can see the Tehachapi's and 138 from all along the ridge.

Very nice wooded ridgeline. Salute'!

Oh I am so into totally this ADV thang!

Castaic Lake in the distance.

Right about the time I was think about what a great day it'd been...and disaster struck, pinchflat!

I had to pump-it-up every 3 miles.

Beautiful dang place though, perfect weather.

Picks from ADVRider...

I had all this great road and had to put anfd pump all the way down.

I putted down the ridge pumping and riding and pumping and riding, til I got to a store on 138. I lucked out and found some of this

crap , it didn't work...more pump and ride.

Finally after 3 more stop and pumps I ran it too far, made it to the Poppy Reserve at Munz Ranch Road and Lancaster Roas

and I gave up. Tire was off the rim.

Wind was whippin', sun settin'. I called AAA. What a great guy this Jeff dude was.

Had a nice ride home...flat tired to my door.

The lovely wife had drawn a epsom salts bath and had my favorite radio radiio show on NPR, the Henry Rollins Show!

A nice glass of red and a full moon.

What more could I want?...well...you know...